Can You Explain Anxiety On Airplanes- The Fear Of Flying?

Yes, I can explain the fear of flying. Fear of flying is also known as aviophobia, aerophobia, or flight/flying phobia. It is classified as a specific phobia, where there is intense anxiety and panic when exposed to the feared object or situation- in this case, it is the fear of flying.

Flight phobia may also be associated with other phobias, such as acrophobia, fear of heights. If you have flight phobia, you may never get on a plane without professional help, as the intense anxiety and panic symptoms may engulf you, even just by the sight of an airplane. People with flight phobia will endure travelling for days in a car, train, or bus, rather than subject themselves to the torture of flying. But if it is an overseas trip, people with flight phobia just will not take the trip. If a plane trip is necessary, then the flight is endured with extreme anxiety and may even culminate in a panic attack, where you have extreme fear, chest pain, rapid heart beat, shortness of breath, sweating, nausea, and tingling and numbness of your arms and legs.

So you can see why people with flight phobia avoid planes at all costs…the anxiety is too severe when flying. So if a person absolutely needs to fly, such as flying for job purposes, or flying to reach an ill family member, then prescription medication may be considered to take away some of the anxiety symptoms. Benzodiazepines can be prescribed in this situation, taken right before and during the flight.

The treatment of choice is cognitive behavioral therapy…specifically, exposure work. What is needed to face your fears of flying is systematic desensitization, where you are first exposed to relaxation techniques to reduce your baseline anxiety, and then you are exposed to the feared stimulus in a gradual manner. For example, after doing breathing exercises to calm you, you may be presented a picture of an airplane. Then when you no longer have anxiety when repeatedly shown the picture, you may then be exposed to the thought of boarding a plane and flying in it. Then you may then board an actual plane and just sit in it until the anxiety subsides. Then you may eventually be able to fly, and you may eventually enjoy it, especially since you will find out how much your world will expand when you are able to fly to faraway places not reachable by car.