Aerophobia is the fear of moving on any type of aircraft. The considered type of uncontrolled fear can be a separate phobia or be a manifestation of other phobias, for example, fear of enclosed spaces (claustrophobia) or fear of heights (acrophobia).
Aerophobia is primarily considered a symptom, not an ailment. Fear of flying usually attracts more attention than other types of uncontrolled fears due to the need to use air transport due to the requirements of labor activity and their speed. It is believed that aerophobia occurs after overcoming the twenty-five year milestone. Approximately 15% of active adults are affected by this type of phobia.
What is aerophobia?
Fear is a natural psychophysiological response that is designed to help mobilize the internal resources of the human body in the event of an unsafe or unusual situation. If this reaction occurs due to the presence of a certain hazard, then such a condition is considered the norm.
A phobia arises in the presence of a hyperbolic manifestation of fear reactions to a specific stimulus. A phobia is considered to be a strongly expressed obsessive fear, which invariably escalates under certain conditions. Such fear is not a logical explanation. Due to the formation of a phobic disorder, the individual begins to be afraid of fear and avoid certain situations, circumstances, objects or activities.
What is aerophobia? With the development of airspace and the emergence of the ability to quickly and in comfortable conditions to move through the air, a new kind of irrational fear arose - aerophobia. Many human subjects suffer from the disorder in question. This makes them not free to prefer modes of transport, less mobile. The described phobia closes many opportunities for people. They cannot travel freely, choose work related to business trips.
Aerophobes will not be able to see many distant, but no less beautiful points of the globe. In other words, the described type of phobia prevents individuals from living fully. At the same time, most subjects are convinced that it is impossible to overcome their own irrational fear, therefore they forever close the possibility of quickly moving through air transport. Only a few ask: how to get rid of aerophobia?
You can defeat this type of phobic disorder if you make a fair amount of effort. Among the well-known phobias, fear of flying - aerophobia is considered quite common. Two types of aerophobia can be classified.
The first is natural agitation before moving through an airplane. This is a natural manifestation of the instinct of self-preservation . The second is a pronounced pathological anxiety . When the severity of fear, its frequency and duration exceeds any limits of the conventional norm, when the fear of flying is irrational and intrusive, then we can assume the presence of a phobic disorder. With such fear, the individual loses the opportunity to reason soberly, logically assess the situation, adequately perceive what is happening.
In the presence of aerophobia, a person will not just refuse to move through air transport, but will not even approach the runway. If such an individual still has to use non-ground transportation, then in a state of waiting for a trip for several days he will have emotional and somatic manifestations of anxiety.
The availability of information, as well as the coverage of any events on the world wide web and on a blue screen, provokes the emergence of fear in the human mind . Seeing how many few air crashes bring death, people subconsciously associate air transport with danger, not realizing that much less human subjects die in air crashes than in accidents involving land transport.
Previously, there was a ban on coverage of negative events from blue screens and the dissemination of this information. After all, the less you know, the stronger the dream. Previously, people were not aware of all the plane accidents and their many casualties. That is why aerophobia acquired its scale only recently. However, the reasons for the origin of the variety of phobias under consideration are often not only the general availability of information about incidents.
How to overcome aerophobia? In order to get rid of this misfortune forever, it is necessary, first of all, to identify the root cause of its origin. Maybe there is another kind of irrational fear, and aerophobia is only its symptom.
It is believed that any manifestation of an obsessive uncontrolled and unexplained logical fear is a sign of emotional instability, a tendency to panic states, the result of stress and depression .
The reasons for the emergence of aerophobia must be considered in each case of occurrence separately, since some fear a technical malfunction of the aircraft, which will inevitably lead to disaster, others - natural disasters, and others - the human factor.
In addition, the considered type of irrational fears can be based on fears of manifestations of your body and inability to overcome them, fear of losing control of your own reactions, fear of lack of qualified timely medical care.
