Fear of Flying: Testimonials

28 July 2007 When I started going through the questions to ask yourself, I was able to answer each one almost without even thinking. I was travelling to [deleted for confidentiality] to visit my then boyfriend (now husband) and had taken about 5 flights before then without fear. We were going to talk about getting married when I arrived, but that was never discussed, so I was disappointed about that. Then, upon my arrival back to the states, I found out that my Grandmother had passed away while I was gone and this was the only trip that I had gone on and not visited with her before I left. I think that explains the terror I experience each time I board a plane.   4 December 2007 I have read about fear of flying & turbulence. Both were very helpful. I was never afraid to fly before, nor of turbulence. Now one “bump” has me in a white knuckle ride.    Reading your article, it felt as if you were writing directly to & about me. My last flights (1999 & 2000, 2001) were all tangled up with negative emotions. 1999 my sister passed, and I had to fly to [deleted for confidentiality] from [deleted for confidentiality] where I was living. 2000 my ex-father-in-law passed, and I had to fly in the wee hours of the morning from [deleted for confidentiality] to [deleted for confidentiality], while my marriage was “on the fritz.” And in 2001 I travelled alone for a vacation to [deleted for confidentiality] to visit friends, again while my marriage was on the fritz, and I suspected my ex of having an affair, actually having a woman in our apartment while I was away. My arrival home after the trip was not met with a warm greeting with a hug—it was cold, and I felt unloved.    Since then I have grounded myself, reasoning that staying on the ground is safer and the white knuckle ride not worth the aggravation.    I want to get back on a plane, and travel more, and vacation more. Thank you for your honest & frank discussion—the reality of turbulence (both good & bad).   4 May 2008 For years now I’ve dealt with severe anxiety prompted by flying. . . . I used to obsess and panic over the thought of having to fly somewhere, automatically sabotaging my journey and disregarding all the good things that could come out of each trip. Your website has been the first one to acknowledge that most of us (fearful fliers) know the statistics very well, we might even repeat them over and over again like some sort of mantra and still it does not change the fact that we remain frightened by a thought.    My fear of flying began with a trip emotionally attached to a life-changing experience, I was to move to [deleted for confidentiality] for 5 months and leave my family for the first time in my life. Since then every single flight I’ve been on has been attached to something going wrong in my personal life and I strongly believe that I projected self-doubt and guilt as a “fear of flying.” I used to go through the days thinking about how my plane is going to crash and how I’m doomed to die in a plane crash but I am rapidly realizing how unfounded this fear is.    Back to the Fear of Flying webpage

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