Increased fear of flying

[Tenacious_D]

OK...so I have become a complete paranoid freak when it comes to flying. I have traveled quite a bit in my life and in the past two years my fear of flying has increased 1000 fold. Most recently, I da*n near had a panick attack on a flight back from Kentucky with DH and he was really worried. Then I find out that I have to travel 3 consecutive weeks for work (thank goodness DH is away for Surgery).

I had a flight down to Orlando from NYC for a conference and on the flight down I couldn't take my anxiety pills because I had to go straight to the conference from the flight and didn't want to show up loopy. 2/3 of the way through the flight we had the worst turbulance of my life. So bad that grown men were screaming and kids were calling out for their parents.

On the flight home, I took some drugs and tried to stay calm...low and behold, I turn on my nice Jet Blue tv after take off and what is the first thing I see....yes a burning plane. WTF!!! Who doesn't black that stuff out on a flight. DH didn't tell me about the crash because he didn't want to worry me. Needless to say, the rest of the flight was a little tense.

I was supposed to be going to Minneapolis next week but I told my boss that I am not ready to fly again and I cancelled the trip. I am flying to Houston the first week of October and I am freaking out.

Why is this happening to me now? I have never had these issues before but all of a sudden I can't even look up at planes without getting weak in the knees. Have I lost it? Sorry for the long post.

[alison]

Re: Increased fear of flying

I'm sorry that you had such an awful travel experience. Whoa, that would be enough to scare even the most fearless plane traveler. I think as we age, certain fears do get heightened. I don't have any advice for you, sorry.

Re: Increased fear of flying

Hmmmm ... well, that turbulence would probably have set even the most seasoned traveler on edge. I do get anxious these days - but it's the kid angle that Tara mentioned. I have this silly tradition of knocking 3 times on the bulkhead as I board the plane, and it seems to work for me. I got it from my mom's friend (who has a son based in NYC that is a flight attendant for Jet Blue ... so next time you're flying look for John Foster).

Perhaps you could look into the breathing exercises, hypnosis, relaxation cds???

Re: Increased fear of flying

Temporary hijack:

...I can tell you that I was NEVER afraid of flying until we had children. Now it does stress me out.

I thought I was the only one that happened to. I have also developed a fear of heights since having kids. How did this happen? :huh: I hate driving over mountains and tall bridges. I can't walk near the rail on the 2nd floor of malls and glass elevators are a nightmare. I never knew people could be afraid of these things.

Danielle- I'm afraid (no pun intended ) that I can't offer any advice on this...whatever I could say would probably just make you worry more.

[DCJenn]

Re: Increased fear of flying

MH Specialist stepping in here:

When irrational fears like these crop up, typically they're spill-over from areas that you're stressed about. Typically, you're stressed about things that you theoretically should have control over (but don't) so being placed into a situation where you quite literally have no control at all just sets you on or over the edge.

You've flown a lot- so you know all of the dings and sounds that planes make in flight. You know- the ding to let the flight attendents know that they're at 10k feet, the dings the flight attendents use to communicate w/ the cabin, the sounds of the coffee makers, etc. YOu know that it's going to be bumpy as you cross through most clouds and even if it's clear, when you get to a certain part of take-off and landing- it gets bumpy. (usually a couple of hundred feet off the ground)

You can use logic (the Thai flight crash was wind sheer and all US planes have windsheer detectors as do the airports). You can talk yourself through each step of the plane. (If you fly United, you can listen to the captains talk if you're on a big enough plane. That alone was enough to help my husband get through some long flights)

YOu can tune it out- bring a book, listen to your iPod, take an ambien.

Or you can do what I've done w/ Nikolai and we call clouds "bumpy clouds" and it's really fun to bounce through the bumpy clouds. (he's probably the only one on a plane asking to go through the bumpy clouds again)

Seriously though- it's symptomatic of other stressors in your life. Figure out what those are and the fear of flying will subside. It's that out of control thing that does us all in!

Jenn

[Tenacious_D]

Re: Increased fear of flying

MH Specialist stepping in here:

When irrational fears like these crop up, typically they're spill-over from areas that you're stressed about. Typically, you're stressed about things that you theoretically should have control over (but don't) so being placed into a situation where you quite literally have no control at all just sets you on or over the edge.

Seriously though- it's symptomatic of other stressors in your life. Figure out what those are and the fear of flying will subside. It's that out of control thing that does us all in!

Jenn

You have said it all...seriously. There are so many stresses in my life...baby making, crazy parents and siblings and I think I have reached the stress max in my life and thus...I have become completely irrational about a lot of things that I used to be ok with. Do I have to pay you for this information because seriously I would have paid someone to say that to me. THANKS EVERYONE!! I'll let you know how the flight to Houston goes....I have two weeks to mentally prepare

[fluffhead]

Re: Increased fear of flying

That kind of bad turbulence would be enough to freak anybody out. I hear xanax works pretty well.

[migirl]

Re: Increased fear of flying

I'm sorry you have so much stress in your life!!

DH has also recently developed a fear of flying, he takes a couple Alprazolam (generic for Xanax) before each flight to help his anxiety. He says it doesn't help that much, but I think that his anxiety level is so high that the pills just bring him back to baseline.

Anyway, I hope your trip in a couple of weeks goes well. I can completely understand your heightened anxiety after experiencing such awful turbulence!!

[DCJenn]

Re: Increased fear of flying

My take-away from my worlds worst flight experience was that the only way I'd ever have a worse flight was if we crashed so I might as well just kick back and enjoy the flight I'm on. Cause 99.9% likely it's WAY better than that one was.

(we had flashing red lights and praying passengers and the pilots (OPEN COCKPIT) were basically handing the owner's manual back and forth to each other while we endless flew through lightening because Denver wouldn't let us land...as the plane was running out of gas.)

After that? eh, no big deal.

Jenn

PS- All my advice here is freely given. You can thank me by visiting someday!