Help! Pilots, Dr's, Flight Attendants..I have developed a Fear of Flying and need to get over it. Any advice?

Hello all,


My story...


About a year ago I suffered a accident at work. I have had to have surgery and I am in constant pain and basically lost my career. For some reason, I have developed Panic Attacks. I generally can not predict when they will happen (I have been through alot) , I especially get worked up about Flying.


I recently had to fly to Nashville. I had to take 2 xanax and was utterly terrified the whole time. Unfortunatly, we flew over a major storm and the plane was leaping around in the air. It scared the veteran flyer I was with it was os rough. This added to my anxiety and it took more xanax to get me on the plane home.


I used to fly all the time. 2 yrs ago I flew the red eye from LAX to Georgia, then connected to Philly and back home 3 days later, no problem.


I have no idea where this anxiety came from, I just need to know how to help myself. I can't control it but being closed up in a plane is utterly terrifying me nowadays.Help! Pilots, Dr's, Flight Attendants..I have developed a Fear of Flying and need to get over it. Any advice?
Understanding is the best thing in my experience... :-)





I'm a pilot by trade and ALWAYS find people who are scared of flying!





To help them, I ask them what they're scared of...think about what it is. Is it the height? The unnatural sensations/sounds?


A fear of crashing? The fact you're not in active control/cant see who is?





Those are some common reasons...





I think a good way then to overcome it is facts and understanding what flying is all about, what makes it such a truly safe way to travel and what goes on!





Lets start with the pilots. People get an idea that getting a pilot's licence is like a driver's licence - do a bit of training, then you have your licence and you can fly anything. No way! The training is intensive, all encompassing and requires an enormous amount of accuracy, knowledge, ability and understanding just to get to licence standard...





Once the pilot gets that, it takes years of experience in flying to build up to a standard to fly an airliner - so you can be assured that they're experienced, capable and the best at that level. Not to mention the frequent testing and re-testing of all skills to make sure the pilot is razor sharp in what to do for ANY situation.





Now the plane. When a plane is designed and built, it takes years of work. Every last risk is looked at and ironed out - and when the plane's prototype is built, it's pushed beyond worldly forces to see how much it can take. It goes through strain of running engines at full power for days on end, pressure like being submerged, wings being flexed worse than the worst storm could (oh, and by the way - we never fly into storms! Big no-no). If anything at all gives before a set limit - back it goes. It does not pass until it matches everything!





Then in the factory and maintenance sheds, every last bolt, rivet and screw in the plane is written down - along with who put it in and when. Each last one! This makes sure it's plainly impossible that nothing is missed at all.





The height, I will admit, can be scary to new flyers. But think of this. You are strapped firmly into a seat that is firmly bolted onto the plane. You can't and won't fall! Plus on the movies when a door bursts out? Doesn't happen...know why? Because the doors are built so as air pressure literally holds them shut! It's impossible to burst one open.





There are unusual feelings and sounds. Jet engines sound a lot different to a car - much deeper, louder and less of a rhythmic sound as more of a roar. This roar is natural - because at the basic level, all a jet does is suck in air, compress it down and blast it out the tailpipe!





With even less moving parts than a car, a jet engine is much, much more reliable too. And even if one does fail, the plane is made to keep flying on just one engine - even planes that have 4 engines can stay up on one!





Crashes. Of course, crashes get a lot of publicity - usually because they're a big spectacle, and because there are often several hundred people involved.





But if you published every road death a day, you'd never have any other news!





Statistically speaking, I'm serious when I say you are more at risk driving to the airport than in the air. :-) Honestly!





There are thousands of flights a day and you can't even say there's one crash. Millions of people travel by air - and you're lucky to have a crash a month.





Plus, and I hate to sound rude, but the vast majority - over 80% - of these crashes happen in SE Asia and Africa where the airline safety standards are lacking.





Developed countries like Australia, UK, US are incredibly safe!





I hope I helped a bit - I really think that knowing the facts helps a lot :-) That's really only a start but let me know if I can help with understanding the flight part for a start!





I really do think that when people are armed with true information (not just rumours and what movies show) they are then understanding of their environment while flying - what is happening and how and why it is safe... :-)