How do you deal with a phobia?

That's like saying very few people have a fear of water - they have a fear of drowning. Or very few people have a fear of flying - they have a fear of crashing.

What's the difference?

 

I don't know, you'd have to ask the psychologists, but I'm sure lots of money has been spent to figure that out.

 

No i find it logical though, for myself i was afraid of spiders for a long time, and i had one day "the opportunity" to make relation with one big hairy spider. When the owner told me she doesnt bite i realized i was afraid of being hurt rather than touching that hairy stuff. So when i knew she cant hurt me, it was fun. But one thing i learn is we never know i might have been lucky with this spider, the next one might bite. Since then i feel like indiana jones

 

I guess that does make a lot of sense, for me anyway. The scenery from "way up" is awesome and I've always loved it, but that thought of "going down" from such an altitude is the real problem.

Hmmm ... I'm thinking of a Mel Brooks movie for my Sunday afternoon ....

 

Just remember: falling doesn't hurt, it's the sudden deceleration that does.

Here's a link from my site to give you hope.

 

I must have been on around 200 flights before i turned 12. I have not been on the plane for around 5 years now and i think im starting to develop a phobia. Im absolutely shitting myself already even though my holiday is in two months time. I have no idea why, i used to love it. I guess when i was a kid i did not know the dangers. But yet again you are more likely to get killed in a car crash.

-edit-

as to dealing with it. I am planning to get nicely drunk on the plane.

 

Dieing in a car crash is preferable to the long terrifying plumit or crash landing of an airplane!

Pete

Ps. I can think of no better way then to leave this world then DRUNK and plumetting to your death in an airplane. That would be a pretty good way to go. Sober though? No thanks.

 

I see. And you say this because you have experienced both?

 

I want to die like my grandfather, peacefully in my sleep ... not terrified and screaming like the passengers in his car.

 

They have medications that help releave your anxiety without making you feel "drugged." My son takes Xanex, prescribed by his doctor, when he has to fly for business.

My daughter takes if for medical procedures that involve her needle phobia.

Ask your doctor about this. You are not alone with this common phobia.

 

Another excellent solution is to stop setting planes on fire - that way you get to exit slowly in the normal way with people saying "buh-bye" as you walk down the ramp.

 

Cool. Watch out for yfs though! He loves to touch little boys.

 

Xanex is one of the worst most addictive drugs you can ever take. 20% of people who try to get off it by themselves cold turkey die. http://www.benzo.org.uk/

 

Oh, please.

Low doses of benzodiazepines are taken by probably millions of people around the world. They are helpful for a variety of anxiety-related disorders and perfectly safe when taken in normally prescribed doses.

There is an addictive aspect to benzodiazepines, that part is true, but discontinuing them is not that difficult, as long as you taper off gradually over a period of a few weeks, and the "withdrawal symptoms" are basically rebound anxiety and insomnia.

Statements like "20% of people who try to get off it by themselves cold turkey die" are irresponsible and false. First, any competent physician will instruct patients NOT to discontinue the medication abruptly but even those who do would be subjecting themselves only to unnecessary rebound anxiety and insomnia, hardly death.

 

You're right discontinuing them is less difficult if you taper off them.

But seizures and psychosis are common place for people who do try it cold turkey and there are people who still try this.

If you take them six months to a year you'll be addicted and you will struggle to come off them.

The types of mild anxiety that people are prescribed these drugs for are nothing compared to the anxiety that people suffer when trying to come off them.

Many people are prescribed them when they should be learning some relaxation techniques and getting some counselling.

 

You are grossly overestimating the withdrawal effects for the medications and dosages commonly prescribed. If you are talking about people who have been abusing the medication or taking them without prescription, the withdrawal effects may be more serious, but even at that "death" is a bit opf an overstatement.

You speak as if it's either or - it isn't. Additionally, I can't speak for the situation in Australia but I can assure you most Canadian doctors are very reluctant to prescribe benzodiazepines even in cases where they are likely to be helpful, precisely because of the addictive potential. If anything, they are underprescribed here, not overprescribed.

 

Well thats fortunate for Canada. Its not the case in Australia.

I have seen this happen to someone close to me. They had a very bad reaction to just taking them over 3 months. They became psychotic. And it was very difficult for them to get off them.

Thankfullly they live a normal successful life now. The mild anxiety they suffered at the time certainly didn't warrant the casual prescription they recieved.

I would recommend that anybody avoid them at all costs. The potential benefits are far outweighted by the potential risks.

 

With all due respect, there must be more to this story... much more. These medications do not make people psychotic. If anything, they bear some resemblance to medications which are sometimes used to treat psychosis.

Again, with all due resepct, you are simply not in a position to make such recommendations... especially in a thread where a previous poster has indicated that his daughter is taking one of the medications you are trying to tell people not to take. Are you suggesting that you know more that the girl's physician and/or are in a better position to determine her medical needs or anyone else's? And all this on the basis of anectdotal evidence of the experience of a friend which you blame on Xanax, almost certainly erroneously? I think that is dangerous and irresponsible.

 

Well I think prescribing drugs benzos is dangerous and irresponsible. A lot of people would agree with me from what they've seen from the anectdot evidence as well.

Do I trust the "evidence" done by the studies? No. There's major money involved.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion but I see it as no more valid as mine.

I have no commercial interest in any product or service that is a competitor to the benzo drug industry. I have no economic interest whatsoever that would cause me to have an opinion against benzo's.

I do not think that all pharmacuetical drugs are bad.

I'm not saying categorically that Benzo's cause psychosis. But I am saying is thats its highly likely that they do and that for some people the effects can be deadly.

 

Antecdotal evidence almost always turns out to be just plain wrong. Your first mistake is visiting websites like the one you referenced above - really, do you think that is providing you with a balanced view of anything at all?

To be blunt, I think you're wrong about that. I have almost 30 years experience in research and clinical practice in the mental health field, and I base my conclusions on numerous research studies and observations of hundreds or thousands of patients during that time, not anectdotal suppositions from a single friend or an anti-psychiatry website. I don't know you, of course, but I think it safe to assume that you do not have a background in the area nor a fund of knowledge adequate to justify your making medical recommednations.

I wasn't assuming or suggesting that you do. I think you are misguided, not malevolent or malicious.

And, for the reasons given above, I am telling you that they do not cause psychosis and that you are greatly overstating the risks to people taking these medications under doctor's orders at the recommended doses. I am also saying again that you are doing a great disservice to the thousands or millions of people who have already benefited from these and similar medications, and to those who might benefit if they are not dissuaded by erronoeus catastrophic statements such as yours.