I am afraid of flying; more so due to fear on heights and falling.

In the last week I have been on four flights.

The first one was nerve-inducing.
The second one was better.
The third was turbulent-freaking me out.
The fourth was the bumpiest flight I have ever been on; lots of convection from the mountains, thunderstorms on both ends, I almost broke my poor boyfriend's hand squeezing it through the bumps. I felt like I wanted to die.

Even after all this just the thought of having to hop on another plane in a few days makes me feel faint. I'm fed up from worrying myself sick. What do I dooooo

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<3Goten made this.

I have a friend who has similar trouble with planes. His solution is to take dramamine in advance of boarding, which alleviates his motion sickness. It's also a mild sedative, which allows him to fall asleep easily for the duration of the plane ride.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramamine

I don't have a lot of experience with this, but it seemed to work for him; perhaps it's worth a shot?

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well, i cant say from experience(cause im a man, and naturally have no fear haha)

but! all joking aside, do you think you are the kind of person that would be able to see results by going and doing something extreme? so that when you board a regular plane you will be more calm. maybe try sky diving or bungee jumping.

or! if you have a couple extra dollars, you could go up in a little cessna airplane with the pilot right beside you. since you can see all his actions, he could show you he is in complete control of the plane. and you could then look out the windows and get past your fear.

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Try skydiving to break your fear.

Meanwhile, I'm recommending seeing a therapist if you honestly think that it's a problem you need to alleviate. Then again, maybe that option is a little too nonsensical, eh...

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So far therapy hasn't helped. I was hoping someone else was gone through and overcome this.

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<3Goten made this.

Sleep during the flight. It might be hard, but if you fall asleep you'll be relaxed and won't worry.

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Kikori wrote:

Topsummoner wrote:

Riptide wrote:

I used to get you and J@n mixed up. Except your funnier. And nicer. Happy 21st bro!

Oh man Jan, you just got zinged by Riptide. How much does THAT suck?

Well, statistically speaking, slightly more than a giant suckusaur. A dire one.

PenguinGuy wrote:

Lets see if I remember how to play...

EX REX IS MAFIA SCUM FOURTHVOTER UNVILLAGE BLAH BLAH BLAH SCUM BLAH WINE IN FRONT OF ME BLAH BLAH META GAME BLAH BLAH BLAH SMELLS OF ELDERBERRIES BLAH

Right?

just exactly what is it that makes you afraid??

I've been on a bajillion flights. I just try not to worry about it. Once you board the plane, your life's not in your own hands anyway, and save for being the victim of some wacky terrorist plot (which is obviously doubtful given the thousands of flights daily) if something went wrong there would be nothing you could even do about it. So worrying about anything happening is really quite pointless.

Hopefully that doesn't scare you more or something (though I've said it to a bunch of people and it seemed to help them all.) Trust me, I know fears can be pretty nonsensical sometimes.

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.Legendary themed months are back! Maybe.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's cool, Lisa. I'm still right there with you

I hate flying, especially take-off. I never was in the past, but somehow I just developed this fear. I find if I have a book, I'm good to go. Just music makes me focus too hard and then I become even more tense, but if I open a book and let my mind wander then it's infinitely easier.

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Bullwinkle: Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.
Rocky: But that trick never works!

I love going on Airplanes Those pilots are really good theres nothing to be afraid of and even if your plane crashes and you die you wont feel a thing

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Read up on the engineering of modern planes, maybe? You'll find they are really very safe, and some knowledge of whats going outside and within the plane on when you feel turbulence, etc... might help calm you a bit.

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I haven't gone through this specifically, but I've definitely had my fair share of anxiety. Worrying too much about family and friends, about my own health, and about giving public speeches.

Would you agree that this is anxiety? Your therapist has probably already brought that up. If that's the case, I don't recommend taking any medication for it. I've never taken medication for my anxiety, even though it can get bad enough for me to skip classes, lose a night or two of sleep, and become withdrawn and depressed.

Have you always been afraid of flying? If not, can you recall an incident that may have caused all of this fear? How do you feel about elevators, tall buildings, driving on bridges, etc.?

There's no secret to overcoming a fear. Everyone has their own way of dealing with it. Therapy works for some, for others not so much. As for medication, IMO that covers up the problem instead of actually fixing it. You need to teach yourself how to overcome your fear. The pills might help... but what if you run out, or you forgot them at home, and you only realize this as soon as the plane starts moving? Well, now you're screwed! You depended too much on the pills to help you relax, and now they're gone. If they even help at all, that is. Anxiety pills are not magic. They can have side effects that will worsen your problem, you can become very dependent on them, and they can really screw you up if you mix them with alcohol or other pills.

