Quote Originally Posted by Nerdling2 View Post
How did your flight end up going stuntman?

I could have literally written your post. My flight is in August, I've avoided flying for 4 years now and my phobia is worse than it's ever been - I'm unsure whether that in itself has made my GAD worse or vice versa.

Even now 2.5 months before we go, I am being plagued by intrusive thoughts about plane disasters and the noise and alienness of flying. Even when I try very hard to distract myself and block it out, those thoughts come to me suddenly and are totally all encompassing. They are especially bad at night and first thing in the morning.

I had a session of hypnotherapy which did seem surprisingly helpful so I have a few more booked before we go. I would give anything to be rid of this phobia, above all my other phobias.
I'm sorry you feel that way, I know I would be petrified if I had to fly in a month or two. It's one of many of my phobias, but I hate this one in particular, because I absolutely love to travel, but hate flying. And I know I'll end up in another plane sooner or later, and it scares me even now, when it's not even decided when.

In Europe I manage to drive a car, but it's so exhausting sometimes. I was meeting my friends in Glasgow few months ago. They took a plane from Warsaw and 2.5h hours later were in Scotland. I was driving for almost 4 days without a stop, spent terrible amount of money on gas and hotels, and the whole trip felt like chore, not vacation.
And I'm doing this again in two month by driving to Albany

I can't really help you with your fear, as clearly I also need help, but sometimes I just have to take a plane when going outside of Europe and here's how I sort of manage:

- I hate taking off, I hate the sudden speed, noise, the weird stomach feeling and seeing the world getting smaller and smaller below me. So instead of focusing on all those things around me, I close my eyes, cover my ears, and tell myself to count to 500. Then I'll allow myself to panic, not a second sooner. Sometimes during the countdown I feel sudden rush of panic, but I don't let it take over, just remind myself "hey, hey, 237, 238, remember, count to 500 first, 239". When I'm at 500 the flight attendants usually are already distributing drinks, the window blinds are shut (I ask the person travelling with me to do this for me), and I can't feel the speed anymore or feeling of rising up, the noise is also better because the engines are not working at their full anymore, so I can pretend I'm in a weirdly shaped car/coach.

- During the countdown, I hold the hand of a person I travel with, and I tell her I'll squize it if I feel something is wrong, and I ask him/her to squize it back if everything's fine. Sometimes I just KNOW we are falling down, and if I look out of the window myself I'll start panicking beause of the heights, so this little reassurance from someone watching our flight and letting me know "it's ok, everything as usual" is really helpful.

- That's not very wise perhaps, but I always order alcohol on a plane. Two glasses of wine later I'm relaxed and once I even managed to be content!

- Distracting yourself is the key for me, so do everything you can to stop thinking about what's going on. Read a book, watch a movie, go to sleep.

- Sometimes I feel we are falling when there's nothing wrong with the plane... I hate this feeling. So I figured I can use gps to track our height and position (I've checked, it's safe for the plane). Now I know we're going in the right direction (no one hijacked the plane so far!), and that we're at constant height, and not, as I imagined, just dropped 0.5km.

Let us know how was your flight in August and have a great time