Coping with flight anxiety?

[Silme Lor]

I tend to be a fairly anxious person at times, and flying on airplanes freaks me out to no end. I have no idea why, becuase most of the time I have a death wish - but as soon as I set foot on a plane my flight usually ends in tears and a neverending panic attack.
I fly so infrequently that I've been able to avoid this for awhile, but now I have a three hour flight (not long, but still) coming up and I'm freaking out.

Does anyone have any tips on how to cope with flight anxiety?

[dncn4lyfe77]

if you have an Ipod or sumthing u can load on relaxing music, or you could bring a laptop/portable dvd player and play your favorite movie? Or if you have a favorite book that you get totally engrossed in, bring that. Distractions and relaxation are key. *I have the sammme problem on flights, as well as motion sickness...eww*

gl!

Sare

[Sticky Wicket]

If your anxious it means your a very emotionally reactive type person. If you've been brought up to react a lot then you going through life as an effect instead of a cause. You can really resent that pattern of being out-of control and hate yourself (or what you think of as yourself but is often a falsley conditioned self).

Of course flying in a plane means you have no control at all and that often scares people who are out of control - but who have adapted compensations to offset being out of control. Many very successful people fear flying because they have worked to build up their ego as a compensation for a sense of inferiority. They have a fear of heights because they have a fear of failing and having their ego crash.If you resent flying that reaction sets you out of control and will cause you to feel anxious or afraid.

You know even seeing people you don't like walking toward you on the street can cause that. Ever see someone you dont liek coming at you and you feel and anger and/or fear, and you can want to either duck away and flee or fight the person. Its the old fight or flee thing. WHat usually happens is people suppress the dislike and fake being nice, Thats a false niceness that grows from hate.

WHat you want to do is not be angry with the problem and wrestle with it. If you are afraid just see it and don't be "for" or "against" the problem. Just "watching" your feelings and emotions without struggling tends to edge you back to center and objectivity.

You may not lose your fear, but if you do it right you won't become a mess either and you'll have a sense of triumph instead of a sense of failure. You can lose you sensitivity to flying this way and when you do it will be surprising because you wont recall really doing anything. Just watching urges, fears, thougts and feelings etc without struggling with them works like magic when you do it right.

[swirlish]

Can you examine what about flying scares you? What is it that sets off your panic?

Mia