4 ms·

The best way to overcome that fear is to take a really long flight. I also I had an irrational fear of flying that held me back from traveling internationally f

The best way to overcome that fear is to take a really long flight. I also I had an irrational fear of flying that held me back from traveling internationally for years. Taking a 14 hour flight to Seoul fixed that. I have zero anxiety around flying anymore.

boredemployee 4y ago
I traveled across oceans a few times (12h+ long), when I'm in the plane I feel "ok". The problem is when taking off and landing, I get super anxious/panicked.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- fartcannon 4y ago
  I had to travel weekly for work. It completely took away my fear of flying.. Now it's just a slog. Obviously not everyone can just fly a bunch to do half assed exposure therapy, but maybe something like VR?
  - boredemployee 4y ago
    I was just googling for that. any recommendation?
    - fartcannon 4y ago
      I used to play Kerbal Space Program in VR. It was hilariously terrifying. But for exposure therapy, you're probably going to want to go with Microsoft Flight Sim 2020, right? I think it supports VR and it's probably the most visually accurate experience. I could be wrong though as I've never played it myself. I also played a bunch of Warthunder in VR. The sense of height in those smaller planes is really freaky.
throwaway0a5e 4y ago
The back seat of a Cessna doing stall recovery practice would probably solve it too. People don't fear things when their frame of reference includes way more extreme things that are fine.
themitigating 4y ago
But what if that anxiety is preventing you from taking the trip to overcome the anxiety?
jwmoz 4y ago
I've taken many long flights west to east, and many internal flights and have been unable to stop a physical anxiety response when flying, so it isn't as simple as that. Had the first flight in nearly 2 years a month ago, just a quick one and on the way back got hit with some horrible turbulence which caused me to have a mild panic attack. The only thing I found that helped me before was drinking or taking valium.
- dQw4w9WgXcQ 4y ago
  > have been unable to stop a physical anxiety response Well there's your issue. Anxiety attacks are like a rushing river, if you try to swim against or stop the current you'll get nowhere. Ride it out and know that if you felt things got really got bad, you could ask any airline attendant for help - they deal with nervous flyers every day across tens of thousands of people every year and would help you through it compassionately and respectfully. We're all in this together man, nobody is going to make you feel bad for being human.
  - cjblomqvist 4y ago
    No. Talk to a real therapist. It's not as simple as this. They can guide you to keep the right level. Don't it wrong can make it worse. I used to date a physiologist researching/specialized in how to overcome anxiety.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - DiggyJohnson 4y ago
      You are literally saying: don’t trust this guys experience, my girlfriend is a doctor. I don’t think it’s as strong a point as you think it is.
      - solar-ice 4y ago
        While true to a point... there's also just lots of things that might work for a minority of people but are major risks for most. Someone who has actually studied the risks around exposure therapy is probably in a better position to discuss the risks of exposure therapy; and how to manage those risks. The person initially recommending it made no discussion of this whatsoever, and implied it was perfectly safe. We all see people advising stupid things every day, because it's worked for them so far. There's the lichtenberg wood burning people who explain how to pull out a microwave transformer and use it to burn patterns into wood... and fail to acknowledge just how likely it is to kill you.
mjbeswick 4y ago
Experiencing fear can be traumatic, but it's only by experiencing it that we can lead to deal with it. There is a lot of talk about PTSD now days, which can lead us to thinking that all trauma is bad; but normally results in post traumatic growth, which makes us more resilient.

boredemployee 4y ago

I traveled across oceans a few times (12h+ long), when I'm in the plane I feel "ok". The problem is when taking off and landing, I get super anxious/panicked.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
fartcannon 4y ago
I had to travel weekly for work. It completely took away my fear of flying.. Now it's just a slog. Obviously not everyone can just fly a bunch to do half assed exposure therapy, but maybe something like VR?
- boredemployee 4y ago
  I was just googling for that. any recommendation?
  - fartcannon 4y ago
    I used to play Kerbal Space Program in VR. It was hilariously terrifying. But for exposure therapy, you're probably going to want to go with Microsoft Flight Sim 2020, right? I think it supports VR and it's probably the most visually accurate experience. I could be wrong though as I've never played it myself. I also played a bunch of Warthunder in VR. The sense of height in those smaller planes is really freaky.

throwaway0a5e 4y ago

The back seat of a Cessna doing stall recovery practice would probably solve it too. People don't fear things when their frame of reference includes way more extreme things that are fine.

themitigating 4y ago

But what if that anxiety is preventing you from taking the trip to overcome the anxiety?

jwmoz 4y ago

I've taken many long flights west to east, and many internal flights and have been unable to stop a physical anxiety response when flying, so it isn't as simple as that. Had the first flight in nearly 2 years a month ago, just a quick one and on the way back got hit with some horrible turbulence which caused me to have a mild panic attack. The only thing I found that helped me before was drinking or taking valium.

dQw4w9WgXcQ 4y ago
> have been unable to stop a physical anxiety response Well there's your issue. Anxiety attacks are like a rushing river, if you try to swim against or stop the current you'll get nowhere. Ride it out and know that if you felt things got really got bad, you could ask any airline attendant for help - they deal with nervous flyers every day across tens of thousands of people every year and would help you through it compassionately and respectfully. We're all in this together man, nobody is going to make you feel bad for being human.
- cjblomqvist 4y ago
  No. Talk to a real therapist. It's not as simple as this. They can guide you to keep the right level. Don't it wrong can make it worse. I used to date a physiologist researching/specialized in how to overcome anxiety.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - DiggyJohnson 4y ago
    You are literally saying: don’t trust this guys experience, my girlfriend is a doctor. I don’t think it’s as strong a point as you think it is.
    - solar-ice 4y ago
      While true to a point... there's also just lots of things that might work for a minority of people but are major risks for most. Someone who has actually studied the risks around exposure therapy is probably in a better position to discuss the risks of exposure therapy; and how to manage those risks. The person initially recommending it made no discussion of this whatsoever, and implied it was perfectly safe. We all see people advising stupid things every day, because it's worked for them so far. There's the lichtenberg wood burning people who explain how to pull out a microwave transformer and use it to burn patterns into wood... and fail to acknowledge just how likely it is to kill you.

mjbeswick 4y ago

Experiencing fear can be traumatic, but it's only by experiencing it that we can lead to deal with it. There is a lot of talk about PTSD now days, which can lead us to thinking that all trauma is bad; but normally results in post traumatic growth, which makes us more resilient.