New Strategies to Fight Fear of Flying Take Wing

During the 30 years Charlie Costello has been working as a United Airlines flight attendant, she has viewed the American flying public in all its moods and manias. Often, but not always, she can recognize a fearful flier.

What she hasn’t noticed is a decrease in the number of white-knuckled passengers, even though flying on commercial airliners has become commonplace and is on the rise. For the 12 months ending last November, there were more than 612 million boardings on U.S. airlines, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, an increase of 3% over the previous 12 months.

Despite that increase, “I don’t think there has been a significant decline in fearful fliers,” said Costello, president of the Assn. of Flight Attendants’ Los Angeles local. After all, she added, “there’s a first time for everyone.”

About one in 10 Americans has a fear of flying, according to experts, citing a study conducted by Boeing in the 1980s. More recent research suggests that an intense fear can develop after just one terrifying experience.

Psychologists who have pioneered programs to help fearful fliers cope have been fine-tuning their approaches.

The main premise of most of these programs remains the same: to use cognitive therapy strategies, which encourage fearful fliers to talk about their anxieties and then expose themselves to the fears’ source to eventually overcome them.

But these days, experts are likely to weave in other, preventive measures, such as nutrition and massage therapy. Fearful-flying courses are also more accessible, with programs offered in home study formats and on the Internet. Some experts even provide long-distance phone consultations and online discussion sessions with fellow phobics.

Over the years, R. Reid Wilson, a psychologist and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, has modified his instruction in the importance of developing relaxation skills.

Many people enter his program with the expectation that the skills will get them through a flight without a raised heart rate or other symptoms of anxiety.

Not so, Wilson says. “You must be willing to tolerate discomfort,” he tells them. He advises fearful fliers to acknowledge the symptoms--racing heart, sweaty palms--and then use the skills they will learn, such as deep breathing.

On Wilson’s Internet site, https://www.anxieties.com, fear of flying is the second most tapped subject area, after panic disorder.

Another expert, psychologist Glen Arnold, has noticed a growing willingness of his clients to use natural remedies and approaches. Only about half the fearful fliers he works with choose to use prescription drugs such as anti-anxiety medications even on a temporary basis, he said.

Among his suggestions for the natural route: “Have a massage the day before a flight. The effect will last up to a day and a half or two days.” Then, dress for the flight in calming colors, such as pinks, blues and greens, rather than stimulating reds and purples.

Once you arrive at the airport, he continues, indulge in a head and shoulder massage. These are offered by a growing number of airport vendors.

Arnold also tries to convince his students to focus on their successes in coping aloft, not their failures. Easier said than done, he acknowledges, because “by and large, people who fear flying are perfectionists.”

In his program called Thairapy, telephone (714) 967-0772, Arnold offers classroom-based instruction at Los Angeles and Orange County airports and a kit with a relaxation cassette and instruction book.

Preventive nutrition is included in the fearful flying programs created by Albert Forgione, a Boston psychologist who founded the Institute for the Psychology of Air Travel, tel. (617) 437-1811. He tells fearful fliers to avoid caffeine, for instance, before a flight.

In his cognitive therapy approach, he also advises students to focus on controlling their emotions rather than on the situation. “Once their anxiety is controlled, the catastrophic expectations decrease,” he said.

The number of sessions or consultations required to help fearful fliers become comfortable aloft varies greatly, said Wilson. “Some people come in for therapy three times and do great long-term. They have an ‘Aha!’ That is, they realize, ‘It’s not about the plane, it’s about me. I’m the anxiety-producing machine.’ ”

Healthy Traveler appears the second and fourth Sunday of the month.