Why are people afraid to fly on airplanes. How to deal with aerophobia. Claustrophobia and effective measures to eliminate it

Now it is difficult to imagine foreign travel without air travel. This way of moving allows you to save a lot of time and get to your destination with maximum comfort. And in terms of cost, a plane ticket is often cheaper than a land trip, with numerous stops, transfers and other inconveniences. But not everyone feels safe in the air, and this fear makes people experience not the most pleasant moments during the flight, or even completely refuse to travel. What to do in such cases, how to overcome the fear of flying on an airplane and get rid of discomfort forever?

Phobia or simple anxiety?

Anyone can have a fear of flying, even those who have traveled by air more than once. Many different factors contribute to this: weather, ignorance of the operation of the aircraft, emotional distress, inactivity in flight, heart or nervous system disease. The sensations that cause fear of flying also have varying degrees expressiveness. For some, this is a slight anxiety, for others - anxious thoughts, nervous tension and an oppressive feeling until the end of the flight, while others feel real panic up to the loss of control over themselves.

According to statistics, the fear of flying, or aerophobia, affects about 25% of the world's population. But any manifestation of fear should not be considered a disease: a phobia has quite definite signs that differ from the usual anxiety and excitement that most air passengers tend to experience. If a person is able to control negative thoughts and emotions, does not allow himself to panic, and can be distracted by something at least a little, then this is not a disease. The discomfort that many people experience on an airplane is quite common, and it is not so difficult to deal with it.

Another thing is if the fear of flying is so strong that a person can hardly force himself to board the aircraft, and in the air he feels panic and loses the ability to control himself. Usually such people avoid air travel by any means and choose to travel by car or train. And yet, it is possible to overcome aerophobia, the main thing is to have a desire and a little patience.

Read also useful information With detailed instruction, in a new article on our portal.

Video - Aerophobia - how to stop being afraid to fly on an airplane

How to deal with fear

To effectively deal with the problem, you first need to figure out what exactly scares you the most. Many are afraid of an aircraft breaking down in the air, engine failure, and even air pockets, due to which periodic shakes and vibrations are felt in the cabin. In fact, breakdowns happen very rarely, because every aircraft undergoes regular checks before flights. They are serviced by experienced professionals, so the risk of breakage is minimal.

Another common cause of fear is the fear of entrusting your life to pilots, even the most experienced ones. The inability to control the situation in the event of an accident or to somehow influence its outcome makes many passengers nervous and worried. But even here the danger is exaggerated, because both the crew and the dispatchers know their job very well and treat their work responsibly.

In general, planes are not in vain considered one of the most safe species transport. According to long-term statistics, out of 8 million people who travel by air, only one passenger dies. At the same time, in Moscow alone, about 30,000 people die in car accidents every year. Many accidents occur in railway and maritime transport.

So, first you need to determine the cause of fear, and then try to analyze it. It is important to remember that air carriers are responsible for passengers, and the crew themselves value their lives, which means that they are most interested in a safe flight. If the fear is very strong, it would be best to turn to a psychologist: now in Russia it is easy to find a qualified specialist who provides services of this kind. Professional psychologists in a few sessions help people learn to control emotions and overcome fears, up to the complete elimination of a phobia.

The most efficient method is computer programs virtual flights. Thanks to the use of special equipment, a person can try to feel like an airliner pilot and control takeoffs and landings. All sensations are very realistic, and at first fear may reappear, but gradually the brain gets used to the fact that all this is just an illusion and there is not the slightest danger to life. This contributes to the development of a reflex, and the flight will already be associated with pleasant emotions, and not with panic.

The major drawback of this therapy is that it high price which not everyone can afford. If your fear of flying is not strong enough to cause a loss of self-control, you can deal with the problem and less in a costly way, with a few simple tricks.

