How to calm your fear of flying

Gina Moffa’s fear of flying kicked in early. When she was 10 years old, her mother – struck by severe turbulence on a flight to Italy – climbed to the emergency exit and tried to get off the plane. A passenger offered her Valium and a nun on board prayed the Rosary with her. “And then she was fine,” says Moffa, now a grief therapist living in New York City. “But it taught me there was something to fear.”

This has not diminished over the years. Moffa recently returned from a “precarious adventure” to the Portuguese island of Madeira, which involved flying in a small 12-seater plane for almost three hours over the Atlantic. She almost didn’t board. “They said, ‘Ma’am, you’re going to slow us down – we have to move on before the winds come,’” she recalls.

If your heart also plummets while flying — especially recently — you’re not alone. Research suggests about 25 million adults people in the US suffer from aerophobia, and who can blame them? The port plugs are falling down of the Boeing 737 and small planes like. The engines are catching fire in the airIt is the tires are falling off.

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But the truth remains: flying is safe. Even now. According to the National Security Council, the chances of dying on a plane in the USA are “too small to be calculated”. That’s part of the reason Moffa didn’t allow himself to be grounded. On her recent fragile flight, “I was terrified to the point of having palpitations, but I didn’t cause a scene,” she says. “It’s a very common fear and it can be immobilizing, but you can’t let that fear get in the way of noticing the beauty in the world.”

We asked experts to share psychological tricks that help them overcome flying anxiety.

Check out the TikTok pilot

Moffa has learned that she is better able to deal with her fear of flying if she understands everything about her trip – including the type of plane she will be on, the weather forecast and expected turbulence. “If I know I have catastrophic thoughts about flying, which I do, then I can say, ‘OK, so what are the facts?’”

That philosophy led her to the aviation corner of TikTok, where pilots post videos explaining how they fly. prepare for takeoff It is landstrategies for avoid stormsand facing worst-case problems such as engine failure. “They will show you what they are doing in the cabin and what the noises are,” says Moffa. “That way, if you’re sitting by the wing and you see part of it fall off, you won’t think, ‘Wow, we’re going to lose our wing.’ In fact, it’s just part of what it’s supposed to do to keep it on the air.” Knowledge is power, she says – and in this case, peace.

Establish some sense of control over your environment

After years of trouble-free flying, Los Angeles psychologist Carder Stout developed aerophobia in his 30s. Now he has an action plan that he shares with his clients and uses himself. Step One: Make sure you feel some sense of control over your environment. This means bringing your own pillow, blanket and slippers. “I open the blinds in my aisle or ask other passengers to do so,” he says. (No one has turned down the request yet.) During takeoff, he puts on Pink Floyd, closes his eyes, and visualizes a peaceful, quiet, safe place he’s visited before. This image, he says, helps calm his jittery nerves.

Positive phrases diary

As soon as the plane levels off and flies, Stout begins recording positive phrases in his journal. For example: “I’ll be fine. I’m safe. After all, planes aren’t so bad.” They become his mantras for flying, he says, anchors he can return to whenever he needs to calm down. If it suddenly seems like the plane is falling or turbulence knocks him out of his seat, repeat after him, “I’ll be fine.”

Try the Havening Technique

When Dr. Christine Gibson, a family physician and trauma therapist in Calgary, Canada, treats people with specific anxieties, she focuses on teaching them that they have control over their own bodies. “Us he can slow our heart rate,” she says, and let our sympathetic nervous system know there is nothing to fear. “We are not just a giant reflection. We can consciously say to our mind-body system, ‘You are okay. You are safe now, even though your brain is trying to tell you that you are in danger.’”

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One way to do this is through Havening Technique, which aims to change emotions; its name is a nod to finding a safe space or a “refuge”. It involves using one hand to gently brush your palms, shoulders and face in an up and down motion. Start by lightly rubbing your right hand against the palm of the opposite hand, then gently stroking from the shoulder to the elbow, across the forehead and cheekbones. You can rub both arms at the same time, for example, which mimics a hug. After a few repetitions, you should feel calmer, says Gibson.

Practice playing

Another of Gibson’s favorite ways to calm down is Emotional Freedom Technique, also known as “touch”. It derives from traditional Chinese medicine and she likes to think of it as self-acupuncture. First, you’ll need a “statement of preparedness,” which Gibson suggests might sound like this: “Even though there is anxiety when I think about flying and realize that my heart is pounding right now, I am really safe.” She repeats this while using two fingers to touch the acupressure points on her body that are associated with stress relief. Among them: the top of the head, the point between the eyebrows, the middle of the cheekbones and the point between the nose and lip.

You can subtly practice tap dancing while in your airplane seat, Gibson points out. “If you have anxiety and it’s like an eight out of 10, and it’s causing you a lot of distress, you hit it repeatedly until the distress gets to a three,” she says. “It’s still there, but it’s shrunken and doesn’t bother you.”

Consider exposure therapy

If you can’t get rid of your fear of flying, it may be time to hire a therapist who specializes in treating phobias. Exposure therapy can be highly effective, says psychologist Shmaya Krinsky, founder of Anxiety Psychotherapy and Behavioral Health, which offers telehealth in New York and New Jersey. It involves systematically and gradually “exposing people to the source of their fear in a safe and controlled environment,” he says. With one technique, for example – called imaginal exposure – you may be asked to visualize the process of going to the airport, boarding the plane and going through a strong period of turbulence. Another technique, in vivo exposure, forces you to look directly at the object of your fear; perhaps climbing into a stationary plane. Virtual reality can also play a useful role in exposure therapy, Krinsky points out. It may be a bumpy ride, but after a few months, you’ll make it to the other side – without the fear of luggage in tow.