Flying Again

Bandar Maharani, Johor, MalaysiaI am flying again today, to the north, that is. It's just a short flight by A330 and to tell you the truth, I am looking forward to it. I don't feel apprehensive at all about the flight I am to take at 1.30pm from Changi Airport to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

That is not to say I've overcome my fear of flying. I guess it's still there only this time there's something inside that makes me want to enjoy the flight. Afterall it's just a 55-minute flight, including the time taken to taxi to and from the runway on both ends of the journey.

I guess it's just a mood swing. As I've come to realise, fear manifests itself in a varying intensity. I can have no fear of flying in one day, and completely freak out in another. In fact, there were days I can become jittery just by thinking about a flight. Mind you, I can become afraid to fly even when my feet are planted firmly on the ground. That's quite irrational, to say the least.

If I can become irrational on the ground, heck I can become irrational on the air. I guess, most fears are irrational, I can tell you that much. Anyway, subject to clearance from the air traffic controller, I should already be lounging around KLIA by 2.30pm.

The Business Of Being Busy

Ah, It's been a busy week. I hardly had the time to update this blog and when I did, I was already too tired and too drained out of creative energy to do anything with the the string of thoughts that come to mind. So I shall just let the thoughts float around for a while.

There are some pending things to do in relation with this blog: write emails to friends to discuss about aviophobia, blog about the test flights of Airbus A380 superjumbo to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and the problem with Malaysia Airlines which revenue seemed to be nosediving at an alarming speed.

Can somebody help throttle the company up, please? Then there is also the coming onboard of Sarawakian executive Idris Jala to be the Managing Director of Malaysia Airlines in December. May he be the one who could put Malaysia Airlines back into the black.

There are so many things to blog. Alas, here I am...letting things to be overtaken by events.

Fly Off Fear. Can We?

Marita Paige of A Leaf Off The Page of Marita's Life ask me in her comment, do I fly a lot. I don't.

That probably is one of the factors contributing to my flying woes. I don't fly often and therefore I can't get used to being on a flight. Therefore, I am afraid to fly. It's like meeting someone new. If you get to meet that someone often, you can become comfortable with that person.

But I had flown in many types of air transporters -- from 8-seater and 12-seater light aircrafts which I've forgotten the make, to the Fokker 50 and the commercial passenger planes by Boeing and Airbus. Had also been on a de Haviland Beechcraft flights and C130 militry transport aircraft. Island-hopping on Nuri helicopter, criss-crossing Sabah on a Bell helicopters in the 90's, and circling around Mount Kinabalu on a Russian made Mi-17 helicopter.

The longest flight I've flown so far was in 2003 along this route: Kota Kinabalu-Kuala Lumpur-Amsterdam-Stockholm. 3 days stop. Then Stockholm-Nice. 3 days stop. Then Nice-Paris-Frankfurt-Kuala Lumpur-Kota Kinabalu.

Not a single incident happened on those flights. Still, I am afraid to fly. Even a short 25 minutes of flight from Kota Kinabalu to Labuan can freak me out.

Perhaps it's because I had also seen crash sites, smelled the smell of charred bodies of air crash victims.

A Proven Cure For Aviophobia?

Psychologists believe Aviophobia or the fear of flying is curable. The rate of success can be high -- experts estimated that about 90 per cent of those who seek treatment, can actually wake up in the morning, take a flight and not feeling any fear at all.

The method they use is hypnotherapy. The problem is, you can't self- hypnotise. Somebody else must employ the process on you. An aviophobic reporter who had been to the hypnotherapist has written an article about it:

Sitting Out Of Fear

The fear of flying (aviophobia) is a bit irrational – you’re more likely to be killed by a donkey or a falling coconut – but it is thought to affect about 10 million UK residents to a degree.

With me, just a touch of turbulence reduces me to sobs and wide-eyed panic. And the six major air disasters this summer haven’t helped.

Dr Richard Bradley is a clinical hypnotherapist, who has been practising for 14 years. He runs clinics at Carlisle, Dumfries and Corbridge. Most of his patients are aged between their late-teens to early 20s, but he has successfully treated people as young as seven and as old as 87.

He estimates that more than 90 per cent of his patients are cured through hypnotherapy: “Some go away after a couple of sessions and never experience their problem again. Others leave with a far more positive mental attitude. However it affects you, it always helps.” [...]

Dr Bradley has treated the fear of flying hundreds of times and is confident he can help me. We begin with a preliminary chat which allows Dr Bradley to analyse me and to decide the best way to help me.

“There are two main methods of hypnosis,” said Dr Bradley. “I treat 20 per cent of my patients through classic hypnotism, where you simply tell the patient to stop doing what they are doing. For example, I would tell a smoker they are a non-smoker and when they wake up they will oblige.

“The remaining 80 per cent are treated using Erickson hypnotism, a more complex method in which I will tell a metaphorical story which is embedded with suggestions to help the patient. It’s a less obvious method which appeals to the subconscious mind".

Dr Bradley asks me to consider why I am afraid of flying. Is it a fear of small spaces or a fear of death? I tell him it is probably a bit of both. And the fact that I am a bit of a control freak. I certainly don’t like the lack of control when sitting in a plane. And probably not when I am under the control of a hypnotist, either. [...]

An hour later Dr Bradley tells me he will use the Erickson method with me. While I’m getting comfortable on the couch Dr Bradley dismisses a few of my stereotypical beliefs about hypnotism.

“Nothing strange is going to happen. I’m not going to knock you out and become a mad magician. There are a lot of misconceptions about hypnotism. Television and entertainment would have you believe that we are in control and you won’t remember anything, but hypnotherapy is actually more about encouraging you to take control.”

My next 35 minutes are spent under hypnosis. Dr Bradley’s soothing voice lulls me into a semi-sleep and he talks me through the process, telling me I’ll feel light and relaxed or heavy and numbed, but relaxed. I feel the latter. It is a case of lying on the couch, listening to his words and using my imagination.

It is a pleasant experience that instilled a calmness in me. But has it helped me tackle my fear? As yet, I can’t be sure. My next flight is at Christmas.

The calmness I felt during the session remains and I am taking a far more positive outlook when reading about the horrors of a plane crash. [Source: News & Star, UK. Oct 19, 2005]

The rest of the article, here!

Thank You: Minishorts, Peter Tan, BlogsMalaysia

Hey, someone found my blog and posted it on the newly launched BlogsMalaysia.com. Thank you minishorts, for submitting my article and thank you Peter Tan for publishing it.

Aviophobic Anonymous, is, in their own words "rather intriguing and educational":

Weather You Like It or Not... It isn't every day that someone starts a blog to chronicle his experiences of living with aviophobia (fear of flying). Aviophobic is a fresh cut off the crop, and his blog is rather intriguing and educational.

Hmm...I guess I would have to live up to that "rather intriguing and educational" tag from now on, or else, Aviophobic Anonymous would perish, just like a doomed aircraft.

Aviophobic Anonymous

After two month of blogging about Aviophobia or the fear of flying and taking into consideration some of the comments here, I've decided today to "revamp" this blog, first by having its name changed from "I Believe I Am Afraid To Fly" to "Aviophobic Anonymous".

I will also edit some of the entries here to reflect a more positive attitude towards the safety of air transportation. The grammatical mistakes will still be there after the editing, I reckon, but that can't really be helped. I find English grammer as difficult to comprehend as the fear of flying itself.

Next possible entry: When a child is afraid to fly, what can the accompanying parents (who are also aviophobic) do to help calm the situation? Views and comments are welcomed.