Safe seats on the plane:

Safe places	Location	Survival Percentage
Front section of the cabin		48% Survival
Economy class in front of the wing		56% Survival
Economy class above the wing		56% Survival
Tail section of the cabin		69% Survival

Methods for dealing with fear of flying

There are a number of different techniques that can reduce nervous tension and make it easier to transfer an airplane flight. These methods may vary in effectiveness, and what works well for one may not work for others, so best option everyone must choose for himself.

Psychologists recommend that people with a fear of flying arrive early to avoid the hassle of check-in and boarding. Arriving in advance, you will be able to calmly go through all the procedures and psychologically tune in to the flight, and at the same time get to know other passengers.

Video - 10 tricks to overcome the fear of flying

What not to do

A large number of those who are afraid to fly on airplanes themselves aggravate their condition by certain actions. To avoid this, you need to know in advance what you should not do on flights:

Read also detailed and interesting information for travelers, in a new article -

Video - How to overcome the fear of flying on an airplane

Hello!
I have a problem that is ruining my life.
She flew for the first time at the age of 25, the whole flight she held on to her neighbor (an unfamiliar man in age). In the next couple of years, there were still rare flights with my husband. I was scared, but at least I could handle the fear.

Then a son was born and the fear deepened. I'm afraid to fly to tears, naturally, on takeoff, I begin to sob softly into my husband's shoulder.
I'm afraid to break. I'm afraid that the turbine will fail and the plane will fall. As I imagine it, sitting on the couch at home makes me feel bad, and even more so on the plane. A couple of times the plane was shaking, by my standards it was terrible, my husband remembers with a smile.
In a week there will be a 6-hour flight with my husband and child, and I feel bad beforehand - I'm nervous, sleep badly and generally feel very excited in terms of nerves.
Because of fear, I don’t ask for business trips for training, it’s common in a team - to fly to courses there, to fly to a seminar here, but I’m scared, so don’t.
There used to be (before the birth of a child) some kind of "magic wand", she herself came up with the idea that beautiful flight attendants would not die =)) that the entire crew also wants to live and will make every effort so that nothing happens in flight, and if it happens - then all the strength is to save everyone and yourself, that it’s worth worrying only when the “fasten your seat belts” board is permanently on (if you are chatting, but the board is not on, then it’s okay). Now none of this affects me, I'm stupidly scared a week before the flight and until the end of the vacation / business trip.
Naturally, the words that air travel is the safest do not work for me. There is no escape from a falling plane. Moreover, I was twice in serious accidents (twice head-on collisions), I coped with the fear of driving a car.
Talk to me.
UPD: in general, I bought one flight in the Sky Guru program - the first flight out of 4 planned, I flew calmly, but there was a feeling of indulging my phobia. She went to the toilet calmly, looked out the window. It was interesting to observe that the shaking began when they flew over mountains or bodies of water. The next 2 flights were short, 1.5 hours each. I can not say that I flew with indifference. It was especially scary on landing once, as they turned hard and came in sharply for landing.

It turned out that it was much scarier to swim on a longtail in the waves, where I could not restrain myself at all.

Well, the 6-hour return flight was relatively calm for me, it was shaking for about an hour, but looking out the window, I saw that the plane was not crashing, that the landscape was the same and that no one died from turbulence (if it was at all).

Thank you all for the dialogue, it helped me a lot. I no longer experienced fear of flying with sleep disturbance. There was no longer any particularly strong fear on takeoff, as it was before.

They say that a certain businessman was so afraid of flying on planes because of the threat of explosions that he came up with an original method of combating terrorism: on any trip he took a dummy bomb with him, confident that there would certainly not be a second person with the same luggage on board. .

If you fantasize about the wine list at the airport before your trip, and when choosing an airline, you are guided by Yandex’s opinion on the topic “Yak-40 plane crashes along the route over the past 15 years”, we sympathize - you have aerophobia.

Often, patients with this unpleasant disease consider it to be something like an aggravation of common sense: “Well, the plane crashed just yesterday - I knew it, I will never sit in this death capsule again!” And then, when you still have to fly, the flight attendants observe nervous, sweating passengers who, as soon as they enter the cabin, fasten their seat belts tightly, grab the armrests and, with a crazy look, begin to wait for death. If you are one of these unfortunates, then remember: aerophobia is a diagnosis.

