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April 11, 2025 11 mins

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Listen in as Dr. Pete shares some personal stories about Aviophobia and how to overcome our fears. 

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Speaker 1 (00:17):
Welcome back to On Air with Dr Pete.
I'm your host, dr Pete Economo,and thanks for tuning in.
Today we have a very pointedtopic of fear of flying.
There's been several in theUnited States kind of incidents.
They've always been there and Iwant to just walk us through,

(00:37):
from a psychological perspective, fear of flying.
This is one of the most commonthings.
So thank you for tuning in toOn Air with Dr Pete and I want
to jump right in so you're notalone if you have a fear of
flying.
About 40% of adults experiencesome anxiety and about 3% to 5%

(00:59):
have full-on aviophobia.
So aviophobia is just afive-cent word in the world of
psychology that looks at, uh orthat describes the fear of
flying.
If it's a phobia, it means thatsomebody doesn't do the
activity anymore.
So, for example, if you have,like, a bridge phobia, then they
may not walk over or drive overbridges, uh.
So aviophobia is people whochoose not to fly because of the

(01:20):
of the fear.
So here's the thing it'sstatistically safer than driving
a car.
It's statistically safer thaneating a plate of French fries.
So then you're going to sitthere and say what are you
talking about, dr Pete?
So French fries leads tocholesterol hypertension, and so
the general population is morelikely to die from those issues

(01:42):
than from flying on a planelikely to die, you know, from
those issues than from flying ona plane.
So there are solutions for it.
So we're going to dive intosome solutions and, you know,
that's it.
So buckle up if you will.
So you know, imagine you'resitting on an airplane, the
engines roar and the planebegins to taxi down.
Your heart races, your palmsweats and there's a deep set of

(02:05):
panic anxiety and again, you'renot alone in that feeling.
I will, you know, in the comingsort of episodes in life.
You know, kind of talk about myown journey around this, but
it's something that is, you know, really, as I said, 40%.
So nearly one in two, you know,and the research shows anywhere
from one in two, one in two,you know, and the research shows

(02:25):
anywhere from one in two, onein four.
You know, it's a lot of energyand I'll say recording this in
2025, the challenge iscommercialism.
You know, gas goes up and allthis type of stuff, and so the
experience has also becomedifferent, and so recognize that
that is okay, that's part ofthe challenge and there's an

(02:45):
expectation.
So people kind of have anexpectation.
Going into anything, I want tobe comfortable, I don't want to
feel anxious.
Nobody has ever died from beinganxious.
So, whatever the phobia is orthe anxiety is, no one's ever
died from it.
So why is flying so terrifying?
You know it usually is combinedwith other types of anxieties.

(03:08):
It could be like fear ofheights or fear, you know,
claustrophobia, like fear ofenclosed spaces.
Certainly, there's always anissue with the lack of control.
And then, you know, the braincreates stories.
So in a mindfulness world, wesay that the brain is a movie
producer.
So if you've watched a movie,you know, like Alive, this is
one of you know movies I reallyenjoyed, and back in my life

(03:32):
when I was flying, all the timeyou know traveling, and Alive,
you know, has a team that youknow the plane goes down and
they have to kind of survive inthis cold Arctic air and weather
.
And so, you know, the braincreates those stories.
And so that's the amygdala itprocesses fear.

(03:52):
It often overreacts because itthinks things are dangerous.
And so, again, statistically,being on a plane, traveling
somewhere, is safer than driving, you know.
So you know to drive 16 hours,let's say, from New Jersey to
florida, you are more likely tohave an accident than you are if
you took a two-hour flight.
Uh, you know, it is, um, notjust flying itself, you know,

(04:15):
because this also is thecatastrophic thinking.
So thinking comes into this,where people just are that movie
producer is just fixated onwhat the outcome could be or
might be, even thoughstatistically speaking, it is
you're.
You know, in some, in manycases, you're more likely to win
the lottery.
So think about that.
You're more likely to win alottery which you know you may
have played for 30, 40 years.

(04:37):
Um, so many people with the fearof flying, uh, have other
issues, like, like we said, interms of anxiety, and so the
what we do is like thephysiological effects.
So recognize, like the heartrate increasing, the palm
sweating, you know that is thephysical sensations that happens
during fear when they board aplane.
When you board a plane, whatends up happening?

