Flying is an occupational necessity for travel writer but, as someone with claustrophobia, that doesn’t make it any easier. Méndez’s first experience with mid-flight anxiety was a shock.
Whether it’s claustrophobia, safety fears or the potential for logistical nightmares, most people’s flight anxiety stems from feeling out of control. But why — and what can be done about it?
Everyone experiences small trauma, and often these negative experiences can leave people feeling like they aren’t in control or can’t escape. As the plane moves farther away from the ground, people lose more and more of the control they have over their environment, which can make anxiety and claustrophobia worse.
Most anxious fliers develop personal strategies for feeling more in control or mitigating the anxiety they feel. Those personal tools can be lavender oil and breathing techniques or repeat exposure or prescription medication. We also offers tips of own that believes can help all fliers feel more in control and decrease their anxiety in the air:
Try to meet the pilot. This can also give those passengers who get nervous about weather conditions a chance to ask the pilot if they think the flight will be smooth or rough and how much turbulence to expect.
Try the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise: This exercise can help reduce stress.
For the exercise, people should look straight ahead. Then make five statements about what you see in your peripheral vision (a window, someone wearing headphones, etc.), five statements about what you hear (two people talking, a child laughing) and five statements about what you physically touch (the wrinkles on the leather seat, the rough edge of the seat belt strap, the smooth armrest). Then repeat the process with four things you see, hear and touch, and continue to repeat until you get to naming one thing for each sense.
Don’t rush. This decreases the worries and anxiety that people carry with them before they board, so they feel more in control when they’re on the plane.
