r/afraidtofly

198 archived posts · Dec 2016 – May 2026

I want to overcome my fear of flying aka. aviophobia

r/afraidtofly

We all know that fear of flying is irrational, yet so many of us get so paralyzed, we can't even get on a plane. This is a community of people that are currently experiencing fear of flying and people that have overcome fear of flying. If you any experiences, please share.

Created Nov 30, 2016

363Members (last snapshot)

198Archived posts

How to get over your fear: This is the simplified version of what you need to do and of course it will require time commitment. The difficult part will be finding out what works best for you. The most important thing you need to understand is that fear of flying is not part of your personality, or who you are. It is an acquired fear and you absolutely can have it under control. People that have made the decision to fight it eventually succeed. This is how most people learn to manage their anxiety:

Understand aviation - you need to understand how planes work, what are all the different sounds, why turbulance is not dangerous, how are planes maintained, what does one have to go through to become a pilot, why it's good that wings swing when flying, etc.
Learn to control your anxiety - this is a teachable skill. Breathing exercises, meditation (Headspace app is a great start), visualisations (imagine that you're in a bus), etc.

This subreddit should provide all materials, you just have to find out what works best for you. Feel free to reach out for help, we're here to help each other. Finding the right materials to learn from is what takes most time. There isn't one-size-fits-all solution (or at least not yet) so you'll have to do the research on your own.

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