Flying phobia after 20+ flights? Advice?
Hello! As the title states, I have TERRIBLE flying anxiety. I am a passenger not a pilot. People around me may not know it, even as panicked as I am I always know not to show it. i am literally so freaked out the entire time that other people freaking out is an annoyance to me in itself. It’s like when I am on roller coasters: when boarding or on a flight, I am clenching my teeth the entire time, very quiet, silent, because I always get the same feeling as a roller coaster like I will die any second.
This feeling has never wavered since my first flight a couple months after 9/11 (yes I think this is an important driving factor, apparently my first time on a plane I asked a Sikh man if he was going to blow us up to my mothers horror) even though I’ve flown 24+ maybe even thirty times since then.
I always look to the flight attendants, and they calm me down a lot, but when I say I “freak out” I don’t mean I’m making a scene, I mean every single second I’m on the plane my body mind and soul knows I shouldn’t, I feel every single thing that could ever go wrong, and any second is my last. So I don’t say or do anything but the flight ends with me sweaty af, stressed, and upset. Like a looong feeling of how I feel on a rollercoaster.
And every time I think I can get over it, I see the-advice is “fly more!” But I’ve flown so much since then, and I truly can’t imagine getting back on a plane without being absolutely tranquilized. Not high, unconscious . The only reason I got on the plane the last time is bc my dad who I hate was on it and I was thinking well, if it goes down it takes him down with me. Any tips other than to fly more?
It’s very stupid, but when I was younger it
made me feel better that we had a donkey neighbor and I was more likely to die from my beloved donkey kicking me than in a plane crash.