flying phobia

Flying phobia is one of the more common of the phobias and possibly one of the most frustrating, as it obviously restricts an individuals movements. Flying phobia is partly a rational and partly an irrational fear. Yes, planes do crash and the one you’re on, or thinking of travelling on, could conceivably crash. That said, the likelihood is very small indeed. If you have a flying phobia you probably know this already and you know that, statistically, it is more dangerous to walk around any town or city, or indeed travel by car. You know these facts but this does not stop you dreading flying and developing a flying phobia. This is because a phobia is not a rational process, so facts and statistics do little to calm your fears. A phobia is a mainly irrational fear and is not the result of weighing up the pros and the cons and coming to a reasoned conclusion. It is a learned emotional response in which your imagination causes a powerful surge of fear.

A flying phobia is a ‘gut reaction’ of anxiety that is triggered in by being in a plane or, in some cases, by even thinking about flying. Once triggered the phobic response is fuelled by runaway imaginings that occur very quickly and can be very intense. These produce anxiety symptoms that can range from mildly uncomfortable to almost overwhelming, either way it is still a flying phobia. These symptoms further intensify the fearful imaginings leading to an powerful desire to be somewhere, anywhere, else. The key issue is that, although the situation triggers this train of events, it is the imagination that fuels it, maintains it, and makes us dread the next time. Plus if we do avoid travelling again this, in turn, intensifies the flying phobia. In a nutshell, flying phobia or indeed any phobia, is the result of not knowing how to manage our own imagination. So to successfully overcome phobias we need methods to successfully manage our own thoughts so that they do not produce the phobic feelings.