Fear Of Flying Is A Very Common Phobia

It is said that fear of flying is very widespread, with perhaps as many as 1 in 5 people suffering to some extent, from those who have never flown to those who used to fly confidently until they unwittingly developed fear. Through the years we have been able to help many people overcome their 'flying fear', or 'flying phobia' and, most usually this has been accomplished with just one to three hours of straightforward work. Quite often one session suffices.

What will you do to cure my fear of flying?

What people describe as their 'fear of flying', or 'phobia of flying' will vary greatly, so the techniques we use to help you will match your particular circumstances. Essentially, we utilise a combination of NLP and hypnotherapy, the techniques we have found to be the fastest, easiest and most effective. The NLP Fast Phobia Cure, invented by Dr Richard Bandler, is often the most effective technique to help you get rid of your fear of flying for good, but it is not the only thing that we do. Sometimes, simple direct suggestion delivered with hypnosis to stop the flying fear, delivered comfortably in hypnotic trance works perfectly.

More often that not, a combination of approaches will help you the best.

What is Fear Of Flying (Flying Phobia)?

Fear of flying is simply a learned response. The only fear a baby is born with is that of loud noises. How you learned your fear of flying is totally irrelevant in terms of curing the 'fear' response. At some point you simply got very scared about flying. Maybe there was a lot of turbulence during a flight, maybe the plane spent ages flying in a holding pattern above an airport waiting for permission to land and you began to wonder how much fuel was left; perhaps you saw pictures of an airline crash on television, or in a newspaper. Many people don't even remember how the flying phobia started.

However, like we say, it doesn't matter how the fear started, it can be cured anyway.

How many people have you helped get over their Flying Phobia?

We haven't counted but it must literally be hundreds. The only fear/phobia that we have helped more with is fear of public speaking. We have seen a huge variety of people over the years, from those that had been involved in plane crashes where people were killed, those who had been flying when an engine caught fire, those that had been on a plane that crashed on landing, to those who had never flown anywhere because the thought of it just terrified them.

We have even successfully treated airline pilots and fighter pilots for this

Last year we even saw a senior airline pilot with a major international airline (he flew 747's and also trained others to do so) who had developed fear while flying - not a good thing for an airline pilot. His fear, however, was restricted to those times when he had nothing to do for hours on end as the plane was flying across oceans on autopilot. He is perfectly OK now.

Previously we also helped someone who had been a fighter pilot and had been qualified to fly virtually anything with wings (or rotor blades). He was the flying equivalent of a nervous passenger in a car, loved flying, hated sitting in a passenger plane and not being in control.

Categories of Fear of Flying

Most commonly people simply imagine something disastrous is going to happen to the plane while taking off, flying or landing.

Sometimes people have fear of confined spaces (claustrophobia) as well which just compounds the fear of flying.

Often, it is the fact that they are not 'in control' of the situation.

When people have more than one fear, such as falling, claustrophobia, losing control etc they are sometimes said to have what is called a 'complex' phobia, rather than a simple phobia such as spiders, snakes, mice etc.

In our experience a so-called 'complex' phobia is just as treatable as a simple one.

Symptoms of Fear of Flying

What virtually everyone with this fear has in common is that they imagine feeling scared ahead of time. Those with these fears who do fly (and there are many who fly despite being extremely anxious) will often use sedatives or alcohol in the hopes of controlling their thoughts and feelings.

Many will have sleepless nights thinking about an impending flight, sometimes months ahead.

Any or all of the symptoms of high anxiety may be experienced, such as sweating, tightness of chest, hyperventilation, dizziness, nausea and so forth.

Fear of the fear is common, being scared because you are imagining being scared.

Fear of Flying - Coping Strategies

Some will teach you that breathing techniques can be used to help control the fear, eating well before the flight, avoiding caffeine and sugar and alcohol, having plenty to distract you while flying (magazines, books, music etc. 

Whilst these tips may well help some people some of the time, they are of absolutely no use to someone with a full-blown phobia, and in our opinion, only of limited use to those with a less overwhelming fear or anxiety.

How long will it take you to cure my fear of flying?

By using this combination of hypnotherapy and NLP we expect to cure the fear of flying, on average, in 1 - 3 hour-long sessions