From what I'm seeing, my fears appear unreasonable.

Greetings, friends. This is my first thread I've made on this website (by my post count you can tell, obviously, that I'm relatively new) and as such, I feel a little sheepish posting this. But, I just wanted a...I guess question is the right word...answered. I've been seeing all this talk about, you know, Al Qaeda stepping up their operations, people going berserk on planes, whatever. And everyone seems to blow these warnings off. Which I get, I'm not saying people doing that are being irresponsible or anything, not at all. But, is it unreasonable to be concerned? I'm flying home from college a week from this Sunday (the day after the rapture, so I probably don't have to worry at all!) and I'm utterly terrified. Not even so much because of the new developments, I've always been terrified of flying. I'm 18, I've barely done anything with my life, and as such I don't relish the thought of a giant flying metal tube dropping out of the sky. But all this hooplah just makes me even more nervous than I already am. And when I say I'm terrified of flying, I mean takeoff I'm shaking and turbulence makes me almost hyperventilate. So, what's the dealio here? Am I just being foolish, or is there reason for concern?

Also, sorry if I seem stupid, or if this wasn't worthy of its own thread, or what have you. I've just been antsy about the flight recently and I wanted to express my feelings, I guess, because no one I talk to really takes me seriously when I say how paralyzing my fear of flight is. Thanks for reading and/or posting, everyone!

Bladian

Just a quick edit for anyone reading, what's the point of recommending something? (I told y'all I was new :P) I noticed the thread had to recommendations and I don't really get what that means, I see it in threads all the time. Sorry xD

:)

I know statistics don't help, but flying is still just about the safest way.

Best of luck. Fears, by their nature, tend to be irrational. I'm a member of AA, so I can't in good conscience recommend drinking to calm the nerves, but try to relax.

Worrying about something that hasn't happened yet means you suffer through it twice.

Worrying about something that hasn't happened yet means you suffer through it twice
--I like this "definition."

Also--
Worry is the interest on a debt you may not owe

you'd be spared the anxiety.

My parents pay for my college (I know, I must be spoiled :P) and they also pay for my flights. I've brought up the idea once or twice about driving but they've kind of shot it down. They're the ones who tend to think that I'm being silly more than anyone else about my paranoia.

I know that doesn't make it any easier, because bad things can always happen, but the chance of them happening to you, personally, are infinitesimally small.

It helps me to remember that there is an element of risk to everything, including whatever I might be doing if I choose not to take the flight.

The safety record of US air travel is astounding. I've taken hundreds of flights and never even think twice about the safety of those flights.

It's so much safer to fly than to travel in other ways that it's just not worth worrying about. You're far more likely to be killed crossing the street where you live than flying on a plane.

Again, you probably won't be mollified by that statement, but you should be. Planes almost never "drop out of the sky." It's just not a statistical risk of any consequence. Get on, enjoy your trip, and try to relax.

You are more likely to die from a car accident..


However, that will not take away your fear of flying.... Only flying will.. take your i-pod or a book or whatever college kids do these days, and relax... I always like the window seats to see where I am.. Hate the middle and feeling claustraphobic.

You probably know already in your head that flying is very safe. You SHOULD know that terrorism is really nothing to be concerned about.
What you are dealing with is just plain old ordinary fear of flying. This is a fear than many, many people have.
There is not much help you can get here. There is not much we can do. Many people seek therapy for this fear. Some people even take drugs.
I have a friend who dopes herself up every time she flies ( lol - and she is a Psychologist )

All I can say you might do is read about this common fear by using the internet. There is a wealth of information out there.

What does she take, just sleeping pills of some sort? That might not be a bad idea for me to look into.

The frustrating part is also that I KNOW that there's pretty much zero chance of a plane just dropping out of the sky. It's totally irrational, and I can readily acknowledge that fact. It's just a phobia of mine. And oddly enough, these answers are actually helping. Thanks everyone :D

and landings. Breathing and visualization has helped tremendously. Terrorism has never once entered my mind when flying.

I've learned some biofeedback that helps me and now I actually enjoy flying between the aforementioned items.

go to your clinic or hospital and ask to talk to a doctor about your flying anxiety. There is no need for you to go through that. A doctor or an advice nurse can talk to you about options.

I had a very similar problem with flying for a while (and without Al Qaida into the bargain!). My doc at school used to give me a very mild tranquilizer, one for each way. And after that, I learned some tech to take care of it without even that little bit of drugs.