Terror flying on wings

Imagine a map of the world. Of course, the center of the universe is you, but still, how many people on this planet major cities. And they have airports. And every hour, 20 aircraft visit these airports. In total, 138,000 aircraft safely fly to their destination every day in the world - and this is only commercial flights. If the chance of a daily crash was only 0.01%, this would mean that at least 13 planes must crash per day!

It turns out that about 50 million flights are made in the world every year. There are only a few failed ones. Well, let's say six. This is 500 people. Those who landed successfully - about 5 billion. And therefore the chance to die in the next raid is 1 in 10 million. Yes, of course, he is - but where is he not? You walk down an icy street in February, you eat bony fish, you swim drunk, you water flowers in Haiti, you ride the Moscow subway... And the people around you don't care about your life. In an airplane, it is the multimillion-dollar industry that takes care of you, honed to the most insignificant screws: precisely because it is dangerous to fly from the very beginning, humanity has made this action as safe as possible.

How to calm down

However, all these facts convince a real aerophobe only in part. “And if the wing falls off?”, “What if there is a thunderstorm?”, “Well, can the engines turn off?” - in fact, there are no number of questions. There will always be an additional, the same one, the answer to which once and for all must expose the worldwide conspiracy of aviators against your life.

It's better not to hurt yourself. And just do the following:

Learn physics, at least its basics. They will say a lot. For example, many are afraid to simply fall down from a height of 10 km. So, this simply cannot be because of the strong pressure under the wings of the aircraft. It stays in the air as well as a car on the highway. It can be put on the tail, rotated around its axis by 100 degrees, directed down - and if you release the steering wheel, the plane will simply sway in the air, like a boat on the waves.

In Moscow, you can visit the unique Boeing-737 cockpit simulator. It is owned by a private company TFT. This is exactly the simulator on which the real pilots rehearse various emergency situations- the notorious engine and landing gear failures, flying in a thunderstorm, snowfall and fog. Inside this is a real Boeing cockpit, in which all the effects are absolutely "no fools". Anyone can fly it with an instructor pilot, you can also ask to simulate any situations and explain how the aircraft behaves in this case.

The right decision would be to see a doctor. After all, aerophobia is a disease, and it needs to be treated. So far, there is only one clinic in Russia dealing with this issue - it is called "Fly without fear" and is located in Moscow. The course of treatment usually fits in two days and several thousand rubles. For those who cannot come, there are online courses that can be paid online.

Can Russian Airlines be trusted?

If you decide to fly without all these tricks, then, first of all, remember: choosing an airline desperately, you are just wasting your time. They are all equally safe - that of Lufthansa, that of Aeroflot, that of Izhevsk Airlines.

“No one has ever heard of Tajik-Avia or Ural Airlines", - says the director of the clinic "Fly without fear" pilot Alexey Gervash. “Airlines, like turbulence, are just a matter of comfort, not safety. Aviation is a huge structure with a strict hierarchy, there are thousands of requirements, and if a company puts its plane at the airport, it means that it meets all of them. And it is absolutely wrong to assume that russian airlines worse than others: 1.5 years passed from the plane crash in Perm to the crash near Smolensk, and during this time not a single person died in Russia “in the sky”.

Rumors that pilots in Russia drink, dilute gasoline, airlines buy planes decommissioned in Korea and repair them in a barn with a sledgehammer are also the result of mass aerophobia. Russia is part of the global aviation community. If the fears are to be believed, millions of careless people allow Russian drunken pilots in wrecks with diluted gasoline to fly hourly over power plants, schools, UNESCO monuments and the Large Hadron Collider. Suicides, no less. Or is that still not the case?

By the way, pilots and flight attendants do not receive cash bonuses “for risk”. Because the plane flies not contrary to common sense and the laws of nature, but thanks to them.

