help!!panic attack

[whymummy]

hello everyone i know im going to sound like a complete idiot but i cant help it,im flying home to spain tomorrow for a much needed break and although ive been a nervous flier since having the kids ive always handled it well but today im having a bad panic attack about flying the day the war starts,my biggest fear is the threats last month of missiles targetting passenger planes,i don`t know what to do,any advice will be great!!

whymummy, I hate flying too and it always helps me to imagine a big ribbon pulling the plane to its destination (it must be something about it 'earthing' it that helps me).

The likelyhood of your plane being struck by a missile is non-existent, please try to have a lovley break in Spain, if its any consolation I HATE flying yet would swap with you in a flash as I need a holiday so badly!!! In fact I'd be happy to fly to Baghdad if it meant a few days out of the daily grind.

Seriously though, just think how proud you'll be when you've done it and arrived safely in Spain.

xx E

I know how you feel, I hate flying. Bach flower remedy seems to help. I've got a book by Pete Cohen called habit busting that deals with negative thinking which is helpful. Involves lots of visualisation exercises. To be perfectly honest I would have cancelled the plane, got the ferry to Bilbao and driven but then I'm not good at facing up to my fears.

Spain must be one of the safest places to fly to. if you fly a short charter hop around europe why bother trying to shoot you down? They'll go for national airlines, probably american ones, and taking off from countries where there is lax security, i would imagine, so you'll be fine, fine, fine.

Personally, I've always hated flying, but flew to NY in Oct and was no more scared than usual, even though it was a ba flight. It'll all be over in 2hrs.

thank you, thank you to all of you i do feel a lot better after reading your messages,i just dont know what came over me this morning i do usually have a few gin and tonics before boarding and anyway ive flown with aeroflot(; so i shouldn`t be scared of anything, should i?seriously though you really are a nice bunch!thanks again

i can never do them flipping faces
i`m off now,thanks again and i will look for them books you mentioned
adios amigas!!

hi everyone!im back! i just wanted to say that the flights went fine and i was surprisingly calm i think the fear of being hit by a missile(extremely unlikely like you told me) has taken away the fear of the engines stopping or a wing breaking with the turbulence i actually felt quite safe ,thanks again!!

So happy to hear it whymummy. I suffer from fear of flying at times, too--the degree of fear varies, not sure why. Anyway, well done.

My dh hates flying in small planes, gets very nervous so when we went to the Philippines (where you have to fly on load of small planes that all look like they are falling apart) he got some valium from the doctor and it worked very well, he was pretty zonked for a couple of hours though and grinning like an idiot!

Enid, you are tip-top convincer and confidence inspirer! Will you be my life coach? (winky smiley thing. MUST learn them - have a fear of emoticons - any advice? Ho, ho.)

Now then (puts on bad foundation and patient stewardess grin) - apologies to any real cabin staff out there.

Dh hates flying. One time I did find myself having to talk dh through a rather interesting landing in high winds - whilst it seemed that no one else in the entire plane was talking at all, along the lines of " the top of the wing is curved so the air goes faster over that part, and that creates a pressure differential which lifts the plane up. When we slow down to land, the captain will raise the flaps to give us the same amount of lift.

That noise is the landing gear being lowered, and that creates more drag, so the flaps will be raised again, etc etc........."

I felt like I was in Airplane, only I was the sweaty Vietnam vet character.......

And please don't get me started about the trip back from Dublin when i was 8 months pgt with dd 1, the turbulence and the lady next to me who kept saying Hail Mary's.............

whymummy, glad you had a good time and got through the flying OK. I found myself trying to remember Enid's tip flying back from Edinburgh on Thursday as I really don't like it either. And instead of someone sensible like Gumdrop sitting next to me, I had ds, who hoicked the safety drill card out of the seatback pocket and kept asking in piercing tones, why is there a fire in that picture? Why is that plane in the sea? Why do we need oxygen masks? Why is your hand so sweaty mummy?

thanks for all your replies,marina my son did exactly the same and once our plane got hit by lightning and he started cheering while the rest of the plane prayed and gave my son very evil looks!!