There really are solutions out there. Go get 'em. :)

I can't tell you not to be afraid to fly as it's something all of us have had to make peace with as individuals. The best way to conquer your fear is to do that act. Eleanor Roosevelt said it best: You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

I've flown once since 9/11 and I didn't think about history repeating itself. OTOH, while coming home, the pilot announced we would hit "severe turbulence". The nose of the plane went up and down like a boat on rough seas. We even had the stereotypical passenger yelling out "We're going to die! We're going to die!". I was fine with it all. Even dying. That's because it was funny to me. Funny because I busted my ass to get me and my elderly aunt on that flight at the very last minute and this was my reward. I was ready to go if I didn't get a vote.

You're 18. Go try lots of things, especially the stuff that scares you. When you find out you can overcome your fear, you feel empowered. I hope you do.

I would bum valium off the corporate attorney...I was anxious, SHE was terrified! Dana ; )

talk to your doctor and get low-dose Valium or something similar for the flights. It works.

of flying is the takeoff and landing. But I course, I did some private pilot flying in the past. And I loved taking off, and those touch-and-go landings were a real thrill.

flying lessons, it really can help.

My problem is the fact that I'm not at the controls and have to trust someone else.

When I was 18, the airlines had free complimentary alcoholic beverages to take care of such anxieties. And you didn't even have to show them your privates. How civilization has progressed since then!

I hate flying as well...even though I grew up flying everywhere, as an American Airlines brat.

:-)

Because that's not really true. I fly JetBlue, if anyone is familiar with them, and they have little seatback TVs. So I just plug my headphones in and watch TV from New York to California and vice versa. I enjoy it. There should be a phobia solely for takeoff and turbulence (landing I actually get euphoric because I missed the ground so much). And these posts remind me of why I came here and signed up in the first place-everyone is so damn friendly!

If you think flying during a thunderstorm can be disconcerting enough, imagine what the passengers on Emirates Airlines plane went through when it was struck by lightning as it was landing in London.

The flight, which originated in Dubai, landed safely, and nobody was hurt.The lightning strike was caught on video by photographer Chris Dawson as it happened.

According to ABC News, "lightning strikes on jetliners and other planes are not uncommon.

http://www.boston.com/travel/blog/2011/05/video_plane_str.html


Also, a Qantas 737-800 has been forced to return to Auckland after being struck by lightning mid-flight.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/qantas-plane-struck-lightning-mid-flight-4166093

Anyone know how you avoid that happening? Just not fly through a storm? Or do you go through it and cross everything you can cross?

1968 - '71, flying WC 121 and EC 121 aircraft.

We flew into typhoons at night, and I'm still here. Flying into storms can be exciting.

Here's a link to some photos of the Super Constellation - I cannot post actual photos

http://jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?aircraft=Lockheed%20EC-121%20Constellation

:thumbsup:

for a very long time.

My longest ever flight was 21 hours.

Had to have a flight delayed an hour because a child flying by herself started panicking as we were taxiing. Felt bad for the kid, she was five at the most, but it was frustrating nonetheless.

it (and this was before 9/11). All the pushing, overhead stuffing bullshit, rudeness - HATED it but it was part of the job. After I was disabled, flying became physical torture for me. Any flight over an hour was just not worth it any more. So I started traveling by train. Trains do not go everywhere nor are their timetables always convenient. But I can get up walk around, meeting new people and enjoy seeing the America I am passing through not over.

Check out Amtrak schedule. Bonus - This time of the year you will also meet vacationing Europeans using Amtrak. I've had some great conversations on the train.

Phobia

A phobia (from the Greek: φόβος,Phobos, meaning "fear" or "morbid fear") is defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding despite the fear, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational. In the event the phobia cannot be avoided entirely, the sufferer will endure the situation or object with marked distress and significant interference in social or occupational activities.<1> The terms distress and impairment as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV-TR) should also take into account the context of the sufferer's environment if attempting a diagnosis. The DSM-IV-TR states that if a phobic stimulus, whether it be an object or a social situation, is absent entirely in an environment - a diagnosis cannot be made. An example of this situation would be an individual who has a fear of mice (Suriphobia) but lives in an area devoid of mice. Even though the concept of mice causes marked distress and impairment within the individual, because the individual does not encounter mice in the environment no actual distress or impairment is ever experienced. Proximity and the degree to which escape from the phobic stimulus should also be considered. As the sufferer approaches a phobic stimulus, anxiety levels increase (e.g. as one gets closer to a snake, fear increases in Ophidiophobia), and the degree to which escape of the phobic stimulus is limited has the effect of varying the intensity of fear in instances such as riding an elevator (e.g. anxiety increases at the midway point between floors and decreases when the floor is reached and the doors open).<2> Finally, a point warranting clarification is that the term phobia is an encompassing term and when discussed is usually done in terms of specific phobias and social phobias. Specific phobias are nouns such as arachnophobia or acrophobia which, as the name implies, are specific, and social phobia are phobias within social situations such as public speaking and crowded areas. The following article will be broken down into two sections: Specific Phobias and Social Phobias. Focal points that will be addressed are areas such as epidemiology, etiology, criteria for diagnosis etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia

It quite literally does sometimes interfere with my activities. I'll be, I don't know, doing homework, for example, and start thinking about a flight and have to stop what I'm doing for a few minutes to kind of calm myself down. And then when I actually see the plane I freak out, and as I'm stepping from the bridge-esque thing onto the plane I do this stupid ritual kind of thing, where I mentally say goodbye to the ground. I know, I sound crazy. :P

subject line), your fears are, you know, unreasonable. Don't put 'you know' in your writing - it's bad enough when it is a person's everyday, you know, speech.

