Flying with Confidence is a 200-page paperback written by Patricia Furness-Smith, a psychologist and specialist in flying phobias, and Captain Steve Allright, a British Airways (BA) pilot with 20 years flying experience.
BA has been running a ‘Flying with Confidence’ course for 25 years but as a place on the course costs from £250 this book at £10.99 is a more affordable guide to help overcome the anxieties and phobias people may have about flying.
The book is divided into two sections with the first part covering the technical side of flying while the second provides the reader with tools to overcome their fears. The style is easy to read and comprehend. Key points appear boxed and highlighted and contain one or two sentences to ensure the reader has grasped the salient point. Diagrams are illustrative and without too much detail. The use of analogies to relate everyday actions and experiences to those of flight are helpful.
An entire chapter is given over to turbulence and weather that for many anxious fliers causes great distress. Many of the scenarios that are expanded on are extremely rare. Even for the experienced flier it is helpful to know Captain Allright’s diversion ratings, which are given out of 10, for such conditions as ice and thunderstorms through to a plane being hit by lightening. None scores more than 3/10.
For many, despite the theory, how to master their fear is what is more important. Patricia Furness-Smith explains phobias and why they manifest. She likens the medical term phobia to an imp and uses this analogy to link an image that the reader can easily identify with. This use of analogy is developed further when she describes the lower brain, the limbic system, and the neocortex. The amygdala is likened to ‘The General’ and the autonomic nervous system.
Throughout the book there are short case histories further allowing the reader to identify with stressful situations that occur when having to take a flight. Panic attacks and the resulting emotional and physical symptoms are listed in detail to enable the reader to then use the ‘toolbox’ of techniques that are categorised using the letter ‘R’. These are React, Regulate, Relax, and Rehearse.
The final sections of the book cover the ‘how to’. There are detailed techniques that use cognitive behavioural therapy and breathing as the main methods of reducing stress and panic. Guided visualisation and positive thought are further techniques used to induce relaxation before the reader takes an imaginary trip that leaves home, encompasses check-in and boarding, the in-flight experience, and finally landing. This trip is interwoven with the exercises that previously the reader had practised.
This book is a useful adjuvant, that I, as a GP, could recommend to the phobic or fearful flier alongside the possible prescription for an anxiolytic. Explanations and practical techniques aim to give the anxious flier control over their destiny and to reclaim part of their lost life.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2013