What is aerophobia? How to get rid of fear of flying?

With the development of passenger transportation by air, a new type of fear arose-aerophobia. A lot of people suffer from this disease, which prevents them from traveling or moving around the world for work (business trips), which means that they can live fully. Many people think that it is impossible to cope with a phobia, that it is a burden for life, they deny themselves travel or use a different mode of transport, infringing their capabilities. However, you can get rid of fear by putting enough effort into solving this problem and comprehensively understanding it.

Where did fear come from?

The development of the media and the availability of information, coverage of all incidents on the Internet and on television generates fear in the minds of people. Seeing the numerous air crashes, a person involuntarily associates an airplane with a danger to life. Earlier, in Soviet times, there was a ban on the dissemination of such information to the masses, people simply did not know about the accidents and numerous victims. Therefore, the development of aerophobia has acquired a wide scale only in recent decades.

But not only awareness of the misfortunes that have occurred can act as a cause of aerophobia. How to get rid of it? Find out what kind of fear was the root cause: it could be a fear of enclosed space (claustrophobia) or height (acrophobia). In general, the appearance of such fears is a sign of emotional instability, a propensity for panic conditions, the result of stress, overwork, depression. In each case, the manifestation of phobia has its own reasons. A person can be afraid of a technical malfunction of the aircraft, natural phenomena or the human factor (the pilot can not cope with the management), which will entail an imminent catastrophe. Aerophobia can include fear of manifestations of one's own organism and impossibility to cope with them, fear of panic and loss of control, fear of lack of timely medical assistance.

Symptoms

If a person discovers that he has aerophobia, how to get rid of this phenomenon? In fact, many people are afraid to fly on airplanes - this is a natural fear associated with fears for their lives. The norm is considered when this fear is controlled and invisible to others. If during the flight a person's condition is akin to panic, they speak of a phobia. Psychotherapists work hard on this problem, and many methods have been developed for both self-management of the disease, and with the help of a specialist, as well as medical treatment. But first you need to make sure whether this is aerophobia. How to get rid of its manifestations, the expert will solve, having found out the true reason of its occurrence. But you can identify the alarming symptoms yourself and immediately pay attention to them:

• Long before the upcoming flight there is a sense of anxiety, panic;
• Pathological nervousness, unusual for man in the ordinary state;
• The study of cases of air crashes, close attention to the incidents of such a plan;
• Heart rate increases, muscle tone increases, breathing becomes confused, excessive sweating of palms is observed.

These are the main symptoms of aerophobia. How to get rid of the pathological fear of flying? First you need to find out its cause.

Causes of aerophobia

Fear can arise for purely individual reasons, to no one known, even to its owner. But it is possible to generalize the most common cases of a disease, known as aerophobia. How to get rid of fear? Find out its cause:

• Traumatic experience, an unpleasant event that occurred once with a man and deposited in the mind, causing fear and panic. It is possible to draw a parallel with a child bitten in childhood by a dog who, throughout his life after this episode, panics at the sight of an animal. Aerophobia in this case may not be related to the flight itself. There have been cases when people, being on the plane, were in a tense emotional state because of personal problems or troubles at work. But the brain somehow linked these sensations with flying, giving rise to this aerophobia.

• Initially, a person who has not experienced fear can take him from the environment: when everyone is panicking around, it's hard to control yourself. Rarely, but still there are cases when the cause is news releases or catastrophe movies, because of which there is aerophobia. How to get rid of such fear? To begin with, stop watching images that are not intended for people who are especially sensitive in terms of emotion.
• Another reason is the accumulation of negative emotions and thoughts related to flights. This is like the development of chronic disease - a constant, systematic exposure to negative associations leads eventually to a phobia.

Accompanying fears

Under aerophobia, so-called mini-phobias can hide, when a person is afraid of something specific that can happen to him in an airplane. These persuasive ideas persecute the person during the flight and before him, drawing in the imagination terrible pictures.

