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When I was younger, I enjoyed turbulence. I remember a time when I would snicker when I saw other people who looked nervous! But now, It’s now to the point where I’m barely fighting off a panic attack.
In this episode, I talk about why turbulence is scary to some people, plus some tips on how I calm down while on a plane.
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Resources mentioned in the podcast:
- Cockpit Confidential by Patrick Smith. This book is recommended for regular people who want to learn more about how commercial flying works (like, why you shouldn’t fear turbulence.)
Podcast music attribution: By the Coast (2004) (Antony Raijekov) / CC BY-NC 2.5
It’s one of those instances where our emotional and logical brains can fight each other. From what I’ve read, the chances of a crash are much higher during take-off and landing than they are during mid-flight. Still, that doesn’t help when the plane hits that air pocket and starts bouncing all over the place. I can always tell the “frequent flyers”, because they’re the ones who just keep reading their book or sleep right through it. They’ve probably been through enough turbulence that their thinking has adjusted to it and it no longer phases them.
Statistics can be a very useful if we’re able to internalize them and translate them from the emotional brain to the logical brain. Not that’s it’s necessarily easy, especially if we’re used to taking cues from the emotional side. Cognitive therapy has been very useful in helping me “open the hailing frequency” between logic and emotion (Star Trek reference – R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy), and establishing better communication between the two.
I too hate flying because of fear. But I’ve been using one of our listed techniques for a while now and was going to suggest it to you had you not listed it. I watch the flight attendants! If they aren’t freaking out then I don’t need to either!