Almost 12 million people take a flight every day. This means that there are more than 120,000 planes in the sky every day.
However, what for many can be a relaxing experience, for others it can become a real torture, even having to resort to chemistry to calm the anxiety that it generates.
It is estimated that 25% of the population have a fear of flying, which is also known as aerophobia. The incidence, according to the experts, is higher in women than in men and, especially, occurs after the age of 30. It is one of the most frequent fears and is one of the most common reasons in psychology consultations.
However, as the psychologist explains to this portal Carlos Sanchez Poloof , the causes are not always completely clear, although it could be a consequence of:
- genetic conditions and biological ones that predispose the individual to feel fear (that their amygdala, the subcortical structure of our brain, is overactive).
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Exposure to a number of social stressors (job insecurity, pandemic, geopolitical tension, among others).
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Derived from a series of psychological factors: low tolerance for frustration, feeling unable to manage unpleasant emotions, some traumatic experience…
However, a large part of the work with consists of “understanding why they are maintained over time, since here we will put the focus of intervention”. And it is precisely avoiding or escaping from the phobic stimulus, in this case the fear of flying, “what maintains the problem, since the person never gets used to or empowers in the face of fear”.
Fear of flying: symptoms
Fear manifests itself at a cognitive, behavioral and physiological level. Although, as Sánchez Polo points out, “each individual tends to feel it more in one of these possible facets.”
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TO cognitive level because the person experiences intrusive and catastrophic thoughts (eg, I’m going to have a panic attack on the plane, it’s going to crash, I won’t be able to bear it, people are going to judge me).
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TO behavioral level because they will carry out a series of actions typical of fear (eg, talking non-stop, yelling, self-medicating, biting their nails…).
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TO physiological levelbecause you will also feel discomfort in the body (eg, agitated breathing, increased blood pressure and heart rate, sweating…).
All these manifestations will feed back into each other, “facilitating a spiral of fear and chaos that makes the person affected feel hopeless” and prevents them from even traveling on this means of transport, considered one of the safest.
Why are there people who are afraid of flying?
The causes can be many, so it is “too ambitious to elaborate a very specific profile”. If it is true, the specialist from the Cláritas Psychological Institute emphasizes that those people “with a tendency to experience fear more intensely, as well as those with a more obsessive profile, are more predisposed to developing a phobia”.
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“As to whether it is a necessary condition to have suffered some unpleasant episode on the plane, the answer is no. Of course, a traumatic event of this type is a risk factor for developing a phobia, but it is not decisive.
The ability to imagine and feel goes beyond what we experience, which is why fear sometimes arises, not because of experience, “but because of our way of living and feeling emotions, as well as interpreting our reality.”
It can be overcome?
Fortunately, the fear of flying can be overcome. And this is because it is a learned fear that the affected person can get rid of. “Now, I can’t lie to you, to turn the page you’re going to have to suffer a bit.”
The technique used, emphasizes the , is exposure. But what does it consist of? This implies exposing oneself to the fear-generating stimulus, in this case flying or anything that has to do with an airplane or airport, so that the person becomes accustomed and empowered in the face of fear.
“The work will consist of giving the tools so that the person feels capable of exposing themselves to what generates anxiety. And, in addition to these resources, it should be noted that the exposure will always be gradual. A list of anxiety-generating situations will be prepared with the person and these will be ordered based on difficulty (eg, imagining the plane, imagining having anxiety on the plane, going to an airport, getting on a short-haul plane, getting on a a long-haul plane…)”.
The most important thing is to understand what fear is, how it is expressed, what it is for and how far it can go. This allows you to start relating to him in a much more bearable way. And give this example:
“With the phobia of flying, the fear is not always that a plane crash will happen. Perhaps this was the initial fear, but the reason why the person will avoid this scenario, on many occasions, is out of fear of feeling very intense anxiety and not being able to leave.
When we feel anxiety at its most extreme levels, we come to fear for our lives. Fear is so intense that our alarm systems are activated and there is no room for a rational discourse to calm us down.
For this reason, “explaining to a patient in session that it is impossible for them to die of a , delving into the physiological reasons why this is unfeasible, is one of the many resources that will allow them to empower themselves and expose themselves to what they avoid.”
And the first step is to resort to a professional If this fear of flying is limiting. “When we feel that we cannot face it and it deprives us of illusions. When the frequency, intensity and duration of the anguish skyrocket and diminish our quality of life”. However, you can also go to a consultation when the person himself considers that he needs it.