Can I get anxiety medication for flying?

Medications for flight anxiety, like SSRIs and SNRIs, can help manage symptoms in addition to other treatments, like exposure therapy and CBT. Some medications can also help you with upsetting and sudden symptoms, including episodes of panic. It's best to talk with a doctor about your options for flight anxiety.



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Pharmacological treatment Medication is sometimes prescribed on a temporary basis to treat the symptoms of a flying phobia, such as anxiety and nausea. These drugs are usually taken shortly before a flight. They include: Anti-anxiety medication, such as diazepam (Valium) or alprazolam (Xanax).

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Xanax is one of the more commonly prescribed benzodiazepines to help with anxiety before medical procedures or long-haul flights.

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Seeking a prescription to sedative medication and having them available in-flight can help you relax, even if you don't end up taking it. You should not try to cope alone with a panic disorder and related fear of flying. Even a couple sessions with a therapist can give you tools to make flying more comfortable.

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For example, deep breathing or meditation during take-off, landing or turbulence can reduce your symptoms of anxiety. You can also learn to “talk back” to negative thoughts about flying when they arise.

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Try holding your breath and then breathing deeply, or better still, force yourself to breathe out for as long as you can and then take a long, deep breath. Seif and Farchione both recommended taking deep breaths, since this triggers the calming response and can help to prevent hyperventilation.

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While Xanax may be useful for flying on an airplane, it will not help you with your anxiety. It may help in the moment but you will not tackle your fear of flying if you are asleep the whole flight. If you ran out of your medication or left it at home, the anxiety will still exist if you go on an airplane again.

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Xanax, a member of the same pharmaceutical family (benzodiazepines) as diazepam, is a strong one. Take it about two to three hours before you fly, and do not mix it with alcohol. There is a risk of dependency, though, with these benzodiazepines, but only if you are taking them more than once a week.

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Official answer. Ativan and Xanax are both benzodiazepines used for the treatment of anxiety, and both are equally effective for this use. The differences are: Xanax has a quicker onset of effect, but a shorter duration of action (4 to 6 hours) compared with Ativan's 8 hours.

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Take a melatonin pill. That's the hormone that our bodies use to put us to sleep naturally. Pop the pill a few hours before the flight.

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Benzodiazepines are only advised for the short-term use for a crisis in generalised anxiety disorder in which case they are not fit to fly. Fear of flying in isolation is not a generalised anxiety disorder.

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She told the group what worried her. “I am afraid of dying.” Fear of flying, or aviophobia, is an anxiety disorder.

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