All people are different. And everyone's fears are different. Some of us are afraid of loneliness or dark rooms, others of the graveyard atmosphere, others of heights... This list can be continued indefinitely. For example, I am afraid to fly on an airplane. What should I do in this case? Go to a psychologist? Or once and for all forget about travel?

Friends, since there are a huge number of people suffering from aerophobia (or just shy), I decided to write an article about this. As the saying goes, let's face our own fears.

I'm afraid to fly! What to do?

Any person experiences some discomfort when he first sits in the cabin of an aircraft. In principle, for the first time, this is quite a common occurrence. However, if a person continues to be afraid again and again, this is already a deviation from the norm. If you ask a psychologist about flying, then, first of all, he will advise you to relax, look out the window of the plane and admire the divine heavenly beauty. But it's all - special psycho-methods. We, friends, understand this! After all, for a person whose heart starts to jump out of his chest when the plane is lifted into the air, this is unlikely to help! IN this moment he, most likely, will not remember the recommendations of the psychologist, he will just want to scream, run away and hide away from this nightmare. Remember how the hero of one of Stephen King's stories was afraid of flying. He just couldn't find his place! As a result, he simply brought himself to insanity: he began to imagine a hairy devil sitting on the wing of an airplane and disassembling its fuselage! In my opinion, it's just awful, and aerophobia is to blame!

How does aerophobia manifest itself?

Prerequisites

Scientists say that the point here is not so much in aerophobia as a disease, but in fear, which causes the very feeling of flying, because this environment is not natural for a person. The fact is that ours is very sensitive, therefore it reacts painfully to the lack of soil under its feet, and even accompanied by a change in altitude and speed. This already significant stress for the body is complemented by the fear of death. A person on an airplane strongly (and in most cases falsely) anticipates danger, because he understands that in the event of a plane crash he will be completely powerless and, most likely, will die.

Manifestations

1. This disease can start at any time (even before landing), for example, as soon as you arrive at the airport.
2. At the mere thought of the upcoming flight, a person begins to embrace real horror and wild fear: knees also begin, an irresistible desire arises to return the ticket to the box office, choosing an alternative method of travel (train, bus).
3. A person can slowly start to go crazy. He will be feverish. Hallucinations are not ruled out. In this case, you will need a doctor.

I'm afraid to fly on an airplane... What should I do if I have aerophobia?

Forget TV!

Fly and don't be afraid of heights!

Friends, personally, the first advice did not quite help me. I'm still afraid to fly on a plane. What to do in this case? I tried to find the answer to my own question. It turns out that we urgently need to use the so-called flight simulator! This is a kind of treatment for aerophobia. You will be placed in an interesting room, completely repeating the cabin of the aircraft. However, it's not free. If your finances are dear to you, then psychologists recommend self-treatment: arrange an airplane cabin in one of the rooms at home and live like that for a while. Well, I'll give it a try! Good luck to you!

If you are reading these lines now, then most likely you are one of the 1/4 of the world's population, whose heartbeat quickens and palms sweat at the mere thought of the next flight. To be fair, aerophobia is one of the most common fears on the planet, however, this does not mean that there is a good reason for this. By the way, most often creative people suffer from this problem (they have an overly rich imagination) and successful people in high positions (a high degree of responsibility). Peace, only peace! Three pillars of the fight against aerophobia: be as informed as possible, learn to control your body (read - nerves) and plan your trip correctly. About everything in order.

Assess risk appropriately

An optimistic start: your chances of being injured in a plane crash are about 1 in 11 million, or 0.00001%. For comparison, there is a 1 in 5,000 chance of dying in a car accident. This means that the most dangerous part of your entire route is driving to the airport. People are much more likely to die from food poisoning, snake bites, lightning strikes and falls while walking in the park than from flying, however, they eat and leave the house with a smile every day, but panic when buying a plane ticket.

