Hi, my name is Purple and I am 10 years old. I just love science and want to become a scientist when I grow-up. I love scientific inventions and the way they made our life simpler. Lately I am getting scared of one of the greatest inventions ever i.e airplane. I am scared of air-travel. My mother tells me that its all in the mind and an imaginary fear. Is it possible to get ride of this?
So I do feel for you. I’m really terrified of flying too! Hate it. Don’t want to do it ever.
To me - it’s understandable to be scared of flying because on a very, very rare occasion it can be unsafe. So I don’t think it is an imaginary fear, I don’t think any really are imaginary. We are scared of what we are scared of.
BUT - it’s so important that you know that your fear of flying is something you can overcome. Because, while I personally think it’s ok to be scared of flying on some level, you need to make sure you know that the chance of you actually being hurt while flying are really really small, and so if you think about it - that should make you less scared. As scientists we should be able to read up and look at evidence that flying is safe, and then that should make us then go - ok! I have a huge amount of evidence that flying is safe, so I need to remember that when my fear starts to take over.
Saying that is easy, but in reality it’s sometimes very hard to do - particularly when you’re frightened. I’ve been there. Sometimes even my best attempts to logically override my fear when I’m flying don’t work, and I have to just sit there and try my hardest to calm down and get back to the state of : ‘Ok, this is fine, because science shows flying is safe’.
It sounds like I’m making this all up, but it’s really what I do when I’m on a flight and I’m scared; I remind myself that there is lots of evidence that flying is safe.
I knew that because I HAVE to fly for work, and to also travel everywhere I want to go, it just wasn’t an option for me to avoid flying (note: that’s not a good option for anyone who is afraid of something). So I knew I had to do something about it. I decided a good place to start was looking up how safe flying was. Result: it’s pretty darn safe compared to a lot of things I do every day. Then I looked up how turbulence is caused, because for me, this is the part of flying that really scares me. When I educated myself, I became more informed, and in turn this helped me try to see why I shouldn’t be scared of flying.
But reading about it and educating yourself is all a bit of ‘preparation’. I am not experienced in helping anyone with fears ( cognitivedefusion is probably a good person to ask about details), but for me personally - nothing overcomes my fear of flying like getting on a plane and flying. Seriously - it’s the best thing for me to do. I fly a lot - one year I was on 17 different flights, most of which were long haul flights. Before that year started, I was kind of dreading it. I had flown a lot before, but never on my own (and I was 24!), and here I was about to start making long flights across the ocean alone! How scary!
But really, that was all in my head, and I knew it. So I got on the planes, and flew the flights, and of course - nothing bad happened. Sure, when the plane got rocky, I was a bit worried, but I would think everyone on the plane was. It’s kind of normal to be scared of that surely? But the important part is that while the turbulence was happening, I sat and thought about all the information I had read about what turbulence is and why it happens and how it is safe, and I could say to myself - ok, it’s no big deal - and I wasn’t really scared. The more I flew, the easier it was to do this. And nowadays, I would still say I don’t particularly like flying, but certainly - I’m not afraid of it. The experience of flying over and over again and nothing bad happening just really shows that I shouldn’t be scared of it.
And finally, I want to tell you a personal story of mine that might potentially scare you. but for me it actually makes me less scared of flying. I was on a plane from the UK to the US when I was younger (maybe about 9 or 10). We were flying over the Atlantic, and suddenly the plane dropped pretty suddenly. Scary stuff, but the pilot came over the tannoy and said everything was ok, just a bit of turbulence. A few minutes later, he came back on and said that we were going to have to make an emergency landing, but there was nothing to worry about. Weird thing to say, but the plane felt fine and he was so calm that we all thought it was no big deal. We ended up landing in a US military base in the Azores, which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. When we landed, there were fire trucks waiting, and we were all told to get off the plane pretty sharpish.
Turns out - the plane was actually on fire. Like, full blown, fire going on. When we found that out, people were totally shocked, naturally. But as things quietened down and we bunked in at the military base, it dawned on everyone that hey - we were on a plane that was on FIRE, and we had no idea. The ride was so smooth, and the pilot was under control, and we landed safely.
The point of my long story is this: if a plane that is on fire can have time to find an island in the middle of the ocean to land on, land safely, and do it while the passengers aren’t really aware of what is happening, then these planes are way tougher than I gave them credit for. I was on a plane that was on fire and nothing bad actually happened, so it makes me a lot calmer flying on planes knowing that it takes quite a lot to take one down.
I know I might get some backlash from the professionals about my advice or story here, but it’s my personal advice and hopefully helpful in some way.
TL;DR : Flying is pretty safe, and educating yourself about flying, and exposing yourself to flying will help you overcome that fear!
