Rachel H. (Flying)
Social Worker
Round Rock, TX
I never liked to fly, but in November 2008 during a flight to England I became absolutely terrified of being on a plane. I couldn't sleep or do anything besides panic. I don't know what caused this irrational fear, but after the trip, it started taking a toll on my health. My anxiety increased and I was so tired, I was like a wound up spring all the time and felt really run down. My family lives in England and without being able to overcome this, chances were that I would never get back on the plane to go see my family. I felt like I had zero control over the situation, which really freaked me out and made things worse. I had this overwhelming fear that something bad was going to happen and it was horrible. I felt like I had no control and could not make myself relax.
Initially, I went to a psychiatrist about the anxiety and he put me on a bunch of medications. It was a bad experience because the medications made me feel much worse. I didn't want to go down the medication path again and I was feeling a little desperate about what I was going to do to get over this problem.
We had an upcoming vacation and I felt sick with worry about it. I couldn't stop thinking about it and I couldn't look forward to the vacation because all I could think about was the flying. My sister was having hypnotherapy in England and had very positive things to say about it and my fiancée had had hypnotherapy to help deal with his claustrophobia and he suggested that I try it for my fear of flying. I wanted to be able to go through the flight without being medicated and it was a relief that hypnotherapy might be an alternative approach for me.
Anytime that I go into something new that I have no experience with, I'm somewhat skeptical. I had the belief that hypnosis was kind of weird and I really didn't understand much about it, but I did some research and read about A New Day Hypnosis on Citysearch, so I decided to call.
I noticed immediately after my first session that the stress and anxiety about flying and about life in general had decreased a great deal. After I listened to my session, I felt so much calmer about things. I saw results and I felt motivated and positive about this experience, so it was easy for me to be committed to it.
With the vacation, I got through the flight without panicking. I was in control of my feelings and the fears didn't take over because I was able to suppress irrational thoughts. I listened to music, I read my book and it was really nice to be able to switch off from thinking about the flight. This flight that I was so worried about went so well and my mindset was just different.
I have found this whole experience to be very rewarding and really helped me make a change for the better. I definitely feel more in control of the overall situation. I can choose to think about something else and not focus on fears. I feel like I have achieved the goal to combat my fear of flying.
I would definitely recommend A New Day Hypnosis to anyone who wants to overcome this problem because it has worked so well for me. I am confident that I am free of my fear of flying. I know that if I were to have a little setback along the way, I have the tools and resources to help me get back to where I needed to be. I'm not focusing on the negative stuff the way that I did before and I know that things will continue in a positive light. I'm really glad that I've been able to fix the problem without having to resort to medication because I believe that taking medication doesn't fix a problem permanently; I needed a permanent fix and I do believe that I've found it with the help of hypnosis.