I did it!

By Trish

I am posting my success story so that all of you others can learn from my experiences. Also, I am very proud of myself right now and I would like to share my story just for the fun of it. I posted the story on the message boards as well.

I did it! I made it through two whole flights! Can you believe it? I can’t. I am now writing about my experiences. Below I will share some of my pre, in and post flight thoughts.

First, for those of you who are not familiar with me and my story, I will briefly tell about how and why I was even debating whether or not I should fly. I have been scared of flying for almost a year. My whole life I have been afraid of heights, but it hadn’t bothered me enough to stop me from flying. I think that the 9/11 attacks were some sort of trigger that clicked all of my fears into one big messy fear of flying. In any case, a couple of weeks ago my boyfriend, Josh, suggested we travel overseas to meet his parents. He knew I was fearful of flying and so he confronted me before buying the tickets. I agreed to go (I don’t know why, though).

I had trouble sleeping the nights prior to the dreaded flight. I would wake up in the middle of the night with distant memories of dreams concerning planes. My fear pretty much occupied my whole schedule. I would try not to think of the flight, but couldn’t help myself. The message board helped me a lot through this stage. I really learnt a lot from Rich (hsdrichb) and from Mark Kahanek (mkahanek). Thank you guys so much. In any case, my pre-flight anxieties were tough, and they got stronger as the flight approached, but I dealt with them. The day before the flight my boyfriend took me on a relaxing day trip to ease my tensions. It didn’t really help, but it was great fun nonetheless.

I was sort of in shock on the day of the flight. I did all I had to do, but I don’t think that I ever believed I would actually get on the plane. Even when the doors shut I still hadn’t digested the fact that I was about to fly. However bizarre this may sound, I think that it helped me in a way because I didn’t panic enough to get off of the plane. We took off and the flight was great. When I say great I mean great. There was hardly any turbulence and I didn’t panic nearly as much as I though I would. I had a seat next to Josh and he tried to comfort me. Every bump I would sort of jump up, but I controlled myself.

When we landed I had to restrain myself from yelling in joy. I had made it. I can’t remember the last time I was so proud of myself. From there we went to celebrate and meet his parents. I came back yesterday and the flight was great on the way back as well. As it so happens, on the return flight I sat next to another fearful flyer. We had a fantastic time talking about our fears. She was much tenser than I on that flight which made me even happier. Someone was more afraid than me.

I hope to be writing many more success stories as time progresses. Thanks again for the support.

I would also like to add a suggestion to all of you other fearful flyers: Just do it. Take it slowly and be sure to desensitize, but do it in the end. Don’t give up.

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