How to make fear of flying pack its bags
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW – SPECIAL REPORT – BUSINESS TRAVEL
The white-knuckle era is over. Miriam Hechtman describes new ways to overcome an all-too-common phobia. Hands clenched, white knuckles, sweaty palms, sudden heart palpitations and a sick feeling in the pit of the stomach – sound familiar? Travellers afraid of flying, but who still have to travel, have it tough. But help is at hand, ranging from hypnotists through to psychologists and simulation courses.
Hypnotherapist Julie Madden says the benefit of hypnosis “is you get to find what the underlying cause of the fear is. For the majority of people the fear is not actually the fear of flying, it comes from another experience.” Claustrophobia from a childhood experience, an upsetting previous flight, not being in control or the idea of being heavier than air are potential triggers.
During hypnosis, Madden says she lets clients access the feelings they have about flying and uses those feelings to bridge back to the original event so she can help change it. “Then they’re empowered over their fear and once you empower a person over their fear, the fear disappears.” After this she takes her clients through the coming journey under hypnosis – from packing their bags to arriving at their destination to returning home – making sure there are no feelings of fear.
Madden says the majority of her fearful flyers need to travel for business. For some “it’s not the flying that’s making them panic, it’s the thought of what they have to do when they get where they want to go.” This may include a fear of public speaking at a presentation or not knowing a foreign language and getting lost at the destination. People may be aware of both fears, but “when you’re afraid you don’t necessarily make a logical link between the two,” Madden says.
Fearless Flyers is an independent, non-profit association that runs courses to help conquer a fear of flying. Run by women pilots and supported by Qantas, the $900 course is offered across Australia and includes a short graduation flight on the last day. Fearless Flyers’ co-founder Glenda Philpott says the key to the program’s success is the behind-the-scenes knowledge participants are able to acquire. “They see more than private pilots do because they go up into the air traffic control tower at Sydney airport, they fly the simulators, they talk to various senior Qantas captains and deal with the weather from the Bureau of Meteorology.”
The course also includes a consultant psychologist, Alison Smith. She says fearful flyers can generally be divided into two groups of people, though some can unfortunately fit into both. In the first group there are those who are frightened of the mechanical failure of the plane which could ultimately lead to a crash. “These might be people who have a predisposition to anxiety and, for some reason, they have specifically attached that anxiety to planes,” Smith says.
Then there are those who are afraid of their reaction to being on a plane. For example, they might have a panic attack because they are claustrophobic or fear heights. “People who are frightened of their reaction to fear are usually people who have panic attacks, whether in the air or on the ground. But in the air is more frightening because people’s way of dealing with panic attacks or claustrophobia is often to get out of the situation. So being on a plane doesn’t permit the normal coping strategies.”
Smith says many of her clients are considering or have already refused promotion because taking it would entail flying. Prior to therapy, to combat the fear, many take pills or drink alcohol on the plane. “So when they arrive where they have to go they are in a terrible state and it takes them time to recover so they are nowhere near as effective as they might be in their business situation.”
The principles for treatment are fairly similar for both fear types, Smith says. “You have to look at the way people are thinking and then you have to give them skills to bring down their levels of agitation or arousal. And then they have to get on the plane,” she says. “It’s not what happens to us that makes us frightened but the way we think about it.” To deal with the fear, Smith says, you have to challenge that thinking and examine the thought to see if it’s realistic.
For those people fearing a mechanical failure, for example, they must inquire “what is the evidence that the plane will fall apart in turbulence, am I assuming the worst?” For those with multiple fears, each fear has to be individually examined on the ground and evidence provided that these things won’t happen, “or at least assist people to a realistic evaluation of their fears,” she says.
Smith also teaches clients deep breathing and relaxation exercises and guides them through visualisation strategies such as getting them to imagine being on the plane and feeling relaxed and coping with the situation. Boarding a plane is also part of the therapy and sometimes Smith joins clients for their first flight. “Talking about it only takes you so far. You have to do it to get over the fear.”
