Do not fight fear of flying with tranquilizers

Do not fight fear of flying with tranquilizers

01/24/2015

In some people, who are afraid of flying, typical symptoms, such as sweating hands, tachycardia or respiratory distress occur some days before an upcoming flight. To cope with the fear, some sufferers resort to sedatives. But according to experts, these can make the problem even worse.

Sedatives can aggravate situation
People who are afraid of flying (also called aviophobia) should never try to treat them with a sedative. „Sedatives can aggravate the situation for fear of flying patients“, Harald Krebs told the magazine „pharmacy magazine“. As reported by the news agency dts, the doctor treated as a psychotherapist at the University of Würzburg people with fear of flying. According to the scientist, the physical side effects could really cause anxiety. Especially if the passenger does not know the means before. Accordingly, certain preparations could cause dizziness, for example. A fear of flying seminar or a behavioral therapy would be more suitable for people with fear of flying.

Breathing exercises and relaxation techniques
Relaxation methods can help in many cases, to take the fear of those affected, but if these are not sufficient, the mentioned fear of flying seminars are recommended. An integral part of such seminars is usually the teaching of strategies for coping with anxiety. With the help of learned breathing exercises and relaxation techniques the typical reactions of the body should be better controlled. Progressive muscle relaxation and autogenic training are considered particularly suitable. In most cases, a joint test flight is pending at the end of fear of flying seminars. (Ad)