Be Curious

Most of the fears are born out of simple ignorance of what will happen next. Why is the plane flying so fast? Why is the wing moving? Why did the flight attendant ask you to fasten your seat belts? When we find ourselves in unusual circumstances, our first instinct is to assume the worst. Studies show that 73% of people suffering from aerophobia are afraid of technical problems during the flight. To minimize these fears, try to learn as much as possible about the design of the aircraft and its operation. For example, the most elementary - why can he fly at all? He does this under the influence of four forces: gravity, aerodynamic drag, lift and thrust. As the pilots say: "A plane is happier in the air." Or this fact: at an altitude of 9000 meters, about 9000 kg presses on the door, so it is closed more than securely and cannot suddenly swing open.

Make friends with turbulence

We agree that when a "chatter" begins in the sky, it's unpleasant. But this does not mean at all that something threatens your life at this moment. Turbulence occurs due to the fact that ascending and downstreams air have different pressures. When the aircraft enters such zones, it begins to shake. Most often this happens while flying over mountains, ocean or sea. For an aircraft, turbulence is absolutely safe - it cannot cause harm to an aircraft. You can get hurt if for some reason you did not fasten your seat belts or your luggage fell on you.

Each aircraft is thoroughly checked

“And suddenly overlooked?” “And what is that patch on the wing?” Familiar questions? Planes regularly undergo a lot of procedures Maintenance and repair. Approximate ratio: 11 hours of checks for one hour of travel. This means that if your flight takes four hours, the plane was inspected for 44 hours to make sure everything was in order.

Learn to control anxiety

First, just because you are feeling anxious does not mean that you are in danger at that moment. In other words, you can shake like an aspen leaf and still be safe and sound. Secondly, people with aerophobia often refer to the fact that they are "used to being in control." But something tells us that a professional pilot keeps the situation in the sky under control much better than a panicked passenger. Thirdly, each person is able to learn how to regulate the release of adrenaline with simple exercises. First, try to determine which part of the body is fettered by fear. Face? Legs? Rook? For example, a feeling of nervous tension most often blocks our shoulders - the muscles become stiff. Take a deep breath, put your hand on your stomach and slowly lower your shoulders. Repeat 5-10 times. For the exercise to "work" in the sky, practice it on the ground for several months. Thus, by the time you fly, you will already have a serious “sedative”. Another express option: in moments of special excitement, squeeze your left wrist with force - mild pain will help you return to reality.

Unleash your imagination

A rich imagination is a "teaser" for aerophobes. Vivid pictures and possible scenarios for the development of events only increase fears. Tame your imagination and use it to your advantage, or, simply, occupy your head with extraneous thoughts. Think of a place where you feel happy. Where are you always calm? Cosy? Comfortable? Close your eyes and mentally transport yourself there. Focus on every detail. Another obvious option is to distract yourself with a book, a game app, or idle thoughts about “what you want to try for breakfast” or “what souvenir will you bring back from your trip.” Another form of "escape" from fears is a nonchalant conversation with a fellow traveler.

Choose the right flight and seat on the plane

There are a few things you can do ahead of time to help ease your jet lag. For example, try to fly direct flights to your destination - the less time you spend in the air, the better. It is most comfortable to book a seat in the wing area - this area of ​​​​the aircraft is the most stable and least prone to shaking. Other priorities include sitting in the aisle or by emergency exit, but not at the window (the temptation to check “if the wings are in place” every 5 minutes is too great). For some passengers, the feeling of anxiety intensifies in the dark, so daytime flights are still preferable for aerophobes.

Get comfortable

Flight comfort is a very important factor. Choose comfortable and practical clothes for travel that will not hinder movement or interfere with blood circulation. Favorite music generates positive emotions instead of negative ones.

Avoid news about plane crashes

Many aerophobes become obsessed with the topic air accidents, which exaggerate in the press. You don't need to be a psychologist to understand how this news affects the nervous system and cultivates experiences. Avoid the temptation to regularly "feed" your own fears. By the way, this rule applies to films and books about "terrible flights." Favorite series, glossy and entertainment publications work in contrast, with news about new details of the Jolie-Pitt family's divorce.