Friday, February 13, 2009
Aviophobia
"When she heard news of the Continental Airlines plane that plunged into a house in suburban Buffalo, New York, on Thursday night, killing 50 people, Jenny Gomez experienced a familiar feeling creep deep within her psyche. 'It definitely sparked those old feelings of anxiety,' she said."
Gomez was never scared of flying as a child, but when she reached adolescent she started getting panicky feelings whenever there was a little shake on the plane. During one of her psychology classes, she figured out she had aviophobia, the fear of flying. She's not the only one though.
"An estimated 10 percent to 25 percent of the U.S. population experiences the phobia of flying, according to the American Psychological Association."
At the same time though...
"In contrast, the risk of dying in a jet crash has been estimated to be one in 70 million, according to MIT statistician Arnold Barnett, who has performed statistical analyses for the Federal Aviation Administration."
One of the causes of aviophobia would be seeing the results of airplane crashes, and the trauma develops from there. Another would be thinking that even the slightest shake in a plane can treaten their safety. Doing breathing exercises and relaxing might help people temporarily, but they would most likely need a licenced mental health professional, or simply learn about flying.
"'If I was sitting in the cockpit, I would have had no problems at all. It's the lack of control, sitting in the back of the plane, that would get to me, so when I learned what all the sounds were and how unlikely it would be that the plane would actually fall out of the sky, that's what really helped me.'" (Gomez)
I myself might have slight aviophobia-- only when there's a lot of turbulence, which only happened to me once. Other than that though, I really have no problem, although I can see why others would. I mean, you're so high up and anything can happen in your mind when you don't know about the sky.
Abedeen, S (2009, February, 13). Seeing crash reports can worsen flying
phobia. CNN, Retrieved February 13, 2009, from
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/13/flying.phobia.crashes/index.html
Gomez was never scared of flying as a child, but when she reached adolescent she started getting panicky feelings whenever there was a little shake on the plane. During one of her psychology classes, she figured out she had aviophobia, the fear of flying. She's not the only one though.
"An estimated 10 percent to 25 percent of the U.S. population experiences the phobia of flying, according to the American Psychological Association."
At the same time though...
"In contrast, the risk of dying in a jet crash has been estimated to be one in 70 million, according to MIT statistician Arnold Barnett, who has performed statistical analyses for the Federal Aviation Administration."
One of the causes of aviophobia would be seeing the results of airplane crashes, and the trauma develops from there. Another would be thinking that even the slightest shake in a plane can treaten their safety. Doing breathing exercises and relaxing might help people temporarily, but they would most likely need a licenced mental health professional, or simply learn about flying.
"'If I was sitting in the cockpit, I would have had no problems at all. It's the lack of control, sitting in the back of the plane, that would get to me, so when I learned what all the sounds were and how unlikely it would be that the plane would actually fall out of the sky, that's what really helped me.'" (Gomez)
I myself might have slight aviophobia-- only when there's a lot of turbulence, which only happened to me once. Other than that though, I really have no problem, although I can see why others would. I mean, you're so high up and anything can happen in your mind when you don't know about the sky.
Abedeen, S (2009, February, 13). Seeing crash reports can worsen flying
phobia. CNN, Retrieved February 13, 2009, from
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/13/flying.phobia.crashes/index.html
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