CaptTomBunnLCSW: With regard to fear of flying, the first courses were at Pan Am and at US Air. They started around 1975. I worked as a volunteer with the Pan Am course. At the end of each course, participants were invited to fly together as a group, along with us pilots who could reassure them that all is fine. Emotional control was supposed to be achieved by 1. knowing flying is relatively safe, 2. letting go of control, and 3. breathing/relaxation exercises.


thanks for your incisive ideas.

It was very disturbing to, again and again on these flights, see course participants doing exactly what we taught them, and still see them suffer in a state of panic or terror. I asked the course director to add some techniques based on CBT. That never got done, so in 1982, I set up SOAR and added CBT techniques. It helped some people, but not others. After years struggling to get CBT to work, I stumbled on something that was getting good results with far more clients. Since then, neurological research explains why it worked.

First, there are times when humans produce oxytocin; when we do, the fear system shuts down. So, by finding an oxytocin-producing moment, and linking it by association to what happens when flying, what happens when flying triggers oxytocin and keeps the fear system shut down.

Second, in a moment when another person is attuned and empathic, the vagus nerve leading to the heart is stimulated; the heart slows, and the parasympathetic nervous system produces general calming.

sunnyshayne: Fellow NL, every human alive has his or her phobia. While some will be comfortable flying in a plane, others will detest it and would prefer to go buy bus. Some people cannot sail even if titanic was reconstructed but you will find somebody sleeping and snoring in a canoe.

I fly once in awhile and I meet people on board who have a terrible fear for flying and from the look on their face one can deduce that if not for their job, position or mission, they will never fly.

I have this friend who has traveled wide but yet he is yet to overcome this fear hence I'm tempted to ask, how can one overcome the fear of flying?

MOD front page please.