What is fear of flight called?

Aerophobia is an extreme fear of flying. People with aerophobia might feel intense anxiety before or during a flight. This condition can interfere with your ability to travel for work or pleasure. If aerophobia is affecting your quality of life, talk to your healthcare provider.



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8 Steps to Overcoming Your Fear of Flying
  1. Latch on to triggers that set you off. ...
  2. Step onto the airplane with knowledge. ...
  3. Anticipate your anxiety. ...
  4. Separate fear from danger. ...
  5. Recognize that common sense makes no sense. ...
  6. Smooth over things that go bump in the flight. ...
  7. Educate fellow fliers how to help you. ...
  8. Value each flight.


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Aerophobia is an extreme fear of flying. People with aerophobia might feel intense anxiety before or during a flight. This condition can interfere with your ability to travel for work or pleasure.

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Most people with aerophobia respond well to treatment such as psychotherapy. One study suggests that some people's symptoms improved for two to three years after CBT. It's possible for aerophobia to return after treatment, so some people may need ongoing therapy.

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According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 6.5 percent of the U.S. population has aviophobia (a fear of flying), and roughly 25 percent experience some sort of flying-related anxiety.

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Severe turbulence can cause a plane to drop so suddenly that pilots temporarily lose control. But, again, that's not enough to crash the plane. That's not to say it's never happened. In 1966, human error and turbulence combined to bring a plane down over Mount Fuji.

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Pilots are trained to handle all sorts of nerve-racking situations, but that doesn't mean that they don't get scared—especially in these real instances, told by the pilots who experienced them, of serious in-flight fear.

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What Are the Best—And Safest—Sleeping Pills for Flights?
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  • Melatonin.


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“Some of the primary reasons some people are afraid to fly are a fear of crashing, a fear of being out of control, a fear of the unknown, a fear of heights, having lost a loved one in a plane crash and feeling claustrophobic,” says Ora Nadrich, a certified mindfulness meditation instructor and life coach.

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Turbulence is a sudden and sometimes violent shift in airflow. Those irregular motions in the atmosphere create air currents that can cause passengers on an airplane to experience annoying bumps during a flight, or it can be severe enough to throw an airplane out of control. (The pilots) aren't scared at all.

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Flying phobia is a highly prevalent anxiety disorder, which causes sufferers significant distress and life interference.

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Fear of flying can present at any age and involves a chronic, persistent fear of flying because of a number of different reasons. This fear can present on its own as in a Specific Phobia or as an obsession in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

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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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In all, about 65,000 flights encounter moderate turbulence every year, and about 5,500 encounter severe turbulence, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

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People fear the unknown. In addition to a fear over losing control, people generally fear the unknown. Passengers on airlines face fears of crashing because they don't know about all the safety measures that pilots take before they fly.

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“You will want to help the anxious flier by being prepared with activities to do on the plane, to help them stay busy,” Matthews said. While most flights have in-flight entertainment, it's not a guarantee, so make sure they pack all the things, including a book, a downloaded podcast on their phone, and so on.

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The best aviophobia programs boast a success rate of 90 percent, said Barbara Rothbaum, a psychiatry professor at the Emory University medical school. Rothbaum has pioneered one of those programs, which uses virtual reality to replicate airplane flight — turbulence and all — to help patients conquer their fears.

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These drugs are usually taken shortly before a flight. They include: Anti-anxiety medication, such as diazepam (Valium) or alprazolam (Xanax). Motion sickness medication, such as dimenhydrinate (Dramamine).

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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.

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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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Takeoff and landing are widely considered the most dangerous parts of a flight.

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Whether flying at night or during the day, pilots need to see some kind of horizon. They use this to determine the airplane's attitude. At night pilots will turn their gaze from outside to inside and use the artificial horizon. The artificial horizon is normally a simply globe split into two hemispheres.

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Transferring too much weight onto the nosewheel causes a situation called wheelbarrowing, which can lead to a loss of directional control, prop strike, or nose gear collapse. On top of those problems, with little to no weight on your main landing gear, you have little braking action.

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When an aircraft experiences turbulence, the plane can drop or change altitude suddenly. This is why pilots always caution passengers to buckle up and stay seated when they are experiencing flight turbulence. The sudden movements put passengers at risk.

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