HOW do i get over my fear of flying? i am ABSOLUTLY petrified! is anyone else like me? please help me!?

Question

i'm a thirteen year old girl, and have been on 2 flights, one to jersey when i was like 8, and one to portugal when i was 11. i live in the south of england, so the portugal fllight lasted like 2 hours. we booked the flight like half a year before we flew, and that was the worst half year of my life, i cried every night, i was absolutyl petrified of getting on a plane, i knew it would be safe, its just the anticipation and the thought that you are being suspended by nothing but air! the night before we left i cried my eyes out, then, as soon as we had to leav at 2:00am, i got up, and i was FINE! the flight was a little nerve racking, but enjoyable, and i regretted wasting my time worrying.

NOW, 2 years later, i am in high school, and i know that in a year or two, ski trips are going to take place, meaning FLYING! i am getting scared again, for me, my problem is just the waiting, thinking of all the possibilities each day.

what do i do? PLEASE help me! also....

Answer 1

I wish I could help you, but truth is, I'm just like you! I am terrified of flying as well. My husband is a paratrooper, so that doesn't exactly help.

One thing that helped me a little bit is looking up plane crash statistics on the internet. It is incredibly uncommon for a regular sized civilian airplane to go down, and the statistics show that. Any "crashes" that do occur, are often only maintinence problems that are not fatal.

Don't do it though if it will just make you even more frightened. Just know that thousands of flights take off and land safely everyday. You will be fine!

Best of luck!

Answer 2

People are normally have aerophobia (a fear of flying) for one of two reasons:

1) People are afraid because they don't understand how the aircraft works and how it manages to deify gravity, so they're fearful that it will fall out of the sky. If this is your problem, just read up on how aeroplanes fly and how safe they are - you're more likely to win the lottery than die in a plane crash.

2) The other reason people are fearful is the loss of control. On a plane you can't see the pilot like you can in a car or bus, so you feel out of control. This is a slightly harder problem to fix.

There are several relaxation techniques people use to ease all sorts of fears, but the best way is to try and conquer them. See if there are any pleasure flights in your area that you can go on. Your fear should ease the more you fly - though this is not always the case.