:(

And welcome to DU! Dana ; )

I try to avoid falling into the trap that so many others my age do. I also apologize if that sounds like I'm being elitist and I think I'm better than my peers, because I don't think that. I just don't like how many of them speak or write. I guess I can't help it sometimes :P

If you look scared they might think you're up to something. LOL! There did I make it easier to fly?

Now I know that if I'm drugged up on something, then I'm set :P

I remember being very anxious when I first started flying... but I was excited also. Now... its just peaceful and a quicker way to get where I want to go (I much prefer Amtrak whenever it makes sense). You will be nervous no matter what anyone tells you. But you are safe! Good Bose headphones can help (tell your parents you are buying some and they will have to reimburse you if they require you to fly) I'm flying home the same day you are...

I can't wait!!! (all the crazies will have been gone by then - in the rapture)

I'm serious. It will teach you how they really work and why flying isn't really all that different from driving or riding in a big bus.

You will see for yourself that planes basically fly straight and level on their own, that they glide in a controllable way and don't just drop out of the air if the engine is cut. One of my instructors showed me how easy it would be to land a small plane safely in a field or big parking lot (that lesson doesn't carry over directly to a commercial jet, but it made me feel a lot better about riding in small planes.)

You'll also get a chance to understand the basics of how pilots navigate from point to point, fly by instrument when the weather is bad and at night, and communicate with other aircraft around them. At the end of your first lesson you may even have had a great time, and want to do it again!

If that doesn't work, go to a psychiatrist and get a script for a low dose, fast-acting anti-anxiety medication in the benzodiazepines family - Xanax, Klonopin etc.

That's actually one of the best suggestions I've heard from anyone (no offense to anyone else who offered suggestions xD). I can definitely see what you're saying. Familiarity with the controls and systems could definitely assuage my fears. Hmmm. Must look into that.

No thunderclouds or wind gusts. The experience of turbulence in a small plane might make you land-bound for life.

Enjoy the ride. A lot of flight schools offer an introductory ground class and ride in the right front seat for less than $100. You would not be the first to tell them you're doing this more to get over fear of flying than as a first-step toward a career in aviation. They'll just approach the lesson a little differently.

Therefore it may not help as much as you think.

Personally after the most uncomfortable ride of my life on an airbus commuter plane, I started getting panicky where before I was fine.

I'm thinking drugs are good. Also get an Aisle seat with a lot of leg room.

1. Don't be nervous...it will get you an extended pat down and luggage search if you're all twitchy and sweaty.
2. Don't be nervous...because of those extra pat downs and luggage searches, it's harder for the losers to get in.
3. Don't be nervous...these "attempts" have been shoddy and apparently laughable.
4. Don't be nervous...it wouldn't hurt for long.
5. Don't be nervous...you'll be fine.
6. Don't be nervous...save that for after college graduation when you'll have to find a job.

Now, take a deep breath and enjoy your vacation. Try not to do anything illegal or stupid. It really freaks out the parents.

Welcome to DU!

:party:

After being a jet-mech in the marine crotch and seeing what happens to airplanes, I seldom flew without some help from pharmaceutical industry.

When a DUer recommends (rec) a post, he or she is telling everyone the post is agreeable, important, funny, or has some other quality that makes the post worth reading.

Unrecommend (unrec) means the opposite.

Sometimes, DUers will rec a post if the post conforms to his or her political point of view, or unrec a post if the post fails to conform to the reader's point of view. For example: If someone posts a news story about a person defending themselves with a firearm, then those support gun rights will rec it, and those who support gun control will unrec it.

Haha! I don't know why I couldn't figure that out for myself. Eh well. Thanks for answering, and thanks to everyone else who welcomed me!

than I am now. I was a real white knuckle flier. I remember one flight into Chicago, we were coming in for a landing with little visibility out of the window and dropping really fast. I was gripping the arm rests and the guy next to me says, "Don't worry, they've got radar." And I retorted, "I don't believe in radar." He did look at me like I was a bit strange.

I guess doing it enough eventually took the edge off of it. Now I just let it go; I have no control over the situation. My fear will not help keep the plane in the air so there isn't a lot of point in being afraid. Nothing I can do about any of it.

