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Originally Posted by yellowmac
Sure, I get a bit anxious and nervous in the days and hours leading up to a flight. But it's usually nothing paralyzing.
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Weird thing is, I don't have any fear during the days/hours before the flight. No fear at all. It's only when I'm finally on the plane, and once the plane is accelerating into lift-off, that I start to feel the anxiety.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by yellowmac
Just being calm, trying to focus my attention on something else while flying, or just telling myself that thousands and thousands of flights happen every single day without any incident does the trick.
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And yeah, I do that too, over and over again until the flight stabilizes at 30,000 ft, and then I'm relaxed until the landing. But I never used to have to do this. I never even thought about that crap... just loved flying, period.
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Originally Posted by yellowmac
I think it's really more of something you have to get used to, and it's something you get over very quickly the more you have to fly. Not many business travelers have fears of flying, after all.
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Well, again, that's why it's so weird for me. I have been flying for my entire life--not a year has gone by when I have not been on an airplane at least a couple of times, and usually it's more like 6-10 long-distance flights a year. So it's definitely not anything new--and yet, I am less used to it now than I used to be.
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Originally Posted by Halx
Its funny that the older I get, the less confident in flying I get. I look at my dad and how he is too afraid to fly - he won't come out to see me in New York. I wonder if I'll ever get to that point. I used to be solid. Now, I get a little wary when landing. Its not nearly as bad as other people have it, and it doesn't even hit until the last part of the flight, but I never used to care. Landing used to be my second favorite part.
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Right, this is exactly what I am talking about. The older I am, the more I see that a mechanical failure could happen at any time, and the more anxious I feel. Again, it's nothing like a paralyzing fear that I see in some of my relatives (who have to take sleeping pills to "survive" a flight), but it's more fear than I am used to feeling. I never used to think about dying so much--but it occupies my thoughts pretty often these days.
It unnerves me that I feel this way about something that used to come so easily to me.