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From The Message Board: Two Posts About Events And Resultant Anxiety



    1. It seems that as soon as I'm sorta kinda getting a little less anxious about flying, I see news headlines like this.
    First the liquid bomb threat, then the Delta Comair crash in Kentucky, now this...



    2. I thought the same thing. Just when I start feeling better about flying, I hear stories like the ones we've seen recently, and it's like I take 10 steps backwards.



My comments:



Unfortunately, to try to feel safe, you seem to be grasping at straws. That may seem strange to say, but the straw you seem to be grasping at, in an effort to stay emotionally afloat, is total safety. Flying is amazingly safe, but not totally safe. Nothing is.



When there is no accident for long enough, anxious fliers forget that nothing is totally safe. So when there is an accident, it snaps them -- rudely -- back to reality. But reality, the reality that nothing is totally safe, causes anxiety.



Since total safety doesn't exist, the only answer for anxiety is to learn to deal with the fact that one flight in millions does get into trouble. It is one thing to deal with it rationally, but a very different thing to learn to deal with it emotionally, to be able to hear about an accident and not have it not throw you.



That requires strength built inside to deal with the reality that there is no absolute control and there there is no absolute safety, on the ground or in the air.



In sailing, a boat with a heavy lead keel can sail comfortably in wind that would capsize a boat with only an unweighted centerboard. Similarly, a person whose early experiences failed to provide the equivalent of a heavy keel, does not have the ability to deal with uncertainty and stormy elements of reality without being upset.



Developing flight anxiety has nothing to do with shame. When I was a kid, it wasn't unusual for a classmate to get head lice. When one child got lice, other children got lice. If someone teased the child who got blamed for starting the outbreak, our teacher said, 'It is NOT a shame to get head lice; it is only a shame to KEEP them.'



I think that fits flight anxiety. It is not a shame to develop flight anxiety, but it is a shame to keep it. When one keeps it, it only means they don't have the strength to do what is necessary to end the problem.



Often people don't end the problem because they are afraid that if they lose the fear, they will end up in an air disaster; they think the fear is protecting them from doing something they should not do.



You face risks far, far, far, far greater than that every day, but since you are on the ground, and perhaps believe you are in control, the risk isn't even on your radar screen.



Accidents, rarely (when considering the millions of flights) will happen. Flying is still safer than staying home and doing your usual routine (a 5.4 mile drive in your car carries the same risk of fatality as a flight from New York to Tokyo).



This problem -- like the other (disgusting) problem I mentioned -- does not go away. Having it is not a shame; keeping it is. And there is no way out of anxiety other than getting help for it.



Get 'Control of Anxiety' at http://www.fearofflying.com/store.shtml.



Anything less, and you will always be suffering when reminded that one flight in millions has a problem.



Two other points:



    1. Unless you are flying in Brazil, this has NOTHING to do with you (except to shatter the illusion that kept you comfortable for a while).



    2. The liquid bomb threat was a hoax.



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This Week' Hopefully Inspirational Email



Capt Tom,



I'm back from Vegas, trying to recover! It was another great trip that I don't think I would have been able to take if it wasn't for SOAR. I flew out of CMH and it was raining. I met both the pilots and they said it was a great day for flying. They told me there would be some bumps going through the clouds but that was no big deal. We took off and I felt no anxiety. We made it through the clouds and had blue skies all the way to Vegas. I looked out of the window, 40,000 feet up in the air, down at the ground and felt no anxiety.



On the way home, I got to meet the co-pilot. He too was very confident and assured me that turbulence was not a problem. He said there would be some bumps on takeoff b/c of the hot air & mountains but to think of it as sitting in a boat on water moving up and down. The takeoff was a little bumpy but I was fine. I too felt great on the plane this time and only have anxiety of around a 1.



I was nervous that maybe the second time around the program wouldn't work as good but this trip was better than the first trip I took after completing SOAR. I feel confident that I will continue being more comfortable as I continue to fly. Two years I ago, cancelled a trip to Vegas because of my anxiety. It was nice to be able to overcome this fear and once again have fun in my favorite city!!



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This week in Patrick's 'Ask The Pilot' Column At Salon.com



  • a pointless micro-managing agency
  • a dim-witted bureaucracy


Those are the gentle things Patrick has to say about the TSA.



To read the full story, click here:


http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2006/09/29/askthepilot203/.


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