Flight tonight and have developed a massive fear of flying

[snoringnights]

Does anyone have any tips or tricks please? Flying home tonight and absolutely ill about the flight. I am absolutely terrified and in an awful state. Flight here was awful for me and I am filled with total anxiety about getting on the flight home tonight. Thanks

Try not to think about it in the build up/at the airport. On the plane suck a boiled sweet on take off / landing and have ear phones in playing a guided meditation. Calm app is good. During the flight try to focus on a book/ crossword/ tv show.

Btw hypnotherapy cured my fear of flying

One tried and trusted method of stopping panic quickly is to take a small object, such as a bottle of water or a bunch of keys, and throw it gently from one hand to hand, doing nothing else than watching it as it passes from left to right and back again. This forces the two hemispheres of your brain – the logical and the emotional – to work together in order not to drop the object. It will quell the panic within minutes (it's been successfully used on Fear of Flying courses for many years).

https://anxieties.com/self-help-resources/fear-of-flying/how-safe-is-flying/
Hope this helps.

Hand hold OP, I'm the same. I know it's safe, I know you're more likely to be in a car accident but it doesn't stop me feeling like I'm going to die on every flight. If you're in a car crash there's the possibility of survival but a plane crash, not so much. I find I can't listen to music or podcasts as I'm on such high alert but I can read so maybe take a good book with you

Try and keep yourself distracted as much as possible, download a film to watch or read a book you can really immerse yourself in. Or then focus on your children, if they're old enough to play pen and paper games then do that with them or something like that. Anything to take your mind off the flight.

I have always been fine with flying but a few years ago I developed a sudden anxiety about it (along with a brand new fear of heights) and had a horrible couple of flights feeling highly stressed and anxious. I then decided to study to become an aircraft mechanic and learnt all about how aircraft fly, all the different failsafes for safety there are, and it really helped. Weirdly also studying air disasters helped, finding what the causes were and how rules were changed afterwards to prevent incidents again. Flew for the first time after my studies last month and found my anxiety was completely gone.
Still scared of heights though, not sure how to study my way out of that one!

There's no sure fire solution to this- some find the stats help, some like distraction ....

Rationally aircrew wouldn't come to work if the job was risky, to them they're just going to work and the aircraft is the equivalent of most peoples' office/school/hospital ward, etc.

I was around the commercial flying world.for many years and I heard of more crew being hurt either driving into work or in accidents on the crew bus to/from slip hotels than were injured in flight.

I used to be afraid of flying but I learned to keep it in check over the years . For one thing it’s much safer than being in a car . Your journey to the airport is far more dangerous statistically than the actual flight. Travel sickness tablets help, the drowsy ones. not for sickness they sort of create a calm hazy sort of feeling for me and reduce anxiety.

It helps me greatly to remind myself of that actually . So I agree with this poster . Very few people are afraid of cars, buses etc . It is a reminder of how irrational the whole thing is and helps me ground myself

If you’re worried by turbulence then put your water bottle on the table. You’ll see that although it might feel bumpy, the water hardly moves. I’m not a fan of taking off or landing so I just put my headphones on and listen to music to distract me. And yes, watch the cabin crew - if they’re not worried then neither am I. You’ll be fine. 😊

Watch the cabin crew carefully, OP. Do they look scared or anxious? Or are they just calmly getting on with their job as usual on what, if it’s short haul, may be their fourth flight of the day & twelfth flight of the week. It really is just another day at the office for them. If they are behaving completely normally that’s because they know there’s absolutely nothing to worry about, so why on earth would you waste your time worrying?

Hi OP, I am the same, I flew home yesterday. I went to a pharmacy and bought some stress relief tablets, the ones I bought are called Eviol (I use Kalms in the UK) and they genuinely did help. For what it’s worth, you will be safe and in the excellent hands of the people whose job it is to fly back and forth for their entire careers, and you’ll be home soon

How did it go? Was it worse/better than the flight over, did you find anything that helped?

Hopefully you're having a peaceful weekend to rest up.

I do this, I hate the beeps on flights and look straight at the cabin crew for any signs of worry!

You'll be home by now! But for future reference, this idea helped me (not this particular video but it illustrates it pretty well).
vm.tiktok.com/ZNRE3JQHj/

Ridiculously terrified of flying here. This may well cause outrage but, I find a couple of glasses of wine a real help. Don't get drunk, just enough to take the edge off. Next a puzzle book. It needs to be hard enough so you have to think but not so hard that your mind has time to wander off. I have always been lucky in finding myself next to lovely strangers to chat to. Sounds like you also have children to keep your head busy. It's a very small part of your entire life. You will be fine. Just so you know, thr next flight I spend curled up as much as possible crying the whole time won't be the first so you are not alone.

I am not scared of flying as such but I am claustrophobic and hate the feeling of being potentially trapped and not in control - so flying, going through the channel tunnel, tube journies - all make me anxious.

I find the best way to deal with it is to eat the elephant as it were. I break the journey up in to smaller blocks, so you focus on getting through each bit, then you breath, relax and focus on the next bit. It calms your anxiety and gives you small goals to work to at each point you know you completed that bit of the journey safely and it is nearer your main goal of getting off the plane - i break short haul flights up in to take off, flight time, starting descent and then landing. Long haul I add in making it to each refreshment round.

Same with the channel tunnel. I factor in a toilet visit, a make up and hair check, a journey to the buffet to get a hot drink or snack, the walk back to my seat and then drinking my drink/eating my snack at my seat. Once all those little tasks are done we are usually through the tunnel.