Heya Everyone... I'm 16 And I Get Panic Attacks, I Have LOADS Of Fears, Some Would Be Heights, Deep water, Flying, As Well As Loads More... In August I'm Gonna Be Going Over To A Youth Conference in England With A Group Of Friends For A Week... Were Gonna Be Flying Over And I Start Panicking At The Thought Of Sitting In A Plane...It Will Also Be My First Time Flying..! I Was Wondering Would Anyone Here Have Any Tips For Me..?? Thanks..!

Hi Tigerz and welcome to oFear

There's a page from johnny here about flying anxiety.

My addition to that stuff would be to kee your focus on the overall event. The flights are a small part of what's likely to be a fantastic experience for you.

As an old fart.... I can tell you - life is like that all over! It's a great experience but there's gonna be things in it you just feel you'd rather not get in to!

So - if you want to put a positive spin on this ... at 16 years old; facing an anxiety like this now in a positive light will start you on a road to having strength to face lots of things in life that you sometimes wish just didn't have to happen.

Courage is not the absence of fear - but what we do despite our fears.

Flying from Ireland to England won't take to long, I've flown a few times & it feels a really safe form of transport. It's good that you're with friends.

Hiya Tigerz4Life and welcome to Ofear

My girlfriend is afraid of flying and yet just the other month she plucked up the courage to fly from Moscow to Amsterdam and one thing she pointed out that helped her immensely was watching the in-flight tracking map which shows your position during the flight and also details such as altitude and speed. If she could see the altitude staying the same it made her feel more at ease. When we turned at least she could see that the plane was just simply staying on the correct flight path.

I'm not sure if every aircraft has these displays or if it's used on short haul flights but if you do have an in-flight tracking system then try paying attention to it and see if this helps you also.

Another advice I would like to give from first hand experience is that if you're feeling nervous and can't cope then please don't be afraid to explain how you feel to one of the cabin crew because they are trained to deal with passengers afraid to fly and in our case during the flight back to Moscow she excelled in calming my girlfriend down and also went on to present her with a bottle of champagne and some chocolates and the end of the flight for being so brave - Hats off to KLM!

Hope these little tips can be of some help.

John

two things really helped me, both really cheap from amazon:
a book about fear of flying

and
a cd about fear of flying

the first one has tips and some very useful info about the safety of flying. Makes you understand WHY you are afraid.

the second is a hypnotherapy cd. You just listen to it and relax nothing much seems to happen. Then you get in the plane and you realise something amazing has happened and for some bizzarre reason you LOVE flying. It was like a light being switched on for me

the books about a tenner and the cds about a fiver - best money i ever spent in fact I used the techniques in both book and cd to overcome a fear of the dentist as well, though I had to modify them to the different situation.

One tip I have thats not in the book or cd is when you have done something on the way to your goal give yourself a small reward. eg buy yourself anything a packet of biscuits or a magazine to say to yourself "well done I was brave enough to apply to go abroad, even if I dont go through with it". The WORST thing you can do is to put yourself down and think tell yourself you are stupid as that only lowers self esteem and the phobia gets a tighter grip.

Good Luck. If I did it you can!