Anyone experience "panic attacks" on board an airplane?
 

While I have been on hundreds of flights all over the world, I still on occasion experience panic attacks on an airplane. It is not due to fear of flying but the feeling of being closed in a small place without a chance of getting out for a very long time.

One time I was trapped on a small 30 seat prop plane on a tarmac for over three hours in a snow storm. I almost went crazy.

Another time I was sitting in the window seat on a long 16 hour flight to Asia. Every hour or so I would get up and walk around to get my sanity back but the people next to me had grown tired of my getting up every hour and pressured me to sit still. I felt trapped and started to get a panic attack. No aisle seats were available.

Other times I would freak out sitting in the small bathroom on a plane and my thoughts had been trapped in their for life.

Does the trapped closed in feeling ever make you get a panic attack on an airplane?

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I used to until about February this year. As you say, it wasn't to do with fear of flying, but rather about not having the option to leave the aircraft immediately (which sounds daft, but it's irrational fear, so there's no point trying to explain that part...) Mine generally took on the form of hyperventilation and bronchospasm, so I'd get a suffocating sensation.

Sleeping pills and/or alcohol were not an option (I'm an ex-addict).

This also applied to other situations - particularly transport - London Underground, buses, trains... Even cars on a motorway. At times, even being in a labyrinthine office complex for a meeting or a church tower stairwell could have the same effect.

The three things that helped me were CBT, SNRIs and forcing myself to do the very things that made me panic. You can equip yourself to do this by:

• going for a medical checkup. If you know your oxygen absorption and lungs are healthy, then you've more rational ammunition to fight the panic.
• carrying a bottle of water with you. Sipping from a bottle of water can help interrupt hyperventilation.
• carrying something mindlessly distracting with you. Perhaps an (easy) puzzle or similar - remember you can't use electrical items at some of the most 'difficult' parts of the flight.
• carrying a paper bag. If you're hyperventilating, it can get your CO2 levels back to normal.
• recognising hyperventilation and being able to count (4s in, 4s hold, 4s out) the time you take to have your breaths.

Obviously, these are for a specific type of panic attack, but they did help.

Agree with stut's advice. I used to have panic attacks all the time - usually related to being in a confined space (as opposed to any kind of fear of flying). I've taken lots of yoga and now just try to practice good breathing techniques to avoid hyperventilating.

I'm much more likely to have a panic attack walking through the airport or in the boarding area than I am sitting on the plane - I don't like the sensation of being "trapped" in a moving crowd.

I'm a so-called recovering fearful flyer, and have endured what you have described, in part from 'control issues' about flying (i.e. being in the back with the door closed, not knowing what's going on, etc.) but also some claustrophobia.

There are a lot of really good techniques to help you resolve your panic attacks, but I don't have a comprehensive list, nor am I really qualified to try and teach them on an FT board :) Some are just exercises, but there are also a couple of physical tools you can use to help get yourself under control and slow your heart rate.

That said, I would search out a psychologist who specializes in these issues. I don't know where you're based but there's a fellow in Chicago who's quite good. I don't remember where I found it on the net, but there's a list out there of folks with his specialty around the U.S., and I'm sure on other continents if you're somewhere else.

There used to be an AA program called AAirborne, which was excellent, but it's gone now. AA might maintain a list of the folks who set up shop when AAirborne went away.

My daughter (who has a fear of confined spaces) freaked out the first time she flew. It was horrible. She made all the young children cry. She also had a panic attack on an overcrowded Amtrak train once. We immediately got off and waited 3 hours for the next one.

My panic is usually before the flight and I do not know if my upgrade will clear :) Xanax works good for that also.

What about 'fear of NOT flying'?
 

