Why Anti-Anxiety Meds Really Don’t Help with Flying Phobia

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Why Anti-Anxiety Meds Really Don’t Help with Flying Phobia

Over the years I have heard from many people that they have tried using anti-anxiety drugs like Klonopin or Xanax to deal with their fear of flying. While these meds can help with a mild amount of discomfort for those who fly only occasionally, when it comes to the severe physical, psychological, and behavioral symptoms that go with aviophobia, sedatives and benzos like Valium and Xanax only serve to worsen the fear response over time. 

There are several reasons for this. The main one being that when you dull your senses and awareness to any type of experience, you are essentially avoiding that experience. Just like with any situation that triggers the flight/fight response, avoidance only reinforces the idea that it is dangerous. The fear part of the brain concludes: “oh, you are keeping me away from this, I must be right that it is dangerous.”  Plus, use of a substance that dulls your senses teaches your brain that to survive it you must have that ‘crutch’. A belief can form that this is ‘necessary’ to get through the experience of air travel. 

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Over time, people who use anti-anxiety meds like Klonopin and Xanax, for any reason, can come to rely on it more heavily.  The brain and body get used to that effortlessly achieved state of relaxation. Frequency can then increase from occasionally, to regularly, and eventually to daily. At a certain point, as tolerance builds, one can start to ‘need’ anxiolytics to keep feeling ‘normal’. Then what often happens is that the individual builds an intolerance for any experience that triggers anxiety because they become ‘used’ to the feeling of comfort of an anxiolytic and start to believe that can cannot function without it. That medicated state becomes their baseline. At this point, they’re well into the dependance process. Unfortunately, I have seen cases where doctors end up keeping their patients on daily anxiolytics for years, afraid of their patients’ anger were they to insist on coming off them.  Physical dependence has set in and withdrawal symptoms from sudden stoppage can be severe and sometimes life-threatening. This is why anti-anxiety medications are highly addictive and can lead to physical and psychological dependence. 

More importantly, relying on anti-anxiety medications can prevent you from developing healthier coping strategies for dealing with and overcoming your phobia. For that reason, I don’t accept clients on anti-anxiety medications and require them to work with their doctor to safely come off them for a minimum period before we employ any change method, which can vary based on individual factors. Achieving confidence and a belief in one’s own self-reliance cannot be effectively accomplished with someone who remains dependent on anti-anxiety medication.  

Another significant concern is that long-term use of benzodiazepines can make the brain more sensitive to stimuli that trigger the phobia. This phenomenon, benzodiazepine-induced neurological dysfunction (BIND), can result in heightened sensitivity to light, noise, and other sensory inputs. As a result, individuals may become more anxious and reactive to the very stimuli they are trying to avoid, making their phobia worse rather than better. 

Additionally, benzodiazepines can impact memory and cognitive function, making it harder for people to regulate their emotions and process and manage their anxiety effectively. For anyone who needs to utilize their brain as a source of income, this cost of being on daily anti-anxiety medication is obvious. 

For these reasons, the risks of any regular use of anti-anxiety medication are not worth the temporary relief that it brings. Even for the very occasional flyer, who wants to arrive at their destination with that tired and drained feeling that comes with taking an anti-anxiety medication? 

If you are interested in learning more about how the TOTAL RESET program can change your life by enabling you to attend family events, go on stress-free vacations with your romantic partner, and supercharge your business by allowing you to go anywhere in the world, then use the link below to schedule your free strategy session.

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