Pilot Says Fear of Flying Misunderstood

During the dormant period of this blog, an airline pilot and licensed therapist, Capt Tom Bunn, came by and left a comment on this post which I think deserves an entry by itself. Below is his comment. Also watch the YouTube clip for his invaluable opinion on the cause of fear of flying and how to deal with it.

He says: "There is a great deal of misunderstanding about the cause of fear of flying. It is not caused by a bad flight; most people on a bad flight don't develop fear of flying. Difficulty with flying is caused by insufficient ability to regulate feelings when facing uncertainty.

Research since the advent of the functional MRI just eight years ago has helps us understand how the brain works. We now recognize that the ability to regulate feelings is learned and that the part of the brain that does this regulation requires stimulation of the right kind during the first two years of life. The right kind of stimulation requires a caregiver who is emphatically attuned to the infant and responds to the infants signals, rather than simply providing for the infant according to an agenda set by the caregiver.

If the child is afraid, the caregiver needs to tune into the child's fear in a way the child really knows the caregiver feels the same way. Thus the child knows he or she is not alone.

Then, the magic happens; the caregiver then lets the child know that -- though the child's fear is 100% shared -- the adult has an additional point of view, which is that it is not the end of the world; it will work out alright.

Many of us, obviously, didn't get such optimal early development. Thus, when facing uncertainty, we control our anxiety by being in control of the situation, or by having a way to out of it.

That works fairly well on the ground -- except for annoying those who regard us as control freaks. But when flying, there is uncertainty, of course. And, not being in control and not having a way out, there is no way to regulate the feelings.

Therapists try to help with CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), but anxiety can develop so rapidly that CBT techniques cannot keep up with the anxiety build-up.

Hypnosis is pretty "hit or miss". If it helps on one flight, it can fail to help on another flight.

Medications are not to be recommended -- according to the World Health Organization -- because when sedated, the passenger doesn't move around enough to protect against DVT, Deep Vein Thrombosis. If a DVT clot forms, it is a serious and potentially life-threatening problem.

Also, use of medications -- according to research -- is only helpful in very mild cases of fear of flying. In more severe cases, medications make the flight worse!"

Test Shows I Have "Moderate Fear" of Flying

According to a test I've taken today, my fear of flying is at "moderate" level (see table below).

A total of 4,423 people have taken the test, of whom 3,926 are fearful, including me. My score after taking the test is between 99-50, at the higher end of the moderate level.

How about you? Assess your fear, here, courtersy of the Flying Without Fear website.

Can You Blog Away Fear of Flying?

I don't know about you but in my case, blogging about my fear of flying helps to relieve some of the anxiety.

I used to fly frequently and it was during those times that I started this blog to share my experience in dealing with the fear of flying. Now that I no longer fly as often, I have also stopped blogging regularly.

As you can see in the archive, there is only one entry in the whole of 2007 and only two last year.

Fear of flying is returning

Now, I will have to fly again and the prospect of having to board an airplane is making me all jittery. There will be four flights of about two hours and 30 minutes each which I am going to take within this next 10 weeks; and even as I type this I could feel the sense of apprehension growing in me.

The anxiety is now returning. It can be argued that this could be due to the fact that I have not flown for quite sometime.

But based on my experience, frequent flying will not help ease the anxiety. If one already has the fear, it will stay with the person no matter how many times you fly a week. The only thing that can help to relieve the fear is to deal with it mentally.

How to deal with the fear of flying?

I wish I could provide the answer but based on my experience in dealing with aviophobia -- a weird name for a fear -- we can help ease the tension by dealing with it head on.

My way of head-on dealing is to read extensively about the topic, learn all I can about flight safety and then discuss about it in this blog.

Sometimes, for a strange reason, I do look forward to the prospect of flying because I would then have the materials to blog about.

I guess, if you can melt the ice caps by performing searches on Google (Google has refuted this, here), then perhaps you can also blog away the fear of flying.