And I'm not joking. The prospect of not making a connection and missing my flight has led to me having serious panic attacks (the kind that incapacitate me). The stupid part of it is that by having a panic attack during such a time sensitive period just aggravates the problem and heightens the chances of my missing my connection. The worst part is that, unlike the well recognised 'fears' described in the above post, my own breed of anxiety is not recognised

I do what I can, and leave a sensible amount of hours between transfers. But airlines can and do change this as they feel like it. There doesn't seem to be any standard 'passenger notes' they can put into my booking to alert any other member of staff to my particular anxiety.

As techgirl has mentioned something similar, I'm obviously not the only person who suffers from this.

I had back-to-back, 11-on-the-dial, full-on panic attacks three Xmases ago on full flights. I mean so bad that I was walked to the galley by an FA, given oxygen and a doctor was called for. I was certain that I was dying. Fortunately, I had two Xanax left in my carry-on.

I second the suggestions of cognitive behavior therapy, and focussing on breathing, using the sick bag for CO2, etc. For me, if I've been going through a stretch of insomnia that is *not* a good time to be flying. Learning to relax in general has helped tremendously, and not drinking caffeine or alcohol starting the day before a long flight has helped as well.

Only once. I think it had something to do with I was in the process of quitting smoking and was wearing one of those awful quit-smoking-patches, hadn't eaten anything before the flight & was traveling with my mother.

I don't get pannic attacks, but I used to get awfully nervous about this. The main reason you're probably nervous about this is because you don't know when you'll land, etc. If you're really nervous about this, buy a GPS unit, so you can see where you are and estimate the time to your destination, to see if you'll make the connection.

Lately, what I've been doing is simply saying to myself "if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out." and getting that into my head. Most of the time it works.

It's actually when I'm within the airports that I'm most susceptible - A GPS won't help. Perhaps others think I should just get a direct flight, but they are MUCH more expensive. As my flights involve seeing my partner, there's no way I'm halving the number of my trips to accommodate my phobia. I just wish the airlines would offer a little bit more assistance when they screw up, arrive late, and then leave it to me to deal with navigating the entire length of an airport while my anxiety builds up further and further.

Alas, it's impossible to control your breathing when you have to run to make a connection.

If you are hyperventalating or really, really nervous pant like a dog. Seriously they taught us this in seminary. Apparently when you pant it is impossible to be nervous, so the feeling quickly leaves you.

One word of caution though, if mic'd for your duties on the altar, make sure you turn it off first... hate to freak out the congregation. :D

Perhaps this will be too obvious, but while I don't have this very specific phobia, a lot of my anxiety relates to the various machinations involved in getting to and into the airport, waiting, security, bathrooms, boarding, etc. It's just so involved, particularly if you've got a lot of stuff to carry (and I have more now than ever with a nearly-2 year old). The best thing I ever did was join AA's Admiral's Club, and I also got a Platinum Amex card, so that I can use some of the other lounges if I'm on one of the participating carriers.

Knowing that I've got somewhere comfortable, calm and clean to sit and wait if that becomes necessary, ratchets down my anxiety tremendously. When flying from EWR to ORD this summer, with my wife and daughter, my connection was delayed by three hours, and we'd just deplaned from a 13ish hour flight. Without the club, I would have been completely stressed about sitting around near a gate, in uncomfortable chairs, trying to keep an eye on my daughter, our belongings, etc., and then having to use a filthy lavatory.

Interesting to see that some of our most respected members and
prodigious flyers are sufferers.

Back in the olden days my reactions to getting on an airplane were
much like what Palal describes. But at some point a trip on a full,
un-air-conditioned J-31 triggered an "11-on-the-dial, full-panic"
attack, and ever since, I've lived in fear of them. I've never had
one in an aircraft smaller than a 50-seater, but have come pretty
close on full 737 flights. What works for me has been a combination
of the methods described by others on this thread: desensitization
(taking an average of 1.5 commuter propeller flights a month for
the last several years), having no caffeine (easy for me) or
theobromine (difficult for me) for a couple days before a trip,
access to adequate hydration, and Benadryl on a day that promises
turbulence. Alcohol for me tends to prevent anxiety as well,
but that is obviously not true for everyone.