About one out of every three people feel some anxiety when flying, so if you’re one of them you’re not alone! However, the majority of anxious fliers aren’t actually afraid of flying; they
just don’t like the emotions and sensations they feel when they fly. This is why safety statistics don’t usually make anxious fliers feel any better. “I know all that,” they reply, “but I still don’t enjoy flying.” Plus, the more airlines make flying feel like riding a crowded bus, the less
comfortable people feel and the faster their anxiety increases.
Of course, there are lots of reasons that people get nervous in airplanes. Some folks are afraid of being stuck in a closed space (claustrophobic), and others are afraid of heights (acrophobic)
—though ironically, many acrophobes have no trouble flying or even skydiving because there’s so little frame of reference that far up. But for the most part, nervous fliers suffer from two things: the feeling of not being in control and not understanding how or why airplanes work.
This isn’t surprising: you aren ’ t in control when flying as a passenger. But not being in control of the aircraft doesn’t mean you’re “out of control,” and it doesn’t mean you’re not safe. You are still in control of yourself and how you react to your environment. And you’re still very safe. Most people think they’re in control when driving, and yet about 300 times more people die on the roads in the United States than in airplane crashes. Remember: You can’t rely on your anxiety level (or how much adrenaline is pumping in your bloodstream) to tell you how much danger you’re in.
Often, people—particularly women—develop flying anxieties between ages twenty-five and thirty-five, and especially after a major event such as the birth of a child or a parent’s death.
It’s also very common for people to become anxious about flying after a scary experience such as significant turbulence or a go-around (when the airplane is about to land but suddenly takes off again). These unexpected events can be really frightening if you don’t know that they’re almost never actually dangerous. Of course, terrorism or airline disasters, such as the hijackings in September 2001, tend to confirm people’s worst fears of not being in control, though they hardly affect overall airline safety.
When I was just starting out, my folks used to
travel with me on tour. My mom was petrified of flying, so she went to the doctor and he prescribed pills to help calm her. She took one before getting on a plane and another when we were in the air. By the time we landed, she was very relaxed. How relaxed? I turned around and she was sitting on the conveyor belt! She rolled right out in front of the customs
officer. It was like a scene
straight out of I LOVE LUCY.
— Singer Barbara Mandrell The world is divided into two kinds of people:
normal, intelligent,
sensitive people with some breadth of imagination,
and people who aren ’ t the
least bit afraid of flying.
— Layne Ridley, WHITE KNUCKLES
I am not afraid of crashing;
my secret is … just before we
hit the ground, I jump as high as I can.
— Comic Bill Cosby
Remember that fear intensifies around the unknown and the unseen. Studies have shown repeatedly that the more you know about airplanes and flying, the more comfortable a flier you’ll be. (See The Fear Factor, pages 115–38)
Learning what is and isn’t dangerous is the key to flying confidently. For example, the fact that air is invisible is at the root of many people’s anxiety. Some people are nervous about the aircraft’s doors opening while in flight, and they are surprised to learn that this isn’t physically possible (because the door is actually wider than the door frame, and the air pressure inside the airplane is greater than it is outside).
A surprising number of people avoid flying in propeller airplanes and go out of their way to fly on jet aircraft, believing them to be safer. However, in the 1950s and 1960s, the situation was just the opposite, and airlines had to work to convince passengers that jet engines were safe, even though you couldn’t see what was propelling the airplane forward. Today, when it comes to scheduled passenger airline flights, both propellers and jets are about equally safe. (Of course, this statistic doesn’t include those small bush airplanes that fly in remote mountainous areas.)
What You Can Do
If you’re prone to anxiety when flying, keep these suggestions in mind:
● Avoid caffeine in sodas, coffee, tea, and chocolate before and during the flight. It increases your heart rate and blood pressure. Also, avoid alcohol or other drugs.
Although you may think that a drink will calm you down, it can actually increase anxiety because you feel less in control.
● Eat a healthy meal before you fly. Your body will feel better if you feed it well.
● Try to get a window or aisle seat near the front of the airplane, which often psychologically feels less confined.
● Arrive at the airport extra early. It’s much better to read a magazine (or this book) at the gate than to stress about making the flight.
● Tell the flight attendants that you’re a little anxious about the flight. They’ll often take extra care to explain unexpected-but-normal events on the loudspeaker.
● If something scared you during your flight, don’t disembark until you find out (from a pilot or a flight attendant) what really happened.
● Bring relaxing things on the airplane with you: music, a familiar scarf or picture you can pin to the seat in front of you, or some calming essential oils you can rub on your sleeve and sniff occasionally. You’re going to sit there for a while, so make the space “your own.”
Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.
— William Shakespeare, MACBETH
However, if you have a more serious fear of flying, it’s probably worth looking into a
professional program. Many of these programs have an 85 or 90 percent success rate with fearful fliers. For a list of organizations that offer such programs, see The
Flying Book Web site (www.theflyingbook.com).