Fear of traveling by airplane or turbulence on a plane causes people to feel intense anxiety and significantly affects their lives. In order to cope with the fear of airplanes, it is pointed out that it is important to divert attention with methods such as listening to music, reading books or watching movies. With Virtual Reality Therapy, which is used in the treatment of airplane phobia, desensitization is achieved gradually and the person confronts his/her fears.
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Specialist Clinical Psychologist Cemre Ece Gökpınar Çağlı from Üsküdar University NPISTANBUL Hospital gave important information about fear of flying, treatment methods and ways to cope.
Çağlı defined phobia as "excessive pressure against a certain object, situation and event, anxiety, anxiety and fear at a level that disrupts our functionality outside of normal".
Phobias severely limit life
Çağlı stated that airplane phobia can be characterized as the high anxiety that a person feels at the moment he/she is in the airplane, sometimes even before going to the airport, from the moment the day of the flight is planned, and said, "It is important for us that this situation goes beyond fear. We all have fears. In general, we can see many people who are afraid of airplanes. Although data and statistics show that airplane travel is a very safe type of travel, there are situations where all of us are afraid or afraid of these flights from time to time. The important point here is; when does this fear and anxiety interfere with our functioning? We need to go somewhere abroad, we have a very important business trip or we need to visit our relatives. At the point where we are afraid to get on the plane, or even when we cannot get on the plane, or when we get on the plane, but at the point where we have a very serious problem in the plane, this situation can mean phobia for us."
The logic of the person goes out of the circuit
Stating that we may have fears that we can allay with some logical explanations, Specialist Clinical Psychologist Cemre Ece Gökpınar Çağlı said, "The plane is a safe means of travel. We see that there is a much higher risk of accidents, injuries and deaths in road transportation. We see that there is no such situation on the plane, but at that moment, our emotional, anxious side makes us feel that the airplane journey, that scenario will definitely end badly. At that moment, the person's logic can go out of the circuit and all those logical explanations and statistical data disappear in an instant. Anxiety becomes completely dominant," he said.
Actually afraid of "fear"
"The person is actually afraid of fear, worried about anxiety," said Çağlı, "What if I get scared or something happens? In fact, we start this anxiety not during the event, but before. This anxiety starts on the way to the airport. It increases more during the procedures there and at the last point, when the person gets on the plane, they are ready to fly. When the plane is ready to take off, that anxiety becomes unmanageable. Especially the most common points we come across are the fears experienced during take-off, landing and turbulence. Individuals can travel more calmly when the plane is cruising; when there is no vibration, descent or ascent, when there is no change in the engine sound."
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Similar concerns about turbulence
Stating that similar concerns are experienced in turbulence, Çağlı said, "In fact, it is known and said that airplanes are very resistant to turbulence and do not pose a serious accident risk. But at that point, the person may feel an extra anxiety and panic attack with the thought that control is lost or that something may happen to him/her. In such cases, announcements can often serve as a warning in this sense. People sometimes refuse to watch movies or listen to music to hear these announcements. This is an important thing, but it can cause the person to pay too much attention to any sound changes that may occur on the plane."
How can we relax ourselves on the plane?
Cemre Ece Gökpınar Çağlı said that it is possible to cope with fear or anxiety that may arise during air travel with some methods. Çağlı gave the following advice:
"For example, what can be done on a one-hour flight? Maybe reading something, doing other things that will take our attention focus away from that anxiety, watching a movie, dividing the flight time, that is, planning. For example, I read a book in the first 15 minutes, then I have a snack. Dividing the travel time, such as watching a movie afterwards, can be useful in terms of making the person feel that they have overcome the times they have set."
Share your anxiety with the flight crew
Cemre Ece Gökpınar Çağlı stated that it may also be useful to share this anxiety with the flight crew before boarding the plane and said, "Knowing that you can get support in case of any difficulties and observing their behavior can relax the person. Let's say there was an unexpected turbulence. In this case, after taking the necessary precautions with the warnings of the flight crew, it is important to try to control our breathing and bodily reactions at that point. Instead of conditioning ourselves, it may be to maintain a controlled and slow breathing as we do when we feel good and comfortable. It can be effective to change the focus of attention at that moment and take care of something else. Imagining ourselves in a place where we feel good or listening to relaxing music can relax the person."
Professional support should be sought
Noting that professional support should be sought in cases where the person cannot cope with his/her fear despite all these methods, Çağlı said, "Getting expert support is one of the points we recommend. First of all, a psychotherapy process is valid. In phobias and especially in flight phobia, there is a type of therapy that we call cognitive behavioral therapy, which we do for both the cognitions and behaviors of the person. It is a treatment and therapy method that has proven to be very effective especially in anxiety disorders and phobias."
Fear of flying can be overcome with virtual reality method
Noting that in these therapies, some situations that challenge the specialist may arise from time to time, and that this is overcome with virtual reality therapy, Çağlı said the following:
"We had difficulty getting the feared situation and object into the session room. The best example of this is flight phobia. It was difficult to get on an airplane with the person during therapy and provide that gradual desensitization, but we now have a solution for this, Virtual Reality Therapy. Virtual reality, which we use in psychotherapy sessions, is a therapy method in which we gradually prepare the person for the flight by changing many variables such as the scene in which the person gradually goes from home to the airport, the moment of ticket transactions at the airport, boarding the plane, the moment the plane takes off, the turbulence of the plane, whether it is rainy or clear weather, whether it is a day flight or a night flight, whether he sits in the aisle seat or by the window, and we gradually prepare the person for the flight and enable him to face his anxiety at that time. It is a method that we find useful in treatment. The reason is that the person actually learns how to cope with anxiety at that moment without running away from it. At the point where we face the anxiety, we actually learn not to worry about that anxiety. Because for us, it is the unknown things or bad scenarios that lead to avoidance. When we face anxiety, when we recognize it, recognize it and learn how to move forward with it, how to manage it, it is no longer a situation to be feared."
Specialist Clinical Psychologist Cemre Ece Gökpınar Çağlı stated that there are other phobias accompanying airplane phobia and said, "Closed space. Sometimes in airplanes with narrower seat spaces, the person struggles with the distress of staying in a confined space. Fear of heights. As soon as the airplane reaches a very serious height, the person may feel the same discomfort. Some people experience anxiety about who will intervene if something happens to them on the plane, and may experience helplessness and feeling bad about themselves. We can handle them one by one," he said.
Çağlı stated that in some cases, psychiatry referrals and pharmacology treatments can be applied simultaneously with therapy.
