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I know this is me just being crazy, but why am I terrified to fly? I haven't always been, but recently I have been. So here is the back story. I was never scared to fly but as I have gotten older I get more and more scared to.
I went to Jamaica in January and before the we flew, I kept thinking to myself what if the plane crashes? What if we die? Same way upon our return. Safe and sound and at home. One week after getting back from Jamaica, found out that there is a family emergency in South America I have to go to, I leave on Wednesday. It's for a relative that has less than a few months to live most likely. For the past two weeks I have convinced myself that I will die on this plane crash. My anxiety about the trip on Wednesday is driving me nuts. I don't want to go on the flight at all.
However I am thinking my anxiety is just based on a few facts. I am just going through a lot of anxiety lately:
1. My relative this is the last time I will see him and this will be my goodbye to him, which makes me dread the trip and dread seeing him in the condition he will be in
2. The day after I return from this trip I am putting in my resignation in at work which really worries me how the reception will be.
3. I am joining a startup company and it is a BIG risk and has me nervous, I am even moving in with my dad just to make sure I am financially comfortable.
4. Ever since Jamaica I have been making strides to be positive and outgoing. EVERYTHING in my life right now is going so well. Dating this great girl, I will start a new job that I am THRILLED about and it is a life passion and my social life has gone back to normal. My life is going so great right now, I just am fearful and don't want to risk anything to ruin it.
5. I am just a nervous flyer. 5-10 years ago I loved flying. Nowadays? Every little jerk or turbulence gives me crazy anxiety. I used to love turbulence back in the day!
So why do I keep telling myself I am going to die on this flight? Has anyone else had this feeling? Everyday I look at stats of plane crashes to help convince me that is is super safe.
I just want to get this all over with.
I had the very same problem. I've flown my entire life, but entering my twenties, I developed a fear of flying--or a fear of crashing. This type of fear is almost always a symptom of something else and rarely about actual plane crashes. For me, I was told by a psychiatrist that it was a control issue. My father died when I was in high school, quite suddenly, and my life drastically changed after that. Not too many years after, I became a terrible flyer. I still take Xanax when I fly (the lowest amount) and it takes the edge off; it's not nearly the same fear I used to have (I'm 43 now). Much of that has to do with stability in my life and just the stage I am in my life as well.
Sounds like you might be channeling the same issue--a big change in your life--one that could be great but with risks. If you're not a risky person by nature, or prefer more conservative challenges, this could be your underlying reason for your sudden fear of flying.
I had the very same problem. I've flown my entire life, but entering my twenties, I developed a fear of flying--or a fear of crashing. This type of fear is almost always a symptom of something else and rarely about actual plane crashes. For me, I was told by a psychiatrist that it was a control issue. My father died when I was in high school, quite suddenly, and my life drastically changed after that. Not too many years after, I became a terrible flyer. I still take Xanax when I fly (the lowest amount) and it takes the edge off; it's not nearly the same fear I used to have (I'm 43 now). Much of that has to do with stability in my life and just the stage I am in my life as well.
Sounds like you might be channeling the same issue--a big change in your life--one that could be great but with risks. If you're not a risky person by nature, or prefer more conservative challenges, this could be your underlying reason for your sudden fear of flying.
Good point. When I went to Jamaica in January, I was a little nervous, but didn't have this crazy anxiety. Now for this trip since I am in the thick of all the good things that are happening to me, I just have gone crazy anxious.
Fear of flying is a highly irrational fear to have.
Even if you fly every day, you still have a much greater chance of dying in a car crash.
Think about it. There are millions of flights every day. Yet, whenever there is a crash it is all over the news. This happens how often? Once or twice a decade?
General aviation may be more dangerous than riding in a car (that's small airplanes: Cessnas, etc...), but commercial aviation is safer.
A comforting book is the OAG (Official Airline Guide) because if you ever saw one you'd reckon it like a phone book for a good-sized city. In it are all the flights that take place, and when you consider the thousands of flights that happen without incident on a daily basis, you can take comfort that the odds are very small that you'd be involved in an accident, much less a fatal one.
Not to switch one phobia for another, but you are statistically far more likely to die in a car crash on the way to the airport than you are losing your life in a plane crash. I read a newspaper story a number of years back that stated you'd have to take something like 32,000 flights in your life to put yourself at significant risk.
My former next-door neighbor from when I lived in the Bay Area is a flight attendant for a major airline, and she said driving to the airport worried her 100 times more than flying! And statistically, that makes sense. Yet most people have no fear of driving in their cars. The pilot up in that cockpit flies a lot more safely than most people drive.
General aviation may be more dangerous than riding in a car (that's small airplanes: Cessnas, etc...), but commercial aviation is safer.
That reminds me of when I was a teenager, I rode in the front seat of a Piper Cub. The plane belonged to a friend's father, and he took me for a ride. Well, we leveled off and then he says "have you ever felt weightless before?" I said "no" and then he pushed the stick forward and we went into a dive. It scared the crap out of me.
I'm sure most of the accidents with small planes are due to idiots showing off like that guy I rode with.
I too was always afraid to fly, but work required a lot of it. But as i grew older I had the opposite experience as you. I became more accepting of dying in a plane crash. Sort of like, Oh well I lived a good while, all my affairs are in order, if i go down its ok. When i was younger I was afraid of what i would miss and what i still wanted to do.
Fear of flying is a highly irrational fear to have.
Even if you fly every day, you still have a much greater chance of dying in a car crash.
People say that often, but I usually go like "yes that's true, but the odds of DYING in a plane crash is greater than dying in a car crash". In other words, you're more likely to survive a car crash than a plane crash.
And that's what scares me (I also have a slight airplane phobia, and it's not because of heights but dying in the crash).
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