_audacity

I’ve been dealing with this all summer (traveling back and forth from America to Europe). Used to be I couldn’t think about planes without freaking.

Then medication came along and it was the BEST THING EVER because it showed me that I can fly without being terrified. Now that I know it’s possible that the panic cycle can be broken, it’s so much easier for me to deal with planes.

I can deal with a little fear, a little hand-holding, and a little Ativan, no problem; but a life spent held back and homebound because of pure fear is terrible. Eventually I’d like to fly without the minimal amount of medication I use, but I think that I’ll check this as done when I get home, which will hopefully be when I overcome flying as something crippling or problematic for my life.

One of the articles below suggested replacing yes or no thoughts – - ex. “yes of course I locked the door, shut up brain, shut up shut up shut up” – - with thoughts relating to choice and chance. i.e., “yes, so maybe there is a chance that not tapping that object with my left hand is unlucky. but you know what? i’m going to take the chance that it’s not, and not do it.”

It’s working really well so far! It’s much easier to dismiss things when you don’t have to obsess about rightness or wrongness (which can be incorrect) but can instead choose (which is an act of will).

Going a little better. Being aware is always the best place to start, and even reading just a bit of cog.therapy helps fend of intrusive thoughts.

I do appreciate that those articles have some (small, academic) sense of humor—it’s certainly easier to deal with evenness issues when you actually tell yourself “yes. yes I bet being uneven will just KILL me. mmmmmmhhhmm.”

So stopping those in their tracks is going better.