Have you tried to learn more about your fear of flying? You should educate yourself about the fear of flying, and try to figure out where this fear is coming from. Is it because you have no control of the situation and/or ability to leave the plane once it starts moving? It can also be due to something that may seem to be completely unrelated. Stress, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc can lead to anxiety.

For example, obsessive-compulsive disorder can lead to obsessing over certain thoughts and unlikely possibilities. If someone is running late, or if they're not answering their phone, then maybe you begin to worry that they've died in an accident, even though it's much more likely that they're stuck in traffic or their phone isn't working. Your common sense tells you that the latter is far more likely, but there's still that "what if" lingering in your thoughts.

If you know a lot about flying, then perhaps your common sense is telling you that flying is one of the safest methods of transportation, and that level of safety is always increasing with the advancements of technology. However, even with all the knowledge about airplanes and the safety of flying, it's not unlikely that you will still have your fear of flying. The knowledge may be helpful for when you're trying to control your fear with rationality, though.

Even with all the knowledge, there's still that "what if", fear's strongest and most resilient attack on your common sense. What if this isn't just turbulence? What if the storm gets worse? What if I die today, what will that do to my friends and family? Is this trip worth the risks? Couldn't I have just taken a train or a ship?! People will tell you that you're worrying too much, and that you should just stop thinking so much about it. But you know better than anyone else that it's not that simple!

That's not very good advice, anyway. Don't try to ignore the fear, because it's just going to come back and bite you later when you're not mentally prepared for it. The fear is going to build up whether you like it or not, so let it screw with you for a little bit, and then try to take your mind off it as naturally as you can. Read a book, bring some magazines, talk to your friends, play card or board games with them, think about what you'll do tomorrow, etc. You're still going to be anxious, but that's okay, your fear of flying isn't going to disappear over night, and it is possible that it will never disappear entirely. But you can get to a point where you can spend the majority of the flight not worrying, and having the ability to control your thoughts for when you do worry.

Lastly and most importantly, no one on the internet is going to be able to teach you the secret to overcoming your fear of flying. If talking to a therapist didn't help, then it's unlikely that talking to teenagers and young adults on a RuneScape forum will help much, either. I know how comforting and relieving it can be to talk with someone that has a similar problem, but for the most part, this is something that you're going to overcome by yourself. We, your family, friends, and therapists/counselors/etc can only give you the advice and help that we can offer, neither of which are going to be more effective than you confronting this and handling it based on what you know about your fears and yourself.

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Never really had a problem with it myself.

I guess just keep in mind that it's safer than driving a car.

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Ive been on a plane over 20 times and have never had any problem with it, try sleeping tablets or maybe keep ur mind busy with a inflight movie/tv show or game.

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Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience

Flying is awesome. I discovered that my friend, who is twice the size of me hates flying whilst we were going to Slovenia this year. Like, to the point where he has seriously sweaty palms.

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Struggle is Nature's way of strengthening it.

Yeah, over the summer I read Airframe by Michael Crichton and it helped a whole lot for exactly this reason.

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Bullwinkle: Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.
Rocky: But that trick never works!

Do you have a laptop you could watch a movie on while you're flying?

The last flight I was on was the first time I flew by myself, so I was kind of nervous, but the two girls in the seats next to me had a laptop and I watched Zombieland with them. Made the flight go quick.

Also avoid looking out the windows. The only part of flying that makes me nervous every single time is lift off/touch down, when the plane is like flipped turnways and looking out the window makes you feel all discombobulated. I always have to close the window for that. But when you're actually up in the air, looking out the window might help you feel more at ease - The clouds look like fluffy ground that you could hop around on, so you don't even really feel like you're however many thousand feet in the air.

I'd also suggest drawing to get your mind off the whole flying thing but I'm usually the only person drawing on the plane which makes me feel weird.

Yeah I'm pretty bad at giving flying advice.

As a soon to be aerospace engineer, I can ensure you that the likelihood of being involvedcin a plane crash is way wayyy lower than that of having a car crash.

If you just knew the amount of crashes there are compared to the number of flight there are, you'd be more relaxed we see plane crashes about a few times a year on TV, while there are like 50,000 flights per day, that's like 18,250,000 per year!!

I mean in case an accident really happens with that low chance, I would think it was meant to be...

I know it seems weird that I posted this on a forum but honestly this has helped a ton. I have my last two flights today, and I manged a relatively calm first flight one more to go. Thanks to all who have given me coping advice.

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<3Goten made this.