What is aerophobia: how to deal with it and get rid of the fear of flying

Many travelers experience anxiety and fear of the upcoming flight. This is a completely normal reaction: even pilots with thousands of flight hours feel uncomfortable. But there is a certain percentage of people who are truly fearful of flying for no reason. This pathology is called aerophobia. It can be successfully dealt with and treated with various methods. The main thing is to determine that you really have aerophobia, and not natural excitement caused by the instinct of self-preservation.

So let’s take a look at what aerophobia is. Wikipedia gives an unambiguous decoding of this word – the fear of flying on airplanes. How to distinguish aerophobia from ordinary excitement? If you have attacks of fear even before the trip, you are afraid to enter the airport, and on the runway you start to panic, then this is a pathology. A person with such a disease cannot control himself, soberly assess the situation, adequately perceive reality, all emotions are vividly reflected on his face.

Aerophobia is successfully treated with simple self-hypnosis.

How common is it?

Statistics say that flying an airplane is tens of thousands of times safer than driving a car. This is true – the plane is the safest transport. But residents of the Russian Federation and the CIS countries think differently: almost 85% of the population does not trust aviation, and only 15 consider it really safe. In general, almost 40 percent of all surveyed residents from different countries experience anxiety and even fear during the flight, which can turn into panic and constant phobia.

Some statistics

When studying statistics, it becomes quite obvious that flights are completely safe. During the year, airlines carry more than 5 billion passengers, while fatalities from accidents do not exceed 300-400 people. Dry numbers: a tourist has a 1 in 45 million chance of dying in a plane crash, and to get into an accident, a person needs to fly every day for 123,000 years. On modern aircraft, absolutely all systems are duplicated – even if one of them fails, the second immediately takes over its functions. Critical systems have 3-4 doubles, and many units can be restored right in flight.

How does a phobia manifest?

Fear of flying is a common phobia that you can deal with on your own. If you have an acute form of aerophobia, then specialists will help you. How does this disease usually manifest?

It all starts a few days before departure. A person begins to feel how his stomach is shrinking, he is often nauseous, and cannot sleep at night. When he arrives at the airport, there is a sharp breakdown, palms start to sweat, and legs twist. When boarding an aircraft (especially when leaving the ramp), attacks of suffocation, panic and uncontrollable fear begin.

Aerophobia can cause severe headache and panic attacks.

Why does it arise?

Doctors, after conducting thousands of studies, have made sure that fear has nothing to do with the preservation instinct. Usually, a passenger does not think about what is happening to him now, but builds in his head possible pictures of a plane crash in the future. This is a completely irrational fear that is built on imaginary threats. To combat aerophobia, it is necessary to dispel the person’s fears and convince him that nothing bad will happen.

Note: very often a phobia develops in those people who have never seen plane crashes, have not read details about them on the Internet and have not taken to the air. Fear is fixed at the subconscious level.

It is noteworthy that the fears of men and women are different: the weaker sex is sure that it is their plane that will crash and they will not be able to get out from under the rubble, and the strong one trusts the technology, but is anxious because he cannot control the situation. Emotions in women are more pronounced: they can throw tantrums, cry, lose their voice. Men are more reserved: they hide fear in themselves. Older people are most susceptible to aerophobia.

Symptoms

In people susceptible to this disease, it is noted:

increasing pain in the region of the heart;
nausea, stomach cramps;
increased heart rate;
Strong headache;
pallor (or vice versa, a sharp flow of blood to the face);
uncontrolled trembling of hands and feet, convulsions;
severe loss of strength, fatigue;
nervousness, irritability.

Predisposition

Scientists have found that some people are prone to developing this phobia. Most often, it affects people who have suffered some kind of mental illness, severe stress, depression, disorder. Fear is very often experienced by people with violent imagination, easily suggested and impressionable types. In many cases, illness is a harbinger of claustrophobia. Genetics, living conditions, educational level, and various social factors play a significant role in this.

The plane is the safest transport in the world, in which all systems are duplicated

When should you treat?

If the disease is mild, it is not difficult to get rid of it: it is enough to study some tips, sort out your feelings, learn about what turbulence is, how planes fly, etc. A mild form of aerophobia after a few flights turns into ordinary anxiety. which is common to all travelers. But if the attacks of fear are getting stronger, periodic flights do not help and cannot be overcome, then you should seek help from a professional psychotherapist. This must be done in such cases:

If for several days before the flight you experience severe fear, you cannot sleep and relax. When you enter the airport, you start having panic attacks.
You understand that your anxiety and fear are irrational, but you cannot calm down. The number of attacks before departure is constantly increasing, and their duration is increasing.
You deliberately try to avoid travel and business trips, up to the transfer to another position and job.

Treatment methods

At the moment, there are many simple ways to overcome fear. The most effective are:

Medicamentous treatment.
Neuro-linguistics.
Cognitive behavioral therapy.
Hypnosis.

Treatment takes place in the following way: you come to the doctor, tell him about your fears and symptoms. He draws up an individual course of correction for you and answers all your questions, logically leading to the fact that, in fact, there is nothing to be afraid of. Ultimately, the patient must clearly understand what is happening to him and have a “sedative” plan.

If drug treatment is carried out, then the patient is prescribed various anxiolytics and antidepressants, which help reduce stress and dull the feeling of fear. 98 percent of people can be cured of this unpleasant ailment.

You can overcome your fear of flying on a special simulator with an instructor

If you are afraid to fly, but you cannot refuse this procedure, then use our tips: they will help you calm down and relax in the sky.

Don’t worry in vain. You cannot control the flight and nothing depends on you. You are not a pilot. Just be sure everything goes well.
Try to prepare in advance for the flight. Think about what pleasant encounters and pleasures await you at the end of the journey. Fold your suitcase, imagining how you will use these things in a foreign country.
Forget that you have to fly. If you are a girl, go shopping or visit the spa on the eve of your flight. If a man – go to the gym or somehow throw out adrenaline.
Do not surf the Internet and read the news about disasters, even ground-based ones.
How to get rid of aerophobia? Fly more often! The more hours in the sky, the less experiences. The flight becomes something shabby, and irrational fears go away.
Visit the “We Fly Without Fear” office at Sheremetyevo. Here you will be shown several video trainings, and a professional pilot will dispel unnecessary fears.
Use a flight simulator (Sheremetyevo).
Go to Duty Free. But remember that the portion should be small – just to relax, not sleep.