4.Fear of flying 3 – Flight problems

So, how do you overcome this fear?
Research into the thought processes of people who are afraid of flying has indicated that there are four different types of thinking associated with fear.

People who fear flying:
• Can usually think of nothing other than flying and how unpleasant it is both before and during the flight;

• Usually indulge in self blame, thinking about all the mistakes they have made;

• Often resign themselves to their fate, simply accepting that they have to be scared and that they can change nothing;

• Will catastrophize, that is, they think of all the terrible things that could happen.

Taken together, what this means is that if you fear flying, you’ll probably spend a great deal of time thinking about it and worrying about it beforehand. Furthermore, once you are on the plane and your flight begins, you’re going to focus on the unpleasant physical and psychological effects that you feel, making the whole of your journey a time of misery.

You will blame yourself for all your mistakes and errors, you will tell yourself that there is nothing you can do about the mistakes and thoughts about all of the terrible things that might happen will preoccupy your mind.

Thus, if you want to tackle your fear of flying, you have to deal with all of these different psychological processes separately, because it is only by bringing each of these different feelings under control that you can conquer the totality of your fear.

The first thing to do is go back to the statistics as the facts very clearly show that even if you do not have any control in a plane, it is still the safest form of travel by a significant margin. The reality is, the chances of you even being in a plane accident are almost infinitesimally small, and no matter which way you look at it, facts are facts.

Next, think back to all of the times that you have flown before. Have there ever been any major, life-threatening incidents or occurrences that you personally have experienced? The chances are that for the vast majority of people, the answer to this question is going to be ‘no’ so you have already seen plenty of evidence that flying is extremely safe.

Can you calculate the number of times you have flown in your life? It doesn’t have to be an exact number, just an approximation is good enough.

Now, go back to the stats again and using a worst case scenario, assume that you are flying with an airline with an awful safety record, there is still only one chance in 830,428 that you are ever going to be on a plane where there is a least one fatality.

How many flights have you been on, and how close to that number are you? Not very close I would be willing to bet, so once again, the statistical chances of being in this situation (where someone else dies, not you) are minimal.

From here, you have to start applying a little logical, adult thought to the four psychological factors were looking at earlier.
For a start, there is no point in worrying about flying for days or weeks in advance.

It is either going to happen and you have to do it or you cancel your flight and don’t go where you were planning to go. Take a deep breath, stand back from the situation and forget about it. It is it going to happen or it is not and thinking about it is not going to change anything.

For example, you may be worrying about completely the wrong thing, because before you ever get on the plane, there’s far more chance that you will be involved in a car accident that will prevent you going on your trip in any event.

Of course, this is morbid thinking but it serves to illustrate the point that there really is no sense in worrying about something that might never happen.

When you are on the plane, cruising at 30,000 feet, it is a fact that there is absolutely nothing you can do to change your situation. So, make sure that you get a window seat, and be amazed at the view (assuming that are not flying at night).

Your grandparents (or perhaps your great-grandparents) never, ever got to see such an unbelievable panoramic vista of the world, they never got to see such incredible beauty, so be grateful instead of being scared.

In this way, you teach yourself that instead of being afraid of flying, you should be in awe of or rapt by the wonder of modern day, super-safe flying.

Don’t dwell on your mistakes. You are going to get a chance to make good on your errors at a later date because that later date will inevitably come. And you should also remember that none of us is perfect and everyone makes mistakes from time to time because making mistakes is an inevitable feature of the human condition.