(04:59):
Your sympathetic nervous systemis activating, so there's
adrenaline and that's whatcreates.
There's cortisol from thestress, and so that's what
creates that shallow breathing,the rapid heart rate and
oftentimes even nausea, and soit can really feel like it's
unbearable.
But this is just like any otherphobia and there are treatments

(05:20):
.
That we'll get into before weend this episode.
What I wanted to make some timeto say is one of the other best
techniques to think about is theflight attendants and the
pilots, and I'll give a shoutout there's a program called
SOAR S-O-A-R.
There's Captain Tom who runsthat, and I even have Julian

(05:42):
Allercon was a pilot who alsokind of helps.
There are programs out there.
One of the things we found andeven in my clinical practice we
do is we do integrate a sessionwith a pilot so that you can
learn.
So there is some evidence thatthe more information people have
, the little less anxious theyfeel.
It gives them a little sense ofcontrol, if you will Understand

(06:04):
that.
Going into this, though, youwill feel anxious.
So it's not like there'sanything that just takes away
the feelings of anxiety.
So it's not like there'sanything that just takes away

(06:35):
the feelings of years.
You know the one that occurredmost recently in Washington DC,
which was tragic and alsoincluded some.
You know figure skatercommunity was like the first
accident in the United States inlike over 15 years that
included fatalities in theUnited States in like over 15
years that included fatalities.
So be mindful that there aresome bait, click or clickbait.

(06:56):
You know of the articles likeoh, emergency landing, yada,
yada, yada.
The emergency landing,everything's safe.
You know that happens all thetime A car tire blows.
You know there's things thathappen in aviation.
There are two, three, four,five backup plans for almost
everything and they've learnedover the years how to improve.

(07:19):
You know the science of flying.
By no means is this related toanything you know political.
This is just facts.
This is just science.
The safety protocols are inplace.
So, talking to pilots, werecommend, especially from that
program from SOAR, that youspeak with the flight attendants

(07:41):
and then, if possible becauseit's not always possible, but if
possible just meet the pilots.
Hey, I'm Dr Pete, I'm going tobe on your flight today.
I'm an anxious flyer and youknow that strategy alone can
really help.
So cognitive behavioral therapyis one of the most successful
there.
So it helps you reframe somethoughts of flying.
It also has some exposuretherapy With virtual reality.

(08:03):
We have some possibilities ofhelping people kind of simulate
what it would be like on theplane.
You can even use some YouTubevideos, just really putting
yourself in that what you'retrying to do is retrain your
brain, that amygdala, retrain itto say you know, this is just
like sitting in a car, if youwill.
Obviously, you can't just saythat to yourself, because it's

(08:24):
not.
One of the metaphors I like touse is like some of these
skyscrapers that have theseglass floors that you can walk
on, there will be listeners thatdon't care, and they'll walk
over it and do a dance on it.
The majority of listeners,though, will know that they'll
feel a certain kind of way, andit's obviously anxious.
If you tell yourself don'tworry, it's safe, you will still

(08:48):
feel anxious.
So it's not like you could justsay you know, oh, don't worry,
I could win the lottery morethan this plane crashing.
I feel safe, you don't.
So you want to just build arelationship with the anxiety.
The anxiety itself will notkill you.
There are also medications, sothere are some anti-anxiety

(09:10):
medications.
You want to use that as anadjunct to therapy or
mindfulness-based exercises or,like I just mentioned, that,
virtual reality.
So cognitive behavioral therapyyou can use as an adjunct a
little bit of anti-anxietymedications.
Virtual reality some of theprograms like SOAR.

(09:30):
Be sure to talk to flightattendants or pilots, and you
know one of the things?
And it's a privilege to fly.
It's expensive to fly and totravel, um, but trying to do it
as regular as possible.
That sounds ridiculous, butobviously the longer you don't
do something, the more thatreinforces not doing it, and so,
um, you know, maybe once ortwice a year if you can.

(09:52):
That is one of the issues whyit becomes more challenging to
kind of manage it, because youknow, especially from the
control aspect of it, becauseyou really don't have any
control.
So, uh, well, thanks for tuningin.
Hope this was helpful.
Um, even if not, maybe sometools here just understand that
you're not alone.
Um, you know, fear of flying iscommon.
It does not have to controlyour life.

(10:13):
Uh, there's therapy, there'smindfulness, there's
technological advancements uh,just communication, just
communication.
Overcoming this is possible ormanaging it, I'd like to say.
So, you know, if you knowanyone that struggles with it,
there are programs for them andyou want to live a value-based
life, and so maybe you justconsider what it would feel like

(10:33):
to kind of push through.
So, as always, thanks fortuning in.
If you love the episode, pleasehead to our social channels.
Everything's atofficialdrpetecom.
You can like, follow and shareeverything there and until I see
you next week, spread a littlekindness and stay well, thank

(11:01):
you.
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