02/19/2025

What to Do If You’re Anxious about Flying Right Now

During the best of times, flight anxiety is normal

Anxiety about flying is common during the best of times: Research suggests up to 40 percent of people worldwide have some degree of aerophobia. Add a string of recent plane crashes and other horrifying incidents to the mix, and feeling jittery about boarding a plane seems perfectly reasonable.

"I'm hearing about it a lot from patients, and we talk about it within the psychiatry department, too," said Dr. Nathan Carroll, chief resident of psychiatry at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, who is scheduled to take a flight in two weeks. "People are like, 'Ehhh, maybe I’ll drive instead.'"

Such anxiety is natural—but, he stresses, shouldn’t overshadow the fact that flying is still safe in the U.S. “Despite it being in the news so frequently, we know it's really safe,” he said. "There are thousands and thousands of flights every day that don't crash. If we compare it to cars, it's still way safer." 

Please select this link to read the complete article fromTIME.