Is Therapy Helpful In Treating Fear Of Flying

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Is Therapy Helpful In Treating Fear Of Flying?

• A phobia is an excessive and persistent fear of
  an activity, situation, object, person, or
  animal. It is a type of anxiety disorder. A
  person with a phobia either tries to avoid the
  thing that triggers the fear or endures it with
  great anxiety and distress.
• A phobia doesn't generally require medical
  intervention unless it causes a significant
  amount of distress or the fear is preventing the
  person from living a 'normal life.
• For instance, if the person lives in Montreal and
  has a phobia of tigers, the person can simply
  avoid the Montreal zoo rather than seek treatment
  for said phobia.

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However, if the person has aerophobia, a fear of
flying, and is required to travel overseas for
their work, then their flying phobia may need to
be treated.What is Aerophobia?A large number
of people experience anxiety when they fly. Even
thinking about flying before actually stepping
onto an airplane can be anxiety-provoking for
some. However, others experience an extreme sense
of fear or panic when they fly and avoid flying
altogether. If they must get on a plane, they are
likely to experience panic attacks or other
intense anxiety symptoms.There are treatments
available to those who suffer from a fear of
flying. Below are several treatments for
aerophobia.
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• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
• A person who has a fear of flying generally
  believes that their anxiety is
• based on reality. Often the person's thoughts
  revolve around some
• combination of 'flying is inherently dangerous
  and a sense of being out of
• control. These negative thoughts often increase
  in intensity in the days
• leading up to a flight.
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy in Montreal enables
  the person to manage
• their fear of flying by gradually 'tweaking'
  their thoughts. This CBT is
• based on the notion that thoughts and beliefs are
  interlinked with feelings
• behaviors. That is if one is able to notice and
  'evidence check' one's
• thoughts, it may prevent the person from
  spiraling into anxiety or panic
• attacks. One may need to undergo several sessions
  of CBT to experience a
• noticeable reduction in aerophobia.

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2. Group Therapy / Psychoeducation Group therapy
and psychoeducation allow individuals suffering
from a fear of flying to open up about their
feelings without the hesitancy and shame that may
prevent them from talking about their anxiety. A
group of people with a shared phobia of flying
may assemble at an airport hotel for a weekend,
where they'll engage in a range of
psychoeducation sessions inside the airport. They
will be able to see, hear and perhaps enter a
stationary airplane. These exercises are
conducted in a calm and extremely safe manner to
highlight the safety of planes. By gradually
exposing themselves to the aircraft before
flying, their confidence will gradually increase,
and hopefully become more aware that fears may
not be accurate.
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3. Individual Therapy Individual therapy is
another effective treatment that involves
one-on-one interactions between a therapist and a
client. They work together to work out why the
phobia arose in the first instance and why they
are holding onto the phobia. Individual therapy
is often conducted over multiple sessions and
usually takes several sessions to reduce the
person's flying phobia.
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Medications for Flying Phobia Another option may
be meditation. A doctor or a psychiatrist can
prescribe medication that will help with the
acute symptoms of aerophobia. These medicines
include ? Beta-blockers to control the effects
of adrenaline. ? Benzodiazepines to reduce acute
anxiety and relax your body. ? Antidepressants
to reduce anxiety over a longer period. It should
be noted, antidepressants may take up to one
month to be effective. Whatever the cause of
ones fear of flying, there are a variety of
Montreal Anxiety Therapy treatments available to
help.