Aerophobia how to get rid? Forums often discuss this issue. Doctors, after conducting numerous studies, were convinced that irrational fear was not due to the instinct of self-preservation. Indeed, often the passenger, while on the plane, does not reflect on what is happening at the moment, but builds in his own head a chain of negative events that will certainly provoke a plane crash. This kind of fear is considered absolutely irrational, as it is posed by its imaginary threats. Therefore, in order to overcome aerophobia, one should dispel the fears of a person and assure him of the absolute reliability of the chosen type of movement.
Noteworthy is the fact that established that the fears of the daughters of Eve and the strong part of the population are different. The former are convinced that it is this particular aircraft that will crash with them, while the latter, on the contrary, trust technology, but their concern is not the controllability of the situation. In other words, men feel anxiety when circumstances or a situation are beyond their control. Emotional manifestations in the weak half are more pronounced and are found in hysterical crying, screaming. The sons of Adam behave more restrained, hiding the fear of aerophobia inside.
Causes of Aerophobia
The modern high-speed pace of life makes it necessary to use the fastest means of transportation for travel - air travel. The invention of aircraft provided many previously inaccessible to humanity opportunities. Airplanes give you the opportunity to visit the most extreme places on the planet, explore the most unexplored corners of the globe, comfortably and quickly move between continents. Air travel makes human existence as convenient and mobile as possible. That is why more and more people want to figure out how to get rid of aerophobia?
For this purpose, first of all, it is necessary to determine the factors that gave rise to the described aerophobia. It is believed that the etiology of aerophobia is individual, but the general causes presented below can be highlighted. In the first turn, it is necessary to single out the traumatic incident as the main factor provoking the emergence of irrational fear. Often a frightening or very intense event is fertile ground for the emergence of aerophobia. A traumatic incident may not have a connecting component with the way of moving through airplanes, but it will become the basis for the appearance of an inexplicable fear of air travel, due to the fact that the human brain, for only known reasons, linked stressful events to flights.
The next reason for aerophobia is associated negative experience, due to the influence of the immediate environment on the development of this kind of fear. In other words, the individual himself does not feel fear of air travel, but close people help him to shape it. Sometimes the described aerophobia can occur as a result of watching a movie related to an airplane crash, especially if the tape is based on events that took place in reality.
An acute panic attack of uncontrolled fear can occur as a result of the accumulation over time of a small fear of flying.
Psychologists concluded that the accumulation by the subject of "scary" associations associated with air flights, speaks of the use of fear by the nervous system and intellect as a useful emotion .
In addition to the listed reasons, aerophobia can arise from other irrational fears, namely:
- fears of an enclosed space, and the cabin of the aircraft is precisely a limited space;
- fear of heights ;
- feelings of lack of control;
- Fears of uncontrolled reactions of the body (for example, motion sickness can provoke vomiting, which complicates the flight);
- fears of panic attacks under certain conditions, when it is impossible to avoid them;
- Fear of the seizure of transport by terrorists;
- fear of turbulence;
- fear of night flights;
- Fears of death due to injury.
Signs of Aerophobia
One can speak of an irrational fear of air travel in the presence of several typical symptoms. For example, if a subject, while on a plane, cannot calm down, relax, invariably listens to the slightest changes in the engine hum, trying to identify problems by ear, if his heart slows down from any jolting, and turbulence is a fierce test, then it is possible with 80% to assert with confidence that a phobia is developing.
Individuals with an unexplained fear of traveling on an aircraft often complain of a persistent obsessive fear of flying. Most aerophobes report marked anxiety associated with waiting for air travel. Fear often arises 2-3 days before the flight, but can also be detected a month before the trip. Such fear is invariably accompanied by machine thoughts about flight insecurity. The imagination of individuals paints terrible pictures of the crash of aircraft.
Individual aerophobes may have a steady need to read various articles on air crashes, study statistics on air crashes, and look for any information related to air traffic safety.
Symptoms of aerophobia as they approach the departure date become more pronounced. Thinking about flying, being on the landing pad and landing directly in the aircraft - all this provokes an increase in heartbeat, shortness of breath, increased blood pressure, vomiting, diarrhea, increased sweating, muscle tension, weakness in the limbs, dizziness, disorientation and other symptoms .
