Please help with anxiety over flying.
 

Hello all. I just joined this forum hoping someone could help as I am desperate! I am 29 and have flown just twice due to being very anxious. I hate the sensation on take off and landing, I seem to get a very disoriented heavy head dizzy and sinking feeling. When the plane banks I feel really strange too and in flight I get that elevator feeling. I think my anxiety makes it worse and it makes me feel a bit better when I hear that others feel sensations on the plane I feel like maybe one day I can overcome it and do the travel I dream of. My honeymoon is next year and I want nothing more than to fly. Does anyone feel anything similar and still fly? Or know anything that could help? I also suffer in elevators but use them as its over quick! I have seen doctors including Ents and my ears are ok, nothing terrible wrong with my inner ear either. I would love any support or knowledge! Thanks so much for your time .

Nicole1982

Welcome to FT - and I'm sure our bunch of happy flyers will feel for you. I'm going to move this over to Travelbuzz! since it isn't really appropriate for Communitybuzz! but if you are UK based, then Virgin Atlantic runs a 'fear of flying' course to try and help nervous and anxious flyers understand what is happening:

http://www.flyingwithoutfear.info/

Jenbel
Co-moderator, Communitybuzz!

By elevator feeling, do you mean your ears blocking then 'popping', or the feeling in your stomach as you go up / down? Both are totally normal on planes (at least in my experience). You do also feel a bit strange when the plane banks (your eyes tell you one thing but your body feels another).

As you check out physically, a fear of flying course is a great idea, or shorter term, a doctor can prescribe an anti anxiety medication to make you feel more relaxed and better about the experience.

Nicole1982, welcome to FlyerTalk! I've edited the thread title slightly to make it more descriptive.

Here are some of the threads in the FlyerTalk forum which may help you:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...into-fear.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ous-flyer.html

If you find one of these threads that you'd like to join, if you let me know, I can combine this thread into one of them. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.

Benzodiazepines, or dramamine.

Channel 9 on United can help. You will know when to expect turns, accent, decent, etc. and you will know from the calm voices of the pilots that everything is OK.

Long distance train travel on Amtrak? It's very relaxing if you pay for a sleeping car room and it might be more your speed. Plus you really get to see a lot of the country that way. Sadly, you're stuck in the US (and limited Canada) on it.

I think it's important to know that many people feel the way you do and that you're not alone. My sister did not fly for many years but asked for my help so she could fly to Ireland for a big birthday trip. Since I was planning a trip to Ireland anyway, I rescheduled my dates to coincide with hers and flew with her. She told me later that just having someone there that she knew made her feel a lot more comfortable. Since you'll fly on your honeymoon with your fiance, you should have a similar kind of assurance.

As others have mentioned, consult with a physician. Most will either prescribe a good anti-anxiety medication, therapeutic counseling, or both. My sister took some medication before her flight to Ireland; she told me that she literally did not remember the trip over to Ireland or back to the States.

There are also some online resources and courses on this issue. A Google search for "fear of flying courses" will bring up a lot of results. I don't know anyone who has used any of these courses so I can't vouch for the results.

Welcome to FT!

Definitely the affects of suggested drugs would help. The fear of flying could be helped with some counselling as well.:)

I would skip any pills and just have a few glasses of wine (or as many as it takes) to mellow down and relax.

Why is that a better option? Medication can give the relaxed effect, without the side effects (nausea, hangover, loss of control etc.)

I recommend against wine/alcohol. I know a few people who have fear-issues say it works, but I think it tends to make people more disoriented, unstable, etc.

I used xanax for many years, and it helped greatly. Gradually, not completely sure why, the fear completely went away. Counseling helped too. I was having panic attacks on planes for years without actually knowing what a panic attack was. When a therapist explained to me how these came on and what they felt like, I felt that a lot of the 'mystery' of the fearful flying 'ailment' had dissipated.

Another thing that has helped me is dramamine: some of the feelings you describe could be physiological as well as psychological, and sometimes dramamine helps smooth this out. Good luck. . . .

I echo the sentiments about not using alcohol to calm ones nerves on a flight. I did that...once. I felt so bad when we arrived in Rome I missed out on fun sights. I now take a lorizepam one hour before I fly and it works great. I remember the whole trip, sleep well if it's a night flight and arrive rested and at ease. The bumps don't bother me anymore - especially when I learned from fearofflying.com that if your drink in front of you is juggling a little bit, the plane is only going up and down about an inch. If it bounced one foot or more, your drink would be on the ceiling. Good luck!

I used to have a similar experience. To this day I still don't ride amusement rides out of fear.

One of the worst things I got was severe ear pain. However, the more I flew, I found that I got used to all the sensations, as did my body. I haven't had ear pain in many years, and in fact, I don't even notice any of the plane movement sensations anymore...actually, I find it all kind of relaxing now. Even slight turbulence makes me sleepy!

Hopefully you will have opportunities to fly more as time goes on. I think this is something that just has to have time and experience to resolve. Try deep breathing exercises during anxious moments. Also, I strongly suggest having things to keep you occupied; i.e., movies on your laptop, iPod, etc.

Best of luck!

I too have very high anxiety when flying. My panic sets in with turbulence...take off and landing don't really bother me. For whatever reason, I feel that turbulence start and I convince myself that we're going down. I use Rescue Remedy which really does help.