FEAR OF FLY

• Do you or someone you know cringe or suffer anxiety panic at the expectation of FLYING?
• Did you notice the serious decline in air travel after the events of 9/11?
• Fear of Flying is listed on the Phobia List of Top 10 most popular phobia's.
• Many famous people share that fear of flying, such as Jennifer Aniston and Woody Allen.

This very real fear can be disastrous for the person suffering. It can prevent them from going on vacations or visiting family and friends, and it can cripple the career of a businessperson by preventing him or her from traveling on work-related business.

A fear of flying is a level of anxiety so great that it prevents a person from travelling by air, or causes great distress to a person when he or she is compelled to travel by air. The most extreme manifestations can include panic attacks or vomiting at the mere sight or mention of an aircraft or air travel.

Fear of flying is a fear of being on a plane while in flight. It is also sometimes referred to as aerophobia, aviatophobia, aviophobia or pteromerhanophobia. Aerophobia also means an irrational fear of fresh air or drafts of air. Aerophobia comes from the Greek "aero," which means air or gas. Also referred to as aviatophobia or aviophobia. Sometimes aerophobia is also referred to as being the fear of swallowing air, or airborne substances.

The fear of flying may be created by various other phobias and fears:

• a fear of closed in spaces - claustrophobia, such as that of an aircraft cabin
• a fear of heights - acrophobia
• a feeling of not being in control
• fear of having panic attacks in certain places, where escape would be difficult and/or embarrassing - agoraphobia
• fear of hijacking or terrorism
• fear of turbulence
• fear of flying over water or night flying
• fear of crashing resulting in injury or death
• fear of falling
• fear of crowds

Many people develop fears as they mature and life seems more precious, while others may have experienced a bad flight. You may have a strong imagination, recently started a family, or feel a need to be in control. Young mothers often feel protective and nervous flying with their kids or babies.

Regardless of how fears develop, those who suffer can experience sleepless nights, elevated anxiety, panic attacks.

There is a view that a fear of flying is entirely rational, and reveals much about the way we think about risk - concentrating on the quantity of a risk and not its quality. The British historian Dr Ian Mortimer who put this view forward has likened an individual's refusal to fly to the precautions taken by the British Government to eradicate variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease - even though the risk is very small the horror of it coming true is enough to justify eliminating it. See his essay Why I do not fly.

The news / media play a major factor behind a persons fear of flying as they sensationalize airline crashes, repeatedly screening the gory footage of these disasters. The imprint of these scenes are imprinted to resurface in our memory during flight at times such as take off, landing or turbulence.

The majority of the people who step onto a commercial airliner have no knowledge of how this big capsule with wings can get off the ground. Naturally their greatest concern is "what if something goes wrong and we are 30,000 feet off the ground?"

Now get a grip! Your chances of being involved in an aircraft accident are about 1 in 11 million. On the other hand, your chances of being killed in an automobile accident are 1 in 5000. Statistically, you are at far greater risk driving to the airport than getting on an airplane. However, the perception is that you have more control over your fate when you are in your car than as a passenger traveling on an airplane. Experience shows otherwise, considering that over 50,000 people are killed on the highways every year.

A fearful flyer may use a prescription of psychoactive medications such as benzodiazepines or other relaxant/depressant drugs. Other individuals may self mediate with their own cocktail of drugs or in flight alcoholic binging —in a desperate bid to deal with their anxiety.

It is most logical however that a more long-term strategy of therapy would be more beneficial, treating the cause not just bandaging it.

Hypnosis has a proven success record in helping people with their fear of flying, simply by showing them how they can use their own imagination to create positive change and outlook. A clinical hypnotherapist will teach you how to utilize your mindbody tools and techniques including thought, emotional management and specific imagery designed to decrease uncomfortable fear-based thought processes and to increase positive goals & outcomes.

They may also use behavioral therapies for fear of flying such as cognitive behavior therapy and systematic desensitization stem from the theory that phobia is due an initial sensitizing event (ISE) that has created the feelings of fear. In other words, the initial sensitizing event was the first time that the person felt those intense feelings of fear. Hypnotherapy generally involves regression to the ISE, uncovering the event, the emotions around the event, and helping the client understand the source of their fear. It is sometimes the case that the ISE has nothing to do with flying at all.

Often even intense fears can be alleviated through the use of imagery in just a few hours.

I highly recommend two Hypnotherapists Elizabeth Bohorquez and Rosemary Santos they both produce audio programs and will show you some amazingly effective techniques to overcome your fear of flying. Rosemary also has a program specifically prepared for children.

Hopefully the next time you board a plane you will experience a stressfree flight, so you can focus on the more important things- like what you will do when you get to your destination.