Thank you r/fearofflying

I feel like after my double flight (layover) yesterday I needed to come back here and thank everyone who contributes to this subreddit. For the first time yesterday I have flown where I fully enjoyed the process and the flight. I have come a long way after many flights, reading posts, watching videos, exposure therapy and I have this community to thank. I was the guy who was quietly speaking in tongues to myself freaking out but not trying to freak people out around me, gripped by anxiety and impending doom. When I was a kid I loved flying, I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was realizing my own mortality, maybe it was 9/11. In either case, I want people who have a fear of flying to know that you can come out the other side as someone who enjoys flying and can get excited at all the travel doors it will open for you. The biggest thing to help me is that you to feed your brain with information. Become a student of aviation, learn how an airplane plane flys, what the sounds mean, what the sensations mean. Watch cockpit videos. Your mind will fill in all gaps of information that you normally fill with negative thoughts. The lack of information is why your brain goes straight to doom. Keep learning until your brain gives up and there are no more gaps to fill. This subreddit suggested Flightradar24 to track flights and just seeing the visual of the incredible number of flights in the sky at any given time and knowing that 99.9999 percent of flights land safely is a huge power up for me. Force yourself to look out the window, matching the visual to what your body is feeling helps. Lastly, a big help for me is to watch the flight attendants faces. If they are not panicked, then neither should you. I still don’t like some sensations, but I don’t feel in danger and give myself permission to not like the sensations. I just want to offer hope that it IS POSSIBLE to enjoy flying and I can’t wait to keep traveling. Thank you r/fearofflying.