Fight The Fear

Approximately ten million people in the UK suffer with a debilitating phobia. When Charlotte Haigh’s fear of flying threatened to damage her mental health, she took action…

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I can pinpoint exactly when my flying phobia started. I was coming back from a weekend in France with my then-boyfriend and it had been a difficult two days – he was withdrawn and aloof, and it was obvious he was losing interest in the relationship. I’d barely slept and was already feeling agitated by the time we boarded the packed plane. All I could see and hear were noisy, drunk people. Making my way to the middle seat I’d been allocated, I felt trapped between my dismissive boyfriend and another man who reeked of beer and cigarettes. I was suddenly gripped with the certain knowledge that I was going to die on that plane, with people who didn’t care about me. When I told Mark* and he laughed at me for being irrational, I just felt more paranoid. I spent the rest of the flight in tears, with my heart pounding, alert to every noise the engine made. Of course, we landed safely in London, but I swore I’d never fly again. And for almost three years, I didn’t.

This isn’t unusual, according to Dr Dmitri Popelyuk, consultant psychiatrist at Twenty-five Harley Street (25harleystreet.co.uk). ‘People tend to handle phobias by trying to avoid the source of the fear. However, this can inhibit our work and relationships.’ Research also reveals that avoiding your fear often makes it bigger. Who knows – had I got straight back on a plane after that first panic, I may have nipped it in the bud. But, like the estimated ten million others in the UK who currently live with a phobia, I avoided it in the hope that it would go away.