Tina Hello,
First of all, thank you for your website. It is so helpful to me as a fearful flyer, and has eased some of my fears a bit.

I am sure that most, if not all, of my fears about flying are irrational. However, I still have them and people telling me they are irrational does not help me, because I already know that, and it doesn't make them go away.

I am actually in the middle of a trip right now. I have flown many times in my life, and I became fearful in my teenage years. I cannot pinpoint a certain time that I became scared, there was no significant event. The last time I flew was three years ago. Then, 2 days ago, I got on a plane to go on a vacation with a friend. I was scared, I had been scared since I booked the flight. However, I told myself I would be fine. I ran all the rational thoughts "people fly all the time" "It's safer than driving" through my head, but it doesn't help! As it turned out, the ride was awful. We dealt with some turbulence, and I was absolutely white-knuckled. My palms were so sweaty I couldn't grip the seat, my breathing was out of control; I felt terrified! Worse yet, we had to connect, so I had to experience the whole thing all over again...we didn't even have time to rest between flights, we got off one and directly on to another. By the end of it, I was absolutely physically and emotionally drained. I can't deal with that again on the way back home.

Basically, I'm afraid of a few things. I'm afraid that SOMETHING mechanical is going to go wrong with the plane in-flight, or during take-off, whether it's human or computer error. I don't know what- a wing falling off, a fire, some type of failure that would cause the plane to "break" and we would go down. I don't like turbulence, and I was very afraid of it on this recent flight, but your tips have soothed me somewhat, so at least I know it is normal and not something that is causing the plane distress. I am afraid of flying through bad weather though- I feel as though we will just be tossed about and blown around! I do feel sometimes as though the plane is just going to "fall out of the air", even though I have now learned that that isn't possible. I am mostly afraid that some error is going to be made and we are going to go down, or that the weather is going to effect the plane negatively and that will cause a crash.

I know that is a lot, and I appreciate ANYTHING you have to say! THANK YOU!