Treating the Fear of Flying: Psychologist David Carbonell, Ph.D., Describes his Acceptance-Based Approach
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By Dennis Miller
Dr. Carbonell, the Director of the Anxiety Treatment Center in Illinois, believes that overcoming a phobia requires accepting, embracing and feeling the fear. People often have the idea, ‘Well, first show me how to be unafraid so then I can fly.- It-s actually much easier to reverse that, he explains.
The Anxiety Trick
Reversing it means coming to understand what he calls the ‘anxiety trick.- The anxiety trick is this: people experience discomfort, but they respond as if it were danger," he explains. This is of fundamental importance, because what-s good for danger is basically fighting or running away. If there-s a predatory wolf trying to make a meal out of you, fighting or running away is a good response. But if what you
have is not at all dangerous but only a discomfort, well then fighting just makes it worse, because there-s nothing to hit, nothing to run away from. What-s good for discomfort is basically to slow down, chill out, give yourself time to let the feelings pass. It-s really the opposite of what-s good for danger."In a talk he delivered at the Anxiety Disorders Association of America-s Annual Conference in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico entitled, Acceptance-Based Methods for Overcoming the Fear of Flying, Dr. Carbonell detailed the acceptance-based treatment method he utilizes to help fearful flyers, many of whom have had their lives severely disrupted or limited by their inability to travel by air. The program follows a five-week schedule with groups of four to eight people meeting weekly for four 90-minute sessions, ultimately culiminating with an actual short flight together.
What Patients Really Fear Most
Though education, journaling and other techniques, patients are brought to the realization that what they really fear probably isn-t dying in a plane crash, but that they may lose control and embarrass themselves during a flight because of their fear. By encouraging patients instead to recognize, embrace and feel that fear, the technique teaches them that they can feel it, can manage it and can survive it. Paradoxically, that realization usually causes the fear itself to evaporate. When people can cease the struggle against the anxiety and allow themselves to feel it, that-s when it tends to subside, Dr. Carbonell explains. It-s all the fighting that they-ve done that-s kept them more anxious.
For More Information
- Listen to the interview using the audio player above.
- Read a complete transcript of the interview.
- Visit the Anxiety Treatment Center-s Website.
- Visit the Anxiety Disorders Association of America-s Website.
- Use the media player below to watch "Solving the Puzzle of Panic Disorder," a YouTube video created by Dr. Carbonell.
- Watch more videos created by Dr. Carbonell on YouTube.
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