Dear Brooke, I have a huge dare upcoming this month. I’m very anxious about flying and I have a long haul flight upcoming (14 hours). I used to fly a lot with work but the anxiety began after I had kids. When I look at it closely I realize it’s not the flying in itself that I’m afraid of but the feeling of terror that I experience in flight, when I cannot escape and need to look calm for my kids. The flight is 2 weeks away and I’m already very anxious. My current model looks like this –
C flying
T I will experience terror
F high level of fear/anxiety
A try to ‘talk’ myself out of fear (flying is very safe etc)
R experience terror even before getting on flight
So far I’ve been trying to eliminate terror and it doesn’t work – I’m thinking now I should welcome the terror but it’s so hard to do, such a strong physical reaction. Just wondering if you had any suggestions!