Avophobia.

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Hey guys!
It's me again. First of all, I'd like to tell you that my baby's growing really fast. And that she's healthy, and so am I.

Thing is, I suffer from EXTREMELY SEVERE aviohobia. And I'll be travelling to Moscow in a couple of weeks to visit a friend. I know there's nothing wrong with air travel, but I still have fear of doing so; and it's horrible, since I love travelling, and this limits me a lot. I would therefore like to know if you suffer from the same phobia as I do, or if you know someone who does (or if you have any other phobia in particular) and what you do to confront it. Seriously, I've flown loads of times, and I just don't seem to get rid of this mental disorder.

I don't know if I'll ever fly again. The biggest reason is I can't because I don't have an id, the second is because I don't want them to touch me, and the third which is annoying but might not stop me by itself is that my ears bother me a lot after flying no matter what I do. I've had times when I got off a plane and my ears were so plugged up I was nearly deaf.

Also I don't like the restrictions on what you can bring on and I'd have a fit if they wanted to take my stuff and throw it away because it wasn't allowed on the plane. I don't like people messing with my stuff.

I haven't flown since before 911.

First off let me tell you I am 150% friggin jealous of you, going to MOSCOW. That is on my top list of places I want to go to, oh my god, I am so jealous of you .

To be more helpful: I actually love flying, obsessed with jets even, but I remember the first I flew as a kid I was horrified beyond belief. I kept thinking of the fact the plane was an object in the sky, flying thousands of feet in the air and the sensation made me sick. What I did to help was just shut my eyes, count really slow, just keep them shut, count again, then re-open. DO NOT GET A WING SEAT. If you get one try to switch up, for some reason seeing the blinking beacon makes me feel more scared because it gives you this sense of vertigo.


Its an awesome thing if you can get over your fear of flying though. The world is at its most beautiful through the window of an aircraft, everything imperfect and dirty is transformed into this perfect panorama of scenery. The best flight I ever had was a night one from Miami to Lima, Peru. The sky was so beautiful and I remember seeing so many cool little things. God I love flying now, I'm truly sorry from the bottom of my soul for your fear. Try to overcome it and think of all the awesome things you could look out your window and see if you weren't scared!

Sorry if this only makes things worse.

Moscow eh? Wow - that's some trip for you!

I hope this friend will take good care of you, as Moscow isn't the most tourist-friendly city out there I'm led to believe. (If you can't speak Russian or understand the Cyrillic alphabet, you'll be reliant on others who do. Put it this way, I'm not sure I'd go there. I didn't like Poland much when I visited some years back, only I'd imagine that Russia would be far worse.)

What frightens you about air travel so much? Is it the feeling that you'll crash? Is it the turbulence? Can you pinpoint it to anything specific?

Alcohol might help. Or maybe go to a doc and see if they will give you something, like a benzodiazepine or something, for you to take for the flight so you don't freak out.

I hate flying. I've taken two round-trips via airplane in my life. Both trips were before 9/11, and both were preceded by meltdowns.

In general, I find traveling to be very stressful, unless I'm making a short hop via Amtrak or road trip or something (say, from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles).

I don't really know what scares me the most. Maybe a little of all, I guess...

Btw, thanks for your support. To all of you who have answered me. It's hard to deal with a phobia, and many people don't seem to understand that.