30 Heartwarming Pics Of People Overcoming Flight Anxiety

My grandma is 101 and recently fell and broke her hip and then got shingles, so I knew it was time to fly out and see her. I am so happy I did and would have regretted it forever more if I didn’t get on the plane.

Flew from Lihue, Kauai to Seattle the other day, and I was totally amazed that the pilot came out and not only spoke to us in first class, but walked down the entire plane to speak with all passengers on the flight!
He cracked a few jokes, talked about our ride into Seattle, and if we needed anything to let his FA’s know.
I do not love flying, often get pretty nervous about turbulence and flying over the ocean for hours on end, but this gesture from this pilot made me feel SO much more at ease, safe, and comfortable on the flight knowing him and his team were in control.
I will never forget this! And I hope more pilots do the same thing. It truly puts passengers at ease. Just wanted to share!!

Whenever I’m nervous, I look at flight radar. This screenshot isn’t even every flight visible, because there’s so many my phone glitches out lol. But when I’m scared, sometimes I click on random planes, see the type of plane, airline, and how far they are to their destination. It makes me feel so much better seeing everyone else going about their lives and knowing I can do the same.
It might feel scary actually doing the thing, but you’re just one person in a sea of people in the exact same situation as you.

So I’m the queen of handing out but not taking my own advice. I’m nearly landing from a 9 hour flight back to London. It is a red eye so I was super tired and cranky in the build up. As we are waiting to board the plane I had a full blown incredibly embarrassing panic attack. I literally had to crouch on the floor in the queue with my head on my knees and try to breath. But I couldn’t stop crying and hyperventilating for a good 15 minutes. There were tons of people around me but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. And all my knowledge and practice around panicking went out the window.
But somehow I still got on the plane. I paid a small amount to be bumped up a class. Didn’t make eye contact with anyone as I was mortified. Even more surprisingly I fell asleep and woke up to a sweet note someone had left me on a napkin.
Now I don’t even feel scared about landing. This sounds terrible but I’m so emotionally exhausted I just feel like well…we are coming down one way or another. 😂
Last photo is my final sunset in Florida.

I can not express the gratitude I can offer to you guys. After years of wanting to go but was far to afraid I made it to Japan. This has been a long journey both mentally and physically (13 hours) but I'm here and enjoying every minute!

I saw another post and wanted to copy this idea because I found it very inspiring! A weekend in London was well worth it!

I made it to Guam from Frankfurt through Tokyo with Japan airlines! I was pretty anxious and was not able to watch any movies at all during both flights, but I managed to sleep a little on the way to Tokyo. My least favorite parts are definitely take off and landing. I managed to cope through turbulences by picturing the airplane in a block of jello analogy, that helped a lot. First I felt pretty ridiculous being so scared of something so trivial but decided to tell the crews about my nervousness. I am happy I did because they were all super sweet. They checked on me regularly, brought me water after bumpy events and even candy for take off. It definitely made me feel better. Also knowing that if they had time to check on me it meant nothing terrible was happening with the aircraft. Right before landing on Guam, one FA gave me this super sweet card. I did a lot of box breathing and silently repeated in my head like a mantra, that the FA and pilots do this every day as their job, so it can't possibly be that dangerous! I am happy to finally be on solid ground and will enjoy my 3 weeks here before doing it all over again to go back home...

Norway has been the top of my bucket list for as long as I can remember, and I finally made it! An 8.5 hour flight to Oslo and 2 hour flight to Tromso, and I’m not 100% anxiety-free, but it was so worth it!

This is what the pilot gave to a FA to bring to me when things started getting bumpy. This captain and his copilot’s boss is about to get a very long letter about how awesome his employees are. I will be keeping this for the rest of my life lol.

I took 5 flights in total for this trip, and it was well worth it. I want to thank everyone in this subreddit who helped me through the stress of flying. Don’t let your fear control you! If anyone needs support, don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

My 20 year old on a flight alone from Boston - San Diego. This is the conversation.
No…I did not track her flight. I just got the notification when she landed. Yeah, she’s a pilots daughter…yeah, she’s been flying her whole life. When she was young, she was afraid of turbulence too. So we talked about it, much like I talk to y’all…I share the good and the bad with her, and I’m proud of this reaction as a 20 year old flying alone.

