I need to fess up. I have a little secret I’ve been harboring. While I am a seasoned traveller I actually suffer excruciating anxiety during the lead up to a flight. However, I also think anxiety is perfectly natural. We all suffer it from time to time. But how can we recognise it and prevent it stopping us from travel?
My anxiety manifests 2-3 days prior to take off with a lead in of days and weeks. I rarely sleep for at least 48 hours before a flight as I become paranoid that I will miss our check-in. T still talks about our stopover in Hong Kong where I stayed awake for 3 days just to make sure we saw the city and got on our flight home. The only positive was that I fell to sleep as soon as I clicked my seat belt on and I then continued to slumber until we hit the tarmac in Sydney.
As a parent I’m fearful that if I allow my anxiety to roll on too much I will model some behavious that aren’t productive. So….what am I doing about my anxiety especially now that I can’t sleep through the entire flight and be assured the kids are okay? I’ve provided a few strategies that work for me which may help you with your own travel anxiety.
- Be AWARE (Acknowledge, Watch, Act Normally, Repeat, Expect the Best). This can help break the cycle of avoidance which often just makes it worse. Breathing is so very important.
- Be organised. On a rational level this allows me to note that I am top of everything and it’s just my anxiety talking when my mind starts telling me that I might forget something.
- Reframe. I first heard about this concept when I was participating in a course through NIDA. Basically reframing involves you flipping your thoughts from the negative into a positive. Anxiety for me manifests as butterflies in my tummy, shaky hands, scatty thoughts and a need to make sure everything is running in plan. Excitement also looks much the same so I try to reframe my anxiety by thinking of it as excitement. I am excited about flying and excited to be heading home.
- Support. Having T with me alleviates a lot of my anxiety. He reassures me that all is well and can tell me when my anxiety is talking.
- Releasing control. This has been one of the most difficult yet refreshing elements to supporting my travel anxiety. By relinquishing some of our travel planning to T I am able to take a back seat and let things roll on how he has planned.
Just to be clear, I’m not a professional when it comes to managing your anxiety. What works for me may not work for you. Need more help? Beyond Blue has some fantastic resources on anxiety that you may find useful.
My son suffers from air sickness which has manifested into anxiety before a flight. Last trip I got him to break down each element we had to do before boarding to help come him eg. park the car, catch the bus, check in, complete forms, customs, security. As we focussed just on the current job it helped prevent him from worrying abou the next.
That’s a fantastic strategy. I find lists help me too. Focusing on the job at hand seems to help me focus. Was the trip successful?