Due to the pronounced severity of manifestations, aerophobes fear for their own well-being. Individuals are not only afraid of flying, but also fear of losing consciousness or dying as a result of a heart attack. Often, the symptoms of aerophobia reach their peak during landing, directly during air travel and getting into turbulent zones.
Individuals suffering from aerophobia, as a rule, completely abandon air travel, as a result of which their lives become limited, as certain professions become inaccessible to them, most resorts are prohibited for them, they can not visit relatives living on another continent. Some patients continue to travel on aircraft, being flooded with a fair amount of alcohol or taking a huge dose of sleeping pills.
The problem of aerophobia is especially significant for individuals who are forced to make permanent flights by the nature of professional employment. Anxiety becomes an invariable companion of such people, which adversely affects labor and social activities, as well as life in general. Staying in fear provokes the onset of depression. Sometimes it may be dependent on alcohol-containing liquids or sleeping pills. Aerophobia can also cause low self-esteem .
Aerophobia how to get rid?
In order to get rid of this kind of phobia, one should realize that any uncontrolled fear is an imposed thought about the negative events of the future to oneself. In addition to this, it is also necessary to understand what exactly concerns anxiety and where fear debuts. For example, if the rudiments of fear arise on the runway, then you should understand what caused it. Maybe a man was once scared by the wrong, as it seemed to him, noise from the engine, inadequate behavior of stewardesses, repeated attempts to land the plane, turbulence.
Aerophobia can be treated in four ways. First of all, pharmacopeia - sedatives and antidepressants are used for therapy. With the severity of symptoms (fainting, tantrums ), the appointment of more serious groups of drugs - tranquilizers (psychotropics aimed at eliminating anxiety, fear) is recommended.
Cognitive psychotherapy methods are often used, consisting in repeatedly immersing the patient under the tireless supervision of a therapist in the atmosphere of an air flight. An individual has to endure takeoffs and landings countless times while developing relaxation skills. The number of sessions is determined by the result. Simply put, an aerophobe is immersed in a state that occurs during air travel, until the association of air travel with a state of relaxation and rest is fixed on the unconscious tier. The technique under consideration allows us to fix the relationship of air travel with pacification, rather than anxiety and panic . In order to achieve the described result, therapists often use virtual reality stimulants and other innovative technologies.
The treatment of aerophobia involves the use of neuro-linguistics techniques - the borderline branch of linguistics, psychological science and neurology. She studies the brain regulation of speech activity, as well as modifications that arise in the processes of speech with local brain lesions.
In addition to the methods listed, hypnotechists often practice. Hypnosis helps identify the etiological factor of a phobic disorder. It also contributes to defining an aerophobia control strategy. During the session, the hypnologist reassures the individual by introducing his state of relaxation. Then asks questions. Thus, the treatment of aerophobia involves the training of subjects suffering from an uncontrolled fear of flights, relaxation skills and control of their personal psychosomatic condition.
How to cope with aerophobia? The following are a few recommendations to help cope with excessive anxiety and uncontrolled fear on board an airplane, if it covers an irrational fear. First of all, you should take a comfortable position and try to relax. To do this, you can turn on light musical compositions, put on a special blindfold on your eyes. In addition, proper slow breathing will help to calm down, when the inhalation is slightly shorter than the exhalation. Breathing is recommended under the bill. Concentration on this action contributes to the disappearance of feelings of anxiety. If the noise of the turbines scares, then you can use headphones.
It is also recommended to have an easy conversation with a fellow traveler, to set yourself up for a positive wave, for example, by imagining how much fun and sweet moments await upon reaching your destination.
The main thing is to learn to recognize the approaching panic at the stage of an early debut, in order to have time to deal with it. It is not recommended to ignore negative emotions. Own anxiety must be accepted. Also during the flight, you can eat something tasty. Sweet increases the concentration of endorphins, affecting the emotional mood.
In addition, before air travel, you should not watch the news, study articles where events related to the crash of airplanes and deaths can be covered.
