Fear of Flying

Coping with Terrorism and Fear of Flying

Kevin J. Kelly, Ph.D., Psychologist (and son of an airline pilot who was hijacked)

Several years ago I wrote a book entitled Becoming Your Own Therapist - Practical Effective Strategies to Manage Your Moods and Behavior. This manual represented a collection of simple but effective techniques for helping people feel better and make better decisions. After the recent terrorist attacks I wondered whether the strategies in this modest sized workbook could actually have an impact on how we feel after such a horrendous event. I'd like to offer a sample of one of the techniques here so that readers can try it for themselves and experience some of the benefit right away. The particular technique is an amalgam of other techniques I have learned from master teachers like Arron T. Beck, M.D. (founder of Cognitive Therapy) and Salvatore Maddi, Ph.D. (founder of Executive Hardiness Training). As you will notice it also rings of old fashioned wisdom. Called The Fear Form it is based on the fact that in order to be afraid we have to anticipate danger. In fact anxiety or fear is really the bodies response to our prediction that danger is near and the belief that we cannot cope with it. What happens to our bodies is like a psychobiological turbocharger of sorts. I'm guessing that the heroes who took over the airplane from the hijackers really needed that extra power to do what they did.

What is very important to remember is that our experience of anxiety does not mean that danger is actually near. Just because we think something is going to happen doesn't mean that it will. How many times have we felt anxious about something only to see it turn out OK? That is if we didn't create a problem in response to our fear. The key to managing anxiety or fear is to accurately assess the risks of the situation as well as the resources. The Fear Form uses five questions in order to do this. The first is What is the negative prediction? (The worst that can happen): For most people who are fly commercially the answer to this will be some variation of the recent terrorist situation. For the rest of us it may relate to some other form of terrorism.

The next question asked is what's the best that can happen? This question puts the issue on a continuum from very bad to very good. Our natural inclination is to "keep our eyes on the tiger" and forget about what good things can happen. In a situation of imminent danger of course focusing on the danger allows us to gather information to better assess the threat. You can answer this question for yourself and use a narrow focus (your life) or a broader focus (United States/World). A few ideas to ponder: for the first time in the history of the planet Earth all (or almost all) nations are united in a singular goal of eliminating terrorism. We should be able to accomplish wonderful things over time. Perhaps our personal and sometimes petty problems will take on a less dramatic significance.

The third key question is What is most likely to happen? This is a tough one now because many of us didn't think that what happened last week was likely and it happened anyway. Perhaps the bumper sticker should now read "really bad stuff happens" I wonder if one of the things that makes us sad about that is how we have lost a view of our country a safe and secure. If we really take all the information available into account what is actually the likelihood of our being involved in a terrorist act on an airplane? If you consider just two things I think you will conclude that it is actually safer (however more inconvenient) to fly now than ever: 1) In spite of the fact that the terrorists scored a victory in using our own airliners, the rush to make flying safe and secure makes it not such an easy target as it used to be. These people seek easy targets which we make available. We're not making airplanes available any more. When I was a little boy my father would let me come up onto the cockpit and sit on his lap as he flew. You won't be seeing the door to the cockpit open any more. There will be plain clothed armed guards on many flights who are trained to disarm hijackers. Pilots will employ very different strategies in dealing with threats aloft. 2) Before this event it had been estimated that the chances of being involved in a multi casualty airliner accident were one in three million. In spite of last weeks events that probability has not changed very much. So what's most likely to happen is that fewer people will travel by air for a while, those who do will tolerate longer delays and more intrusive security measures and arrive at their destination with great relief as though they just escaped the jaws of death. Then much later we'll die from some bad habit we started as a teenager. Would you conclude the something similar?

The other two questions in the Fear Form deal with coping with adversity and employing an action plan. Since space prohibits discussion about these aspect of the exercise I would invite you to explore the table of contents on the website www.byotherapist and learn more about focusing on those aspects of your situation which can be controlled. Happy landings. nnnn