So, we decided: we need to find out what aerophobia is based on. "How to get rid of the fear of flying on airplanes?" - a question that will be easier to solve, having dealt with your fears. Their list is quite large:

• Claustrophobia. A person is afraid of enclosed spaces, to which one can also refer the aircraft cabin.
• Fear of heights. A person can not get rid of the thought that he is high above the ground, which leads him into a state of panic.
• Lack of control. A person can not cope with the thought that what is happening to him depends not on himself, but on outsiders, strangers.
• Fear of the physiological manifestations of the body. A person is afraid that he will vomit during the flight, which often happens with passengers. There is a fear of creating an uncomfortable situation for yourself and others.

• Agoraphobia. A person is afraid of a large crowd of people and getting from them a psychological trauma.
• Fear of terrorism or hijacking an airplane. Particularly relevant in our troubled times. Formed under the influence of facts from the media.
• Fear of turbulence. Often arises from a lack of understanding of its nature and the real risk of falling an aircraft for this reason. It will help self-education, the study of natural phenomena and the structure of the aircraft, training courses are not superfluous, which can be found on the Internet a lot.
• Fear of flying over water. Here the root cause is aquafobia, which must be treated first.
• Fear of night flights. Based on the fear of the dark, a person in this situation is more sensitive to his vulnerability.
• Fear of death.

The development of aerophobia can be the result of physiological characteristics of the body, a violation of regulation of emotions or even pregnancy.

How to overcome fear? Advice

"What to do if it torments aerophobia?" Or "How to get rid of fear of flying on an airplane?" - questions that are often asked by people who suffer from this ailment. There are a few tips, following which you can make it easier for yourself to stay in a hated transport and make the flight more comfortable:

1. Before the flight it would be nice to drink a course of sedatives, after consulting with a doctor.
2. Arrive in advance to the airport in time to get used to the environment.
3. For the flight, choose a loose, comfortable clothing that does not tighten and does not restrict movements.
4. If possible, take along a traveling companion, a close person whom you trust, so it will be easier to cope with anxiety.
5. Remember once and for all: the airplane is a relatively safe mode of transport, compared, for example, with the same car, where the risk of getting into an accident is much greater.
6. If you are worried about strong aerophobia, how to get rid of it, will prompt various online courses and trainings. Take advantage of them before the upcoming flight.
7. When buying a ticket, choose a location away from the porthole and closer to the flight attendants, transporting food and drinks.
8. Do not take places in the tail of the airplane, the zones of turbulence there are felt stronger.
9. If you feel the approaching state of panic, close your eyes, try to take your mind off everything that is happening, meditate, turn on your favorite music in your headphones. You can watch a movie on a gadget or get acquainted and start a conversation with a fellow traveler.

When aerophobia disappears, or How to get rid of the fear of flying on an airplane

Answers to urgent questions can be given by special courses designed to help those suffering phobia. Training can become a real solution to the problem, because a person starts to understand aviation issues, and the fear of the unknown becomes irrelevant. Realizing how the aircraft is arranged, what drives it and how it works, a person forgets what an aerophobia is. How to get rid of the fear of flight, can tell people who have learned to fly or dared to jump with a parachute, sorting themselves. Some airlines and travel companies offer such courses. Many are engaged in self-education, which is also very useful in fighting fears. Getting knowledge, for example, about turbulence, it is much easier not to panic in an airplane if it occurs. However, everything depends on the person himself and the degree of his phobia. Some people, even having the necessary knowledge and skills, can not overcome panic. In this case it is necessary to tackle the problem in a complex way, adding psychological and medicinal therapy to the training.

Psychotherapy in aerophobia

Frequently asked questions to psychologists: "What to do to get aerophobia?" Or "How to get rid of fear of flying?" Specialists offer several effective ways to combat the disease.

