Do you have a fear of flying, I know I do, I believe the correct term for it is aviaphobia, but it's something I guess we just have to deal with as I travel a lot and live on an island, the UK that is, I cannot go anywhere if I don't decide to fly. The way to go is to try and develop some form of coping mechanism once in place it does make it a lot easier to fly. I must admit I cannot understand how those large passenger planes can fly anyway, let's face it they are massive and almost defy nature, sorry but never have been much of a scientist or even an engineer so cannot quite get my head round it all.



I suppose though that the bigger the plane, like the ones with two decks do alleviate my fear a little as I start to feel as if I am not on a plane at all. Keep me away from those little planes any day. The worst bit of flying I find is actually the taking off, that horrible funny feeling in my stomach as we head for the skies, just hate it. So as the years passed my anxiety was just getting worse and worse, I knew I had to do something about it, I have now found that distraction is a good ploy, as I love to read this would be ideal, I found that it must be a certain type of book, a mystery or thriller would never do, I needed something not to serious so I decided on reading those dummy books, you know the ones things like Computers for dummies etc, these really take my mind off what's going on around me, and I am educating myself at the same time, a double whammy. This works for me and I am sure something similar could work for you also.

I must admit though that a couple of stiff alcoholic drinks on the journey also help quite a bit as long as it's only a couple. The best way is to mix up these strategies a little, another good choice is to watch the in-flight movies as they are often the latest releases and can really keep your mind of other things, as long as it isn't a disaster movie you should be OK. I also like to listen to music, once again not just any music, heavy rock wouldn't quite work for me, just something easy, like maybe the latest pop chart music, boy bands or girl bands often do the job, if you like that sort of thing that is, works for me if it's easy to listen to.

I know that lot's of people have more severe anxiety to deal with than me and really should seek professional help. I am led to believe that there are many people getting help via hypnotherapy for their flying fear and the big airlines actually run courses for this phobia, they also have been very successful and it is certainly something to think about. So why not give some of these ideas a try, I am sure that one of them will be of help to you. Happy flying.