Two New Books on Flying
Cockpit Confidential, offers readers an enlightened, behind-the-scenes view of life as an airline pilot. And Soar, The Breakthrough Treatment for Fear of Flying, offers fearful fliers a way to control...
View ArticleAnxiety Treatments Work On The Ground But Not In The Air
With all the therapies to choose from, why doesn't something give anxious fliers the relief they need? The "top-down" approach is ineffective if the problem is caused "bottom-up." Anxiety is caused -...
View ArticleWhat are the Safest Airliners?
Do statistics help? Even if you can fly on an airliner that has a perfect safety record, is that enough to control the fear of flying.read more
View ArticleUnconscious Signals That Calm
Research by Stephen Porges, Ph.D., has shown that unconsciously transmitted and received signals can slow the heart rate. This in turn activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Additionally, if the...
View ArticleIn-Flight Emotional Regulation—The Basics
If you could fly in the cockpit, the captain's face would provide assurance that nothing is amiss. In the cabin, a face can also control anxiety. But the reassuring face needs to be linked to the...
View ArticleBorderline Personality Disorder and Anticipatory Anxiety
When planning to fly, an emotionally dependent parent can make separation difficult if not impossible. What is the dynamic involved?read more
View ArticleHow Therapy Uses Object Relations To Quell Anxiety
Various forms of therapy seem so different in theory and practice. How, then, do they produce such similar results? Could relationship be the common curative factor?read more
View ArticleDesensitization Works For Other Phobias. Why Not Flying?
For most phobias, systematic desensitization, developed by Joseph Wolpe, can be used to gradually expose the amygdala to a phobic situation. By gradual exposure, the amygdala becomes accoustomed to the...
View ArticleWhy CBT Can't Regulate Anxiety
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy tells us that feelings are based on our thoughts. If we think right, we will feel right. Too bad it just isn't true.read more
View ArticleMore on Cognition and Control of Anxiety
We can tolerate much more uncertainty if we have an "out" than if we have no way out. Though everyone knows flying is safer than driving, it doesn't feel safer. Why?read more
View ArticleWhat Does It Mean When Passengers Are Injured in Turbulence?
It happens again and again. A plane hits severe turbulence. Passengers and crew members get injured. Though passengers wearing a seat belt are safe, they may not feel safe. What can you do to feel...
View ArticleWhy CBT Doesn't Stop Anxiety
Can we extend CBT to include right brain logic? If we can expand our understand and our practice of CBT, we may be able to use it to treat right hemisphere anxiety.read more
View ArticleThe Lost Airliner and Our Fear of Flying
As this event was being discussed on the SOAR Message Board and on the SOAR Facebook page, I didn't initially realize why it was causing so much distress. Then, when someone on the message board asked...
View ArticleHow an Anxious Flier Can Recognize and Avoid Junk Psychology
Courses sponsored by major airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic promote the same inadequate “tools” used in 1975 by Captain Truman “Slim” Cummings in the first fear of flying program at...
View ArticleAccepting That Safety Is Relative
If a situation isn't safe enough, we need to be in control, or able to escape from it. But, what if we can't control or escape? How safe does that situation have to be?read more
View ArticleIs It Safe Not to Worry?
When we search for the cause of a traumatic event, we look at what was happening just before calamity hit. Maybe what was going on just before it happened is what caused it. Just before it happened, we...
View ArticleAnti-Anxiety Medication and Flying
Using anti-anxiety medication to reduce flight anxiety backfires. Anti-anxiety medications prevent anxious fliers from getting used to flying. They increase the anxious flier's sensitivity to the...
View ArticleIs What You Are Feeling A Flashback?
New research indicates that past trauma can cause a stress response even when no memory of the traumatic experience is present. It also suggests that therapists need to recognize that stress can be...
View ArticleArousal and Fear Are Different
One of the most troublesome problems when treating fear of flying is the automatic interpretation that the feelings caused when stress hormones are released mean danger. Perhaps this is because stress...
View ArticleAnticipatory Anxiety And Reframing
Anticipatory anxiety is not the same as flight anxiety. In anticipatory anxiety, you imagine the future. You experience an imaginary airplane. Stress depends upon imagination. In flight anxiety, you...
View ArticleFear Of Flying Often Begins With Becoming A Parent
Flight phobia frequently begins late in pregnancy. According to research, as the expectant mother approaches delivery, the brain is flooded with hormones that cause her to become obsessed with safety....
View ArticleCould a Virtual Reality Helmet Stop Fear of Flying?
A movie or video game can help push anxiety aside.The amygdala stays on guard. If it reacts to turbulence, anxiety returns.read more
View ArticleIs Fear of Flying Really Irrational?
It is often said that fear of flying is irrational. This implies that a person who thinks rationally would not fear flying. Yet, is it rational to have no fear of something truly awful, even though the...
View ArticleDoes Fear Keep Us Safe?
Xenophobia is not just a phobia. It has grown to become a religion subscribed to by about half of us. To determine what makes us safe, we need to separate what makes sense from what is sheer phobia....
View ArticleBranson's Folly
The normalization of narcissism may be the result of an explosive growth of internet media outlets in which the more excessive - and thus the more pathological the narcissism - the more the person is...
View ArticlePilot and Blogger Patrick Smith Sets The Record Straight
A top blogger and airline pilot takes William Langewiesche to task for "the most asinine and misleading characterization of an airline pilot’s job that I have ever read in my life."read more
View ArticleBreathing Exercises: Counterproductive for Flight Anxiety
Almost every article by psychologists on flight anxiety recommends the use of breathing exercises. Why haven't these professionals looked at the research? read more
View ArticleBest Ever Articles On Overcoming Fear Of Flying
Expect some surprises. The therapy most commonly used for anxiety on the ground falls short in the air. Anti-anxiety medications can backfire and make things worse. Breathing exercises - almost...
View ArticleFear of Flying's Common Core
Why is the cure of flight phobia like peanut butter? If you have a jar of peanut butter, you can spread it on as many crackers as you like. If you have a supply of genetically based calming, you can...
View ArticleIs the AirAsia Crash a Replay of Air France 447?
Until the “black boxes” are found and studied, we will not be sure of the cause of the AirAsia crash. However, two pieces of information point to a replay of the Air France Fight 447 crash five years...
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