Fear of Flying/Terrorism

[Kels1377]

Hi Everyone:

I'm set to travel to Italy with my husband in late spring. I studied classics in college and have studied abroad in Italy. It is my favorite place in the world and my husband and I have been saving so I can share it with him. We finally booked the trip, and my nasty phobia of flying has reared its ugly head once more. I'm so on edge every moment, even though the flight and trip are so far away. If I try to rationalize a plane crash, then I worry about a terrorist attack. I also then begin to fear leaving our beloved dog behind for the 2 week trip and it has left me rather miserable.

I have moments when I'm excited, and others when I'm in a dead panic. I'm also experiencing an uptick in health and OCD problems (I'm also a hypochondriac with significant OCD). I find myself doing things so that our plane won't crash, or that we won't get hurt in an attack, leaving our dog without anyone. Help?

I don't want to cancel this trip for such ridiculous fears, but I feel them consuming me....

[Miznuvem0412]

I'm sure you'll be fine and I am positive you'll find someone to take care of your beloved companion .


If you really look at statistics you'll see that there's more possibilities of people dying from a car accident than a plane crashing . However we tend to focus more on things that rarely occur since that's what the news or whatever tends to focus on .

I hate flying especially because of the turbulence , but traveling overrides that . =) you'll be fine

[Mav]

I've been watching a lot of "Airplane crash investigation" these past few days and what I have learnt is the chances of a plane crash and both engines running out is "1 in a million". The chance of a hijacked plane is the same, and from the shows I've been watching I've seen that many people do survive a hijacking situation by being calm and competent (Not that you will have too!).

Honestly, it's so unlikely that you shouldn't even give it a seconds thought. Millions or planes fly, every 10 seconds a plane sets off in the sky. If this were something likely to happen then we would be hearing it on the news everynight.

[Annie0904]

I get the same fears when I go on holiday but my son studied aerospace engineering and he has explained a lot to me which helps me feel better.
If you look at something like flight radar on the Internet and see how many planes are up then then think of how many plane crashes/hijacks you hear about. It is the safest form of travel. Enjoy your holiday. I love Italy and went twice last year.

[TheDogMan]

The odds of a plane crash are one for every 1.2 million flights, with odds of dying one in 11 million. Your chances of dying in a car or traffic accident are one in 5,000.

When you get in a car do you feel like this? If not, there is absolutely no point in feeling like this getting on a plane, as your far far safer on it.

Have a great holiday.

[ErinKC]

I have a pretty bad fear of flying - though not of terrorist attacks, just crashes - and I did an online fear of flying course that was fantastic! It's called the SOAR Course and it's run by a pilot turned psychologist. He has such wonderful insight into anxiety in general plus the fear of flying. I still get his email newsletter and even though it's flying-specific, it also really helped me through a lot of my postpartum anxiety just because if how he relates to general anxiety.

http://www.fearofflying.com/

It's expensive, but was worth it for me. I was flying to Alaska a few years ago (from NJ) and my husband and I were going to start trying for a baby. I didn't want to take the Ativan I normally need to fly in case I was pregnant, so I tried this course and was able to take 4 separate flights with only extremely minimal anxiety and no drugs.