Practical | 65
Don't avoid flying "We try to make ourselves feel safer by avoiding things," says Bor, "but it doesn't help to deal with your problem. Avoiding flying can inhibit your career if your work involves travel. It can affect relationships: most people want to go on holiday, many of them abroad. And some family events require us to travel.
Credit: Pexels/Oleksandr Pidvalnyi
NG LYING Professor Robert Bor is one of the authors of a book, Overcome Your Fear of Flying, Bor is not only a renowned clinical psychologist; he's also a qualified pilot. He says:"In the 1920s it was a rational fear, because air accident rates were high, mortality rates were high, even the chances of witnessing an air crash were high. In life there's always some kind of risk, but nowadays you have a greater chance of being kicked to death by a donkey than anything happening to you in an air crash. Yet people still
project incidents and apply them to themselves. There have been two serious crashes recently, and people immediately assume there will be more and more and they'll be affected. They overestimate the risk; that fear is now irrational." "The traditional approach to treating fear of flying was to help people understand the statistics, and teach them how aircraft actually fly. But appealing to people's rational side is only helpful for some. The sort of people who go on a one-day fear of flying course hosted by an airline have quite low levels of anxiety; they don't like being on aircraft but don't avoid it. We tend to treat people who are too distressed to fly at all." Bor, whose academic research is complemented by clinical work with sufferers, has some simple hints for anyone dreading their flights this holiday season ? during which he regularly sees a spike in fear of flying.
"You shouldn't avoid it because it's such a treatable problem. Fears and phobias have one of the highest success rates for treatment of any psychological problems. If you're willing to give it a bit of time, you ought to be able to fly comfortably. You may still be gripping the armrests, but at least you'll get to Majorca." Think about the destination, not the j our ney "Focus on the positive reasons for taking your flight," says Bor. "Perhaps you're going on holiday, visiting family or friends or just doing your job well. These all give you a purpose for taking your flight and added motivation to overcome your fear and move forward with your life." Challenge your negative thoughts Not a huge fan of turbulence? Me neither. But, says Bor, "that's where a little bit of education can help. Turbulence arises because of air currents, that's all. People might be alarmed by the sensation and worry about the structural integrity of the aircraft, but technically speaking it's a non-issue.
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