How to Deal With a Fear of Flying
May 31, 2005 -- -- During the first four weeks of gestation of the human embryo, a set of fishlike gill slits grows and then disappears - a controversial legacy, science tells us, of a time when a more simple version of our DNA was adapted to life in the oceans.
So, obviously, we were meant to swim.
Nowhere during that gestation sequence, however, is there even the slightest evidence that we also grow a temporary set of wings. In other words, for too many of us, that perversely confirms the old adage that if humans were meant to fly we would indeed have come equipped with a way to ride the wind without having to buy an airline ticket.
Frankly, even we pilots will acknowledge that our species isn't naturally adapted to hurtle through the stratosphere at insane speeds. That's why, unlike birds, we carry oxygen with us at high altitudes and pay so much attention to flight safety and checklists and emergency training and check rides. Couple all that with the basic aerodynamic complexities required for engine-powered, heavier-than-air flight, and it's understandable why some might consider the act of sealing yourself inside a large metallic tube with wings and engines along with several hundred other humans the rough equivalent of Russian roulette.
It's not, but that's not the point. The fact of being fearful while in the air forms its own reality, and it can be tough to deal with.
Aviaphobia is the technical term for fear of flying, and if you're afflicted by it to any degree, you're in the company of at least 20 million other occupants of the North American continent. Some are just vaguely nervous about sounds and motions of the aircraft that are little understood and seldom explained. Some, however, are virtually terrified, gripping the armrests with white knuckles and spending the airborne hours fighting the very disturbing expectation that, statistics aside, they won't survive the experience.
The reason this is such a serious problem for so many really comes from our lifestyle as North Americans. In fact, our continent is very big, our railroad service is very spotty and regional, and getting from coast to coast by car, train, skateboard or walking is simply incompatible with the pace of business or even the average family's holiday plans. This doesn't even include emergency trips across a thousand or so miles of America, weddings, funerals, and flying over the rivers and woods to reach grandma's house. If you have six days off, spending five-and-a-half driving to and from your destination in order to avoid flying just doesn't work, and if we've become anything coherent as 21st century Americans, we've become a nation of geographically scattered brothers, sisters, parents and kids.
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