Jonathan Bricker was quoted in this Medical News Today article about fear of flying.
Exerpted from Medical News Today
How can you cope with fear of flying?
Published By Maria Cohut Fact checked by Jasmin Collier Today, flying is both the fastest and easiest mode of transport between countries. But many of us are terrorized by the mere thought of boarding a plane. Why is that, and how do we deal with this anxiety?For the majority of us, air travel has become a necessity; we jet between countries to study, work, go on holiday, and meet new people.
The Federal Aviation Administration report that their Air Traffic Organization unit manages more than 42,000 flights and 2.5 million passengers every single day.
Although somewhere around 10,000 planes are airborne and safely carrying their passengers to destinations across the world right now, many of us — including myself — feel sick just thinking about stepping onto a plane.
What ultimately happens is that I become afraid of being afraid, augmenting the anxiety in a vicious cycle. The initial fear is often much less severe and easier to calm than the pit of terror into which denial can throw me.
Jonathan Bricker , Ph.D. — a psychologist from the University of Washington in Seattle — explains that anxiety tends to get worse the more you try to push it away.
"The more you don't want to feel worried," he said, "the more that feeling will come back." He suggests a visualization exercise wherein you "mentally pack [anxiety] into an imagined carry-on bag, which you can store above and below you — the idea being that 'the anxiety is with me, but I bring it with me and still travel wherever I want.'"
Read the entire article here.