Over 1 Billion people flew on commercial airplanes in the year 2000. There were over 18 Million flights and only 20 fatal accidents. Compare this with almost 42,000 traffic accidents in that same year, and you can see that airline travel is much safer than driving by car.

However, many people are so afraid to fly in a plane that they experience negative physical and mental symptoms at the very thought, even though they have no problem driving or riding in a car.

Probably the most important thing to keep in mind is that, while it may seem that the risk of flying is the cause of the fear, that is probably not the case at all. As with all phobias, the underlying cause is anxiety, which can be triggered by many different factors.

First, an airline passenger has very little control on a commercial flight. You can’t change the temperature, open the window, or otherwise control the climate in the cabin. If you feel snug, there are very few options to make more space. If there is disturbance that knocks the plane around, we have no way of slamming on the brakes or otherwise controlling the plane. We can control our surroundings in a car because we are either driving or know the driver, but a plane makes us feel less secure because we can’t even see the pilot, and probably don’t have any idea who he is.

Because we have to relinquish control, little frustrations take on bigger than life proportions on a plane. A little turbulence becomes an out of control plane spinning toward a crash. A runway delay leads to all kinds of negative thoughts as to why the plane can’t take off. Tight quarters close in more and more until we feel there is no escape.

There are those who subconsciously beat these anxieties before they ever experience them on a physical or mental level. However, many more encounter some form of anxiety when flying, which may vary in degree from uncomfortable, to disturbing, right up the scale to full out panic attack.

Luckily, there are many options to beat the fear of flying without drugs or expensive therapy. The first step, however, is to understand why you are afraid to fly, so that the fear can be faced.

Tags: aerophobia, afraid to fly, fear of flying, flying phobia, health and wellness, self improvement, Wellness

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 7:12 am and is filed under Wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.