• Hypnotherapy. The technique returns the person to those events in the past that caused fear. Sometimes it happens that the source of fear is not connected with the plane. Having identified the cause of all ills, the psychologist will begin to eradicate the fear and stabilize the patient's condition in a critical situation for him.
• Behavioral therapy. It also allows us to identify a situation that aroused panic fear in the mind of a person, to understand which event triggered the emergence of aerophobia.
• Neuroimaging. It suggests that fear is the result of more than one specific case, but of chronic impact. This could be an emotional disturbance in childhood, which prevented the development of the right prefrontal cortex responsible for managing emotions.
• Therapy is a virtual reality. Man using computer images is placed in a stressful situation for him. Carried out strictly under the supervision of a psychologist.

If there was aerophobia, how to get rid? Therapy by one of the methods will help to cope with the fear. The main thing is to choose a qualified specialist.

Will drugs help?

The first question, when there is aerophobia - how to get rid? There is no medicine for fear. You can only alleviate your anxiety and prevent panic. To do this, in advance, about ten days before the flight, you should drink a course of sedatives, such as valerian infusions, motherwort, glycine. Just before the flight, more potent drugs that cause blurring of the mind will do. Such therapy should be used only as a last resort, with severe panic conditions. It is often forbidden to use such medications to prevent addiction. Some doctors recommend drinking 50 grams of cognac for general relaxation. You can not consume large amounts of alcohol. If all the same torments aerophobia, how to get rid? Medicines for treatment of phobia do not give, they can only alleviate the emotional state during a particular flight. For more effective results, complex therapy should be used, using all possible methods of combating the disease - training, talking with a psychologist, medicines. Then there is a chance to root out the problem, and not hide it behind a temporary intoxication of consciousness.

Auxiliary literature

What to do if there is aerophobia? How to get rid? Medications do not solve problems, but only help to reduce emotional tension for a while. A good help in the fight against fear can be books for self-training. For example, "An easy way to enjoy air travel" by Allen Kahr, a well-known author of many works on the treatment of addictions and phobias. The book explains that fears are based only on myths and prejudices, which the writer tries to debunk. The reader is given reasoned facts that the phobia does not have any real reasons, it's just a game of imagination. The author aims to fully inform a person about the issue that worries him and prevents him from living normally. Carr examines every single case, whether it is fear of heights, turbulence or a terrorist act, and explains why one should not be afraid of it. The only negative - the author constantly refers to British pilots and airlines, which may be uncomfortable for the Russian reader. But, as the reviews show, the work of this talented person helped people from all over the world to cope with their problems.

Another book - "Aerofobia" of the domestic author Ershov V. V. - is also popular. It tells about the mankind, which always aspired to the sky and wanted to fly, like birds. But when there was such an opportunity with the development of aviation, people became possessed by fear. The author examines the domestic problems and the identification of fear of Russian passengers. For aerofobs this is useful reading, not wasted time. Among all kinds of tools and tools for practical solutions to questions about how aerophobia is treated, how to get rid of books is the right way to switch your mind to a positive wave.

Fly without fear

So, you got tormented by aerophobia. How to get rid? Treatment is convenient and efficient to take place on special courses. They are created for aerofobs, suffering from ail of varying degrees and etiology. Alexei Gervash's courses "Fly without fear" are very popular. They are held in the center of the same name, created to treat aerophobia. Founder - Alexei Gervash, a pilot and a psychologist at the same time, was educated abroad. The courses consist of three visits to the center, which include theoretical knowledge, practical skills, analysis of examples of dangerous situations in the air and options for their solutions.

The training completes the fixing flight, after which the project leaders promise almost one hundred percent relief from phobia. The only negative is the high price of courses. But to a person for whom constant flights are a necessity, it is worth spending once and living peacefully. The courses are designed for people who want to get rid of the phobia and strive for it, make efforts. Without the strength of will and desire, no training, of course, will help. If you do not have the opportunity to attend classes in the center, you can go through a special interactive course developed by Gervash. It is released on the disk, you can order the product in the online store. If you really want to live fully, fight with your fears - persistent efforts will definitely give a positive result.