Hypnosis for Fear of Flying: How Can Hypnotherapy Help?

Fear of flying is one of the leading phobias these days. About 40% of Americans deal with feeling anxious or nervous while flying. You may even have felt like this on one of your flights.

Fear of flying is an anxiety disorder and fear is more associated with anxiety than flying. Hypnotherapy has been found to be helpful with fear of flying significantly.

What is Fear of Flying?

Fear of flying is an anxiety or panic response to flying or air travel. Although the probability of being hurt during air travel is significantly lower than other forms of travel, one can still develop a fear of flying, which points out the fact that fear of flying is mostly associated with anxiety within.

Symptoms of fear of flying differ from person to person. The most common ones are:

- Increased heartbeat in an airplane

- Anticipation before the flight

- Irritability during/ before the flight

- Panic upon entering an airplane

How does fear of flying develop?

Although fear of flying is known to be associated with internal conflicts, there can be many reasons why one experiences this type of phobia.

Traumatic flight experiences in the past

Nowadays, air travel is safer than ever before. However, there are still some instances when we may experience difficult flying conditions such as significant changes in cabin pressure, rough weather conditions, emergency landings, or even plane crashes.

These scary experiences can leave a mark and cause worry and nervousness on future flights. Sometimes even hearing the news about a plane crash can fuel fear of flying.

Anxiety disorder

Anxiety is a very powerful and disturbing response that can easily distort someone’s way of thinking. When someone is anxious, they may feel jittery, out of breath, nausea, and stiffness. These physical symptoms are exactly the things someone who is dealing with the fear of flying may feel. So if you are dealing with chronic anxiety, you may be more prone to develop a fear of flying.

Even if you are not an anxious person, if you didn’t sleep well the night before the flight, if you didn’t eat for more than 4 hours before the flight, or if you are especially having a bad day on the day of the flight, you may naturally feel anxious and associate the anxiety with flying.

Other circumstantial causes 

Significant life changes can also trigger anxious feelings. If you are going through a hard time in your life, you may associate that with flying as well. For example, if you are laid off and dealing with the stress of finding a new job, the disappointment of being fired unexpectedly, and other related emotions; you may be in an emotionally vulnerable position. When flying during this time of your life, you may feel more anxious than normal and associate this feeling with flying.

How can hypnosis help with the fear of flying?

Hypnotherapy is generally known to be helpful with fears and phobias. The reason is that not only you can address the anxiety issues subconsciously with hypnosis but also you can address the past experiences with hypnosis as well.

Although hypnosis and hypnotherapy are still largely under-studied areas, there is some research supporting that hypnosis can be very helpful with lowering anxiety and dissolving fears. In one study that was reported by the Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 3 different subjects received hypnosis to help with their fear of flying. At the end of the research, all 3 subjects reported feeling significantly less anxiety and comfort with flying.

When it comes to fear of flying, hypnosis can act as a coping mechanism, a subconscious tool for relaxation, and increasing confidence in one’s ability to handle different uncomfortable situations.

During hypnosis, a hypnotherapist may use a variety of techniques depending on the subject’s needs. One common hypnosis technique that is used for helping with fears and phobias is systematic desensitization. This can be described as the subconscious form of exposure therapy.

Other hypnotic interventions include memory regression, emotional release techniques, and anchoring a positive feeling to be retrieved during the onset of anxiety.

Can self-hypnosis help with the fear of flying?

Considering fear of flying is highly associated with anxiety and stress, self-hypnosis can be helpful to improve the intensity and symptoms. Although self-hypnosis is a light state of hypnosis, it is still very powerful to change the subconscious way of being.  

By training the mind to be calm and relaxed with self-hypnosis, you can gradually feel comfortable while flying as well. Additionally, self-hypnosis can help with releasing the stressors or other worries that may be keeping the mind busy.  

One important element of self-hypnosis is repetition. Adding self-hypnosis as your daily practice to your schedule can help you relieve the fear of flying in addition to the stressful feelings associated with it!