New strategies for fear of flying
— -- On the one hand, commercial aviation remains the safest mode of transportation in this country. Yet millions of people—perhaps about 15% of the population, according to a recent poll—remain afraid to board an airplane.
When I last wrote about this topic in 2004, 9/11 was still fresh in many travelers' minds. I detailed a variety of remedies, ranging from self-help courses to books and videos. And of course I provided statistical evidence in an appeal to logic. But I may not have adequately addressed just how real such fears can be to those who suffer from aerophobia.
Like many others who have urged their fellow travelers to book a flight, I've come to see that logic is not enough to assuage such very real concerns.
Confronting demons
Recently I was given the opportunity to immerse myself in a hands-on fear of flying program sponsored by The Phobia and Trauma Clinic at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. (Disclosure: I teach writing classes at Hofstra but have no connection to the Psychology Department, which runs the clinic.) Once they enter this program, those who experience trepidation every time they're scheduled to fly are forced to confront their deepest and darkest feelings head-on, no matter how gruesome. "We address their fears in a very direct way," explains Dr. Mitchell Schare, a Psychology professor and the director of the clinic.
Although I've spent much of my adult life involved in aviation and don't fear flying in the least, I still learned quite a bit from the experience, particularly when I strapped in for a virtual reality "trip" that took me through an imaginary airport, onto an imaginary jet bridge, and finally into the cabin of an imaginary commercial aircraft. As my "flight" encountered severe turbulence, my senses were assaulted by the sight of flashing cabin lights, the sound of whining jet engines, the feel of a shaking seat, and even the smell of a stuffy cabin. For those who exhibit signs of terror, sensors monitor their most critical reactions.
In discussing the program with its administrators, one of the first things I learned is that the "fear" of flying may in fact be comprised of separate and distinct fears, including fear of heights, fear of loss of control, fear of losing one's balance, and fear of death itself, in addition to claustrophobia, panic disorders and social phobias. Many travelers suffer from two or more of these conditions at once, so an effective diagnosis is critical.
After witnessing the clinic's treatment methods, what became apparent to me is that each of these fears is quite real, and none are easily allayed by reason or statistics. In other words, you can spout the data ad nauseam: Boeing, for example, asserts that flying commercially in the United States is 22 times safer than driving, and there's an entire cottage industry of statisticians happy to amplify and clarify such numbers. But the bottom line is that many of those who are afraid to fly simply can't absorb the logic, because as one administrator noted, "Thoughts are thoughts and emotions are emotions."
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