Dealing with my Fear of Flying

[LisaQ]

I've struggled with a lot of fear of flying in airplanes, to the point of NOT flying for over 10 years. But now Jesus and Mary are offering these Lessons in Love seminars, and I SO want to go to Australia , which is about a 15 hour flight from USA. Yikes.

Has anyone successfully overcome this fear?

My initial thought is to take a short flight, and let myself just fully breathe, shake, cry, etc. while on the plane. (I think I also have this fear having these emotions come up in front of others.)

Any suggestions or help would be welcome!

Thanks,
Lisa

[Courtney]

It seems like eventually flying will be necessary to overcome the fear, and possibly needed to get into the terror completely. More immediately (since you may not be flying tomorrow or this week), you could watch films depicting plane crashes and feel through that? I know there are a bunch; one that comes to mind is Flight. I also just googled and there are lists that come up if you type in "films depicting plane crashes".

[LisaQ]

Hi Courtney,

Thanks for your suggestions. I think watching triggering movies is an excellent idea.

In your feedback on challenging my fear of flying, it helped me realize that crashing is not really the main fear around flying. Which is weird. I'm starting to break down the 'fear of flying' into a variety of fears, all which group together to make flying a pretty highly fearful activity for me.

1. fear of being trapped / claustrophobia
2. fear of being unsupported/unsafe/in the air without any holding
3. fear of not having control (at the effect of someone else who's driving the plane)
4. fear of public humiliation (like if I threw up on the plane in front of others, due to my terror)
5. fear of crashing from way up high in the air and the terror of this possibility
6. germ phobia (being in a little metal box with circulated air and many people)

So, this helps me take my next steps and begin to work through these different fears one by one.

But, it does seem that actually getting up in the air would be the best way to move through this fear. (Albeit a fear-inducing thought.)