I’m claustrophobic and facing a long flight

Q: I'm claustrophobic: I must spend 14 hours on plane. What can I do? Thank you.

A: You did not say when you will be spending the 14 hours on the plane - but my guess is that it's probably fairly soon. And, unhappily, I don’t have an email solution that will work that quickly.

One thing you could do it to look up a therapist who has trained in NLP to Master Practitioner standard i.e. has had at least 240 hours of NLP training. The NLP approach might produce a quick fix for your claustrophobia.

Your email address suggests that you may live in Italy. As I do not have any contacts there you will have to search this out yourself, perhaps using Google.

My first 'attack'

Q: I had my first claustrophobic panic attack on a "small" plane yesterday: 6.2 feet ceiling, 2 seats each side, very narrow aisle, a fully booked commercial plane.

I have been on these planes many times before without problem. It happened in 30 seconds. I was amazed. Two minutes after sitting down I suddenly had to get off, and I did.

After about 5 minutes just outside the plane door, I got back into my seat, scared s***less, but convinced I had to deal with this. I was 1000 miles from home on Sunday and I had to work Mon.

I read intently, and was annoyed with everyone who closed their shades or walked by in the incredibly narrow aisle, but I survived. Horrible.

Any suggestions as to what type of treatment is best? What medicine, hypnotherapy, desensitisation should I consider?

R: What type of treatment? I'd suggest that you look out for an NLP-trained professional. My guess is that you live in North America and I cannot offer you names there. So instead, I suggest that check Google and search on ‘NLP mytown state’.

Then telephone the listed institutes or organisations and check out their experience in specifically working with flying phobias or, ideally, with panic attacks.

Sounds like you had a panic rather than a phobic reaction. Panics often occur as the result of a period of fairly intense worry or stress or disruption of one's lifestyle. So deal with the panic and you'll soon be comfortable flying again.

Important: please read our caution regarding all health-related advice.

Fear of flying and claustrophobia