Advice re: my partner's flying fear and panic attack signs

Hi Orphelia,

A warm welcome to the forum.

Your partner's experience is fairly common, a lot of people who are fine with flying become a bit fearful after experiencing turbulence or some other incident on a plane.

Once someone has had an unpleasant experience with flying the brain may subsequently make the link that flying is unpleasant, producing fear to protect that person from having another potentially unpleasant experience.

The fear of flying can be easily and effectively overcome using something called the Fast Phobia Cure or Rewind Technique. This is best done by a hypnotherapist or other practitioner trained in the technique.

Once this has been done a practitioner will usually get him to imagine seeing himself on the flight, feeling calm and relaxed.

Best wishes, happy anniversary and enjoy your holiday.

The fear of flying can be easily and effectively overcome using something called the Fast Phobia Cure or Rewind Technique. This is best done by a hypnotherapist or other practitioner trained in the technique.

Thanks for the response Mike, my boyfriend is already following a technique which is working for him I have done some research into the technique you mentioned and it seems quite similar - my question to you is rather what would be the best course of action for me to take if he should suddenly panic on the plane - how can I support him etc - any ideas would be gratefully appreciated.

Hi Orphelia,

Here's a few ideas that might help. The most useful thing will be preparation beforehand.

1. Create an anchor or associational link for your boyfriend - You know the way that certain music, or smells can take you right back to a certain time or feeling; for example the smell of fresh bread takes me back to my mother baking - well this linking of one thing to another is called anchoring or making an associational link.

Before you leave he can create an anchor for being calm and relaxed. To do this get him to feel really relaxed, you might ask him to remember a time when he felt completely calm and relaxed. When he's got that feeling really strongly he can put the finger and thumb of one hand together. You can repeat this several times when he's feeling relaxed. Some people find it easier to relax with their eyes closed.

In the future when he brings his finger and thumb together this will be an anchor to feeling calm and relaxed, which he can use at any time on the plane if he wants to.

2. Before leaving ask him what is the first sign that he is feeling fear - this can be a signal for him to take action to calm down.

3. A useful way to relax is to practice 7/11 breathing. That is slowly and deeply breathing in to a count of 7 and a longer breath out to a count of 11. He can practice this beforehand -may be useful when doing the anchoring and can use this before, during and after the flight.

4. If he starts to feel fear whilst flying you can asking him to scale his fear on a scale of 1 to 10 - where 1 is total calm, and 10 is full fear.

5. Is there something that you can take on the plane that he will get quite absorbed in for the duration of the flight - a book, a game or anything else.

6. One thing which I would suggest as a not to do is say something along the lines 'of just calm down' in an anxious voice if he is experiencing fear - if people experiencing fear could just calm down they would without being told! It's better to acknowledge it, along the lines of 'so you're feeling anxious at the moment, but soon everything will be calmer, and you can feel safe and secure.'

7. Before you leave, again when he is quite relaxed, ask him to in his mind's eye to run through the whole day of the flight in a few seconds, so that he can see himself as if on a TV or cinema screen, on the flight calm and relaxed. Do this a few times and repeat for the return flight.


Best wishess