If you suffer from fear of flying, first assess the level of your fear by taking the FFS on item A of the main menu.

You can now categorize yourself based on this and the following information:

If your fear of flying is part of another fear syndrome such as AGORAPHOBIA (the fear of leaving home, or the fear of crowds) you will profit from relaxation training and the program offered in the HOME STUDY COURSE below, but it would be advisable to overcome the agoraphobia first because you will not be able to overcome two fears at the same time. In other words, overcome your fears on the ground before you attempt to overcome your fears in the air. True panic attacks is another problem best treated first before you assault the flying fear. This can best be handled with a combination of medication and behavior therapy. Behavior therapy has been shown to be most effective with these fears. With my patients we save the assault on the fear of flying as the "graduation" in the course of eliminating fears.

If fear of flying is your only fear, then there is a choice you can make. If you do not live near a major city where established fear of flying programs exist, you should consider as a first attempt getting the HOME STUDY COURSE. The ordering particulars are at the end of this section. The course is based on 25 years of experience dealing with the problem and is the same as taught at our Boston facility. Over 10,000 home study courses and 55,000 books have been sold over the years and it has been totally successful in approximately 65% of the cases and partially in another 18%. Understand that practicing relaxation and going through any course which teaches coping with fear will make you feel more in control and not helpless to face the anxiety.

If you have never flown and are fearful, my experience has been that you are the easiest to treat because you did not develop the fear while flying. You have no traumas conditioned to the airplane. Your problems are to deal with anticipations not founded on actual experience. Once the novelty anxiety is overcome with the assistance of the Fearless Flying program, you will have the tools to relax on the plane. Flying will be fun for you.

If you are flying and are apprehensive while you fly, you will do well with learning coping skills as taught in the HOME STUDY COURSE. Not knowing what to do when anxiety builds is a major contributor to developing a phobia. What most pre-phobics do is to "stonewall" the anxiety and push themselves onto the plane or criticize themselves for having the fear. Some try to quiet their nerves with alcohol. None of these maneuvers work. At the basis of every fear of flying is the sense of loss of control. This may manifest itself in the fear of having an anxiety attack (loss of self control) or fear of the plane crashing (loss of control projected into the plane itself). The latter may manifest itself as doubts about the mechanics or the pilots. If you are in this group, my experience has shown that overcoming the fear is not a complex problem. The Fearless Flying home course will show you techniques to relieve the anxiety such as bouncing to the tune "jingle bells" when you encounter turbulence as well as instructing you that turbulence is not dangerous even though it might feel that way to an anxious person. In fact the nervous person does all the wrong things such as "white knuckling" and freezing in a fixed posture in turbulence. This allows every vibration in the plane to be transmitted to the body as well as locking the chest against breathing.

If you are phobic and cannot get on a plane or haven’t been on a plane for 5 or more years, then it is advisable to 1) learn about the fear of flying in the Fearless Flying home study course (Item C), then if you continue with the problem, 2) seek out a private psychologist, preferably one with experience treating flight phobics. You can select item E on the main menu to find an established flying program near you. Some of my former clients gave the home study course to their therapist and then worked together on the problem successfully.

Particulars about ordering the FEARLESS FLYING HOME STUDY COURSE:

OVERCOME THE FEAR OF FLYING AT HOME