Fear of Flying and How Therapy Can Help

Do you experience anxiety just to think about flying? You are not alone! Studies indicate that up to 40% of Americans experience this fear while approximately 6.5% meet the qualifications of an actual phobia (known as aviophobia).

The good news is that the fear of flying is a problem that can be overcome although it is not easy to do. Many times, when I ask people what they fear about flying, the answers are varied from a feeling of doom to the fear of crashing to fear of being trapped or not having control. When I ask how many times those fears have actually happened to them, most report that nothing happened. It’s the fear of fear that keeps them stuck in the cycle of anxiety and panic because even though people have these fears, they still have a reason for why they want to overcome their fear.

Most of the time, we think that if we feel danger, we must be in danger, but that’s not always the case. If you’ve watched scary movies, you know that you can be perfectly safe in your home sitting on your bed and still feel totally afraid. The fear we feel is a false alarm of danger, not a true sign of it. It’s similar to what panic tells us.

What You Can Do

Typically, your first instinct when you feel fear is to run or to avoid it altogether. Maybe you’re ready to stop reading because your anxiety is going up at the moment. But the more helpful thing to do when you feel anxiety is the opposite of what your instinct tells you. Instead of running from it, lean into the fear. Yes, you read that right. Lean into the fear in a way that allows it to be there, but where you do not give it your attention. Like when you clean your house, you may have your television on and know that Friends is playing, but if I ask you what the show was about, you will have no idea because it wasn’t the focus of your attention.

When you fight the fear, you end up strengthening it. When your brain assesses danger, it sends out chemicals to help you fight or flee, but with flying, you are only feeling nervous. You are not in danger. When chemicals are released in your body they don’t tend to feel good and so you try to do what you can to relieve the feelings even if it is only temporary. But if you want long-term freedom, you must accept and allow the feelings while continuing to move forward with what you want to do. You probably want to get somewhere and know that flying is the most practical way to do it. Otherwise, you probably don’t care about the fear of flying.

You Can Experience Freedom

Please know that you don’t have to give up your life due to fear. Working with a therapist who understands anticipatory anxiety can help you to make a plan to move forward and fly with the fear knowing that the fear will end. It always does. If you’d like to learn more, here is another helpful article.

Your therapist can provide a supportive, compassionate, and non-judgmental space to help you work with your fears. Therapy provides a space to pace the work and help you to understand how your brain works and how you can work with your brain and body instead of against it.

Think about what your fear of flying has actually done to you. It’s made you afraid. It’s made you nervous. Typically, that’s all it’s done. And yes, that is very uncomfortable. But as you allow and accept your fear and let it be there without giving it your attention or fighting against it, it begins to diminish.

If you want to conquer your fear, you must face it and move through it over and over and over until the intensity of the fear diminishes. And when you do, you might just find that freedom is waiting.

Carbonell, D. (2017). Fear of flying workbook: Overcome your anticipatory anxiety and develop   skills for flying with confidence. Ulysses Press.

Huff, C. (2025, September 1). Aviation incidents amplify fear of flying, but therapy helps people reclaim the skies Patients with aviophobia respond well to exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral treatment. Monitor on psychology. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2025/09/aviophobia-fear-flying#:~:text=Studies%20indicate%20that%20as%20many,career%20goals%2C%20and%20travel%20plans.