Hi,

I'm 22 years old and I've been flying since I was born (I think my mum and dad took me on my first flight when I was six months old!). For as long as I can remember I've been nervous around take off but recently my fear seems to be getting worse- now I'm nervous at every part of the flight. The fear has gotten progressively worse even though I have been on dozens of flights and have not had a bad experience flying - none of the flights I've been on have been too rough and whilst there has been turbulence I'm not too bad with it. Is there any reason that my fear is getting worse despite the fact that I haven't had any reason to make it worse?

thanks

Dan

Hi

I have a fear of flying and I came across an article that was rather interesting about having a fear of flying. My fear got worse after a flight to Ireland a few years back, anyway since then the thought of getting on a plane scares the hell out of me. Im not scared of heights, nor am I claustrophobic but I am scared of it crashing or terrorism. Anyway about three weeks ago I read this article and it said that fear is only an emotion, its not an illness. We can control our emotions jsut like when we are sad or happy. When your on a plane its only US who are creating this emotion, not the plane itself, nor the people on board. When we are in our seats and look around and everyone else is reading or talking or sleeping and we sit there getting anxious and worrying because WE are creating this fear. It sounds simple but I understnd that we cant help it but this article says we can. It then goes on to say that we should practice controling our minds for example try crossing your arms (like you would when waiting in line) but cross them the other direction and it feels weird, you automatically want to cross them the other way. We should control our brain-not let our brains control us. After reading the article I decided that I woul,d indeed give into my partner and have agreed to go to Cyprus this year. Of course I will be attending the FWF course, even though the article did make me realise my fear can be beaten, I still need the advice and help from the Virgin guys.

Good luck with your future flying and I hope you control your brain

Hi Natalie,

Thanks for the advice - It's strange really because I'm quite a rational person and the rational part of me knows that flying is completely safe, it's just a lot harder to get that through to me when I'm in the air. I think you're right - it is us that is creating the fear but humans are creatures of habit - once we're in the cycle of being afraid of flying, we will stay like that and when you associate fear with cues (plane, engine noise, airport terminals) it doesn't take much for your brain to become afraid of these cues (sorry, I studied psychology and neuroscience at uni - which you would think might help me control my fear but it doesn't). You are absolutely right though, it is about getting control of your brain though because your brain only wants to protect you from what it believes to be a dangerous situation so it's about telling your brain that it's not.

I've just booked myself into the FWF course at Manchester in April. Good luck with your course - I hope it helps you with your flying.

Dan

(By the way - tried that arm crossing thing - weird isn't it!? I'll try and get used to it.)

Hi Dan

I've just done the course at Gatwick and there were a lot of us who found we had become more afraid of flying over time, a few following a bad experience but most of us with no rational cause. It was reassuring to discover I wasn't the only one and the day has made a real difference, I know a bit about flying now which helped dispel some of the myths and misconceptions (not hard, I knew nothing before!) and have learnt some practical ways of controlling the feelings which really work.

Good luck on the Manchester course.

Jan

Thanks Jan - that's really cool! I'm really hopeful for the Manchester course. Well done on conquering the fear!

Dan

Dan, I'll see you at the Manchester course, I am also booked on it!
I've found as I've gotten older, my fear has increased also for no particular reason...
I think there are a lot of us out there!

See you on the 25th!