How to Get Over In-Flight Anxiety (Without Gobbling Pills or Drinks)
LatestWith almost one in three American adults anxious about flying, the de-stress ritual of a pre-flight cocktail to in-flight glass of wine/quaaludes routine is coming to be everyone’s go-to for dealing with flying nerves. Now, ain’t nothing wrong with a little booze or a couple of clonazepam to calm your nerves (or maybe there definitely is?), but for longer flights, numbing your anxiety with copious amounts of alcohol and/or pills isn’t always the best travel plan, unless you plan on drunkenly finding your luggage and making out with a bag of Doritos while doing so.
Personally, my fear of flying doesn’t stem from fear of an airplane crash as much as it does from hating sitting in a tin can for hours on end next to someone who usually smells like a sandwich. Or maybe I’m the one who smells like a sandwich? IDK, something somewhere on all airplanes smells like an old turkey sandwich to me, and me and my nerves don’t like it, so I’ve tried my fair share of attempts to tackle in-flight anxiety.
Now, there’s a whole subcategory of self-help books dedicated to getting over your flying anxiety. (Brief aside: SELF-HELP FOR ANXIOUS PEOPLE WILL MAKE YOU MORE ANXIOUS. Unless those “How to Cure Your Anxiety” books are printed on Xanax paper, avoid that shit like it’s the anxiety plague. Sorry, everyone who makes money from selling anxiety books on Amazon.) In my experience, most of the advice is as effective, if not less effective, than rubbing a voodoo amulet and speaking in tongues in the bathroom before getting on the plane.
Here’s some of the strange stuff I’ve tried in the past:
1. Bring a photo of your destination and stare at it: