Airline Travel Essentials - Getting Rid of Flight Anxiety and Fear of Flying

How to Cope with Fear of Flying - Overcome Fear of Flying

Are you one of those people who enjoys flying and is naturally relaxed during the flight? Or do you just get a bit anxious during takeoff and landing but for the rest of the flight are able to block out any or most nervousness by watching an inflight movie and perhaps an alcoholic beverage or two? Or are you one of a group of travelers that experience claustrophobia, high anxiety and panic prior to flight and during flight?

Air travel causes a significant proportion of the public and some members of the air crew to feel anxiety. When this anxiety reaches a level that significantly interferes with a person's ability to travel by air, it becomes a fear of flying.

If you get fight anxiety and dread flying but haven't done anything about it - there's hope for improvement. There are many techniques for overcoming fear of flying including medication, psychotherapy, relaxation methods, and counseling.

Some medications can reduce anxiety on the ground, but panic and anxiety can sharply increase when flying. According to research conducted by Stanford University School of Medicine, a study using alprazolam (Xanax) showed a ten-fold increase in panic attacks during flight and increased heart rate or other stress indicators.

A severe fear of flying can be a real handicap since it may prevent a person from going on vacations or visiting family and friends, and it can seriously hamper a business career by preventing a person from traveling on work-related business.

For those with iPhones or iPods or MP3 players, there's an application to overcome fear of flying by HypnoVisualization that can be purchased at itunes for $2.99. The AIRelaxation application contains three short hypnovisualization exercises - one to use at home, the second just before takeoff, and the third just before landing. The app works to allow the listener to deeply relax and visualise flight through guided visualisation. Specially engineered background music includes subliminal alpha sounds that mimic the activity of the relaxed brain.

The narration is by Dr. Miller, a pilot, who reassures and instructs simultaneously to combat the basic element of flight phobia: fear of falling through a void. Compared to the time and money commitment of psychotherapy or the side effects of medication, the $2.99 price tag (or $6.99 for MP3 download) makes this digital fear of flying application worth trying.