So a really good page turner trash novel is what works for me.

Sounds like you just described me. I have bought books before boarding planes before, but I haven't done it in a while...that might be a very good idea. That often helped me focus on something else, especially because they play their little advertisements during takeoff, so I can't use the TV to distract me, and I end up looking out the window as we ascend, which is probably the worst thing I could do.

it began to feel like getting on a bus. Then, I grabbed a paperback at a layover in Chicago, and didn't even notice until I got home that the book I bought was ABOUT A PLANE CRASH, The Pilot's Wife.

It really is possible to handle this. :)

maybe an old aunt! :rofl:

I get the window seat when I can because I like to see if I can pick out landmarks or familiar places. Sometimes I take pictures during landing and takeoff, too.

I took this one flying out of JFK last year.

Well, I mean I think I do. I don't know Long Island at all, really, even though I go to school here. A buddy and I drove down to the beach and it sure looked like that, though.

"The Importance of Being Earnest" and listening to it at the same time w/ headphones.

lol

It worked. :)

I can't even recall the last time I listened to an audiobook...I think it was one of the first Harry Potter books. Damn it all, now you made me want to go out and buy one! :P

You are in more danger during the drive to the airport.

TENS OF THOUSANDS of people die in car accidents every year, and you never think about it.

Get in your car, drive to your destination (usually a fairly short drive) bam, end of story. Which I know isn't really the case, but I feel like that's why it doesn't worry me as much.

I hate flying. Always have and now with all the new searches and procedures they've implemented, I will never fly again. It's a pain the the butt and the whole process just isn't fun anymore. Flying use to be simple. It's not anymore.

With that said, I wouldn't worry about Al Qaeda. It's highly unlikely that they will hit a plane you're flying on. The odds truly are in your favor! You may want to think about asking a doctor for some Valium to calm the nerves on the flight. I'd suggest some alcohol on the flight, but you're too young. ;) Go to a doctor, explain your fears and maybe they'll give you something to make the flight home better.

*hugs* I have an 18 year old son who's leaving in August for College, but by car. ;)

Welcome to DU, BTW! :hi:

Haha. And thank you for the welcome! The frustrating thing is, like I mentioned, how most people I know think I'm just being silly. The only person who really takes it seriously is my girlfriend, and all she says is "Don't worry, you'll be fine" which is nice, of course, but in the grand scheme of things? Not so helpful.

Now everyone knows how paranoid I am :P Oh, and the odds of the terrorists being on my plane. I was thinking about that to try and calm myself. I looked up some statistics and something like 200 odd planes belonging to the major airlines leave JFK each day (200 odd planes per airline, obviously). That's a hell of a lot of planes!

I don't know where you're flying from ...NY? but it's highly unlikely you'll have a terrorist on your plane. ;) Deep breaths and a really good book may help if you don't think it's bad enough for Valium. :)

That's what my worry-wart daughter takes, since she has to fly for her job every single week of the year.

If it's a veeery long flight, ask for Halcion. You'll sleep all the way.

go with the odds. i have always lived life with odds.... they calm me. and when the odds of me getting it by a terrorists are almost non existent then i have to tell myself it is not something to spend my time concerned about

the yukky feeling in your stomach is never about the now. it is about creating something totally make believe about what might happened or what happened in the past. fear creating an actual pain to experience. but the actual now of the moment, nothing is happening. sit in the now and you wont have a fear. go to what might.... and fear is created for you to live, even though the now holds nothing.

best to you on your trip.

In short, yes.

Despite the media portrayal and all the crazyness that abounds, your chance of dying in a plane crash is far smaller than your chance of being struck by lightning and very slightly higher then your chance of being eaten by a shark.

Air travel is pretty much the safest way to get from one place to another that humanity has ever invented.

If you're not averse to a pharmacoligic crutch, and you have access to Dr. or Student Health Service they might give you a prescription.

:hi:

You've got to realize that there are aspects of your life that you will simply have no control over. A rogue, extinction level meteor could kill us all in a week. Your house could explode from an undiscovered gas leak. A drunk driver could leave the road and off you as you stroll down the sidewalk.

You can't let unreasonable fear of dying constrict how you live your life.

Get on the plane, strap in, and think of it as a roller coaster ride: for the next X amount of minutes you are giving up control to the pilot, mechanics, weather conditions, and chance occurrences.

It can actually be liberating once you realize that there's nothing you can do. What's going to happen is going to happen.

(Oh, and it doesn't hurt to pop a valium and have an in-flight cocktail.)

1) Plane crashes are rare
2) Plane hijackings are rare
3) You're going to go when it's your time to go. There's no way to change it!

Try to go to sleep on the plane. I'm not a big fan of flying either, but it's much faster and SAFER than driving!