Recently traveled from the US to Germany (and back). Traveling back home, I let one of the flight attendants know I was a bit of a nervous flyer. He was EXTREMELY kind, showed me the cockpit, gave me a stuffed animal and an insane amount of snacks and sweet treats, let me change my seat to sit closer to him, checked on me frequently, and pretty much spoiled me throughout the entire flight. I’ve had so many great experiences speaking to flight attendants about my anxiety, they’re usually super helpful and I definitely recommend talking to them!

Greetings to my amazing fear of flying community! I’m currently at the gate waiting to board my 10 hour flight from JFK to Athens for my honeymoon. I’m feeling relatively calm (thanks to medication) but I always have a horrific panic attack when I board and there’s still time to get off. There’s no turning back, because I only have so many meds and I can’t miss my own honeymoon! But I’d love some words of encouragement! And if anyone is able to track me once we’re in the air (we should have wifi). Flight is DL212. Thank you in advance!!

Detroit to Cancun.

You heard that right! I have been cancelling flights for 15 years. I was able to get on a flight with a family member a few years ago, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I could fly alone. EVER. I took a red eye flight, the WiFi on the plane didn’t work and the screen in front of me was frozen. I couldn’t contact my family, which in my mind was worst case scenario (would they have really picked up at 3 AM, though? I think not!). I did have a little bit of anxiety, but looking around at all of the other passengers and realizing I’m not alone - I am absolutely not the only nervous flyer on the plane, really helped. 6 hours in the air and we landed before I knew it! If I did it, you can too! The book Flying with Confidence really helped me learn what all the sounds were, how airplanes work, etc., watching YouTube videos of pilots, and of course this amazing community would be my suggestion for those of you that have flights coming up.

SWA 4028 if anyone wants to track it. -not as nervous as i was on the flight here but a still a touch nervous.
so i finally got the courage to ask to meet the pilots and see inside of the cockpit. its a 737-700 and oh my god its so amazing. and the captain and first offcer were super nice. the captain has been flying for 37 years and the first officer for 25.
so to all those wanting to see and talk with the pilots dont be afraid to ask! they helped calm down my nerves and im actually excited for this flight.
i hope everyone reading this has a safe flight where ever youre headed.

It’s been a year since I flew alone for the first time and was reminded of a lovely experience I had with an older woman I was seated with.
On the day of my travels, we experienced more turbulence than I was used to due to some bad weather in the area where our connection airport was. I don’t do a good job of hiding my anxiety, and at every little “drop” sensation I was grabbing my seat and closing my eyes, trying not to cry.
The older lady next to me noticed and immediately checked on me and gave me reassurance that it’s okay and normal. She knew exactly how to make small talk with me and actually distract me almost completely. We talked about our travel plans, her life, she told me about her happy marriage, her children, so much info I was happy to learn.
When she found out I’d have to stay a while at the connecting airport overnight, she offered to give me money to buy myself dinner. I politely declined, but it made me feel so cared for. She also gave me candy from her purse and told me that if I needed to hold her hand during any moment I felt scared, to do so. So I did, and every time I got nervous and instinctively held her hand, she would rub my shoulder. She told me “I’ve been on many flights, trust me, if I’m not freaking out, you have nothing to worry about”
She also called the flight attendant and the attendant was just as reassuring.
Once we landed, I found her and her husband at the terminal and gave her a big hug and thanking her for being so good to me. And then I left.
I’ll always remember how compassionate she was and every time I look back on this memory it gives me more courage to fly. Also, enjoy a pretty sunset picture of one of the connection airports I stopped in.

y’all, i am nearly 25 years old and avoided flying my whole life. i went on an airplane to japan a couple of weeks ago and it was my first time ever, so i was terrified!!! now i can say- i will definitely fly again! i ended up on 5 flights total (2 on the way back, 3 on the way home!) one of the flights was a little spooky and rough, but we landed safely! coming home was especially scary for me because the AI incident happened a few days prior but this subreddit helped me more than i can express. when i was feeling nervous i would just go through things in my head like how many flights take off and land safely a day and “the pilot wants to go home too” and it helped alleviate some of my anxiety and made the flights bearable. so glad i’m not letting my fear of flying hold me back anymore! time to plan my next trip! here’s some of what i would have missed! :)

I am 30 years old, and I have never flown. I have been having panic attacks since I was preverbal. I am terrified of heights and agoraphobic. I travel often by train—it’s long and inconvenient and restricted to North America, obviously. Well, today I missed my 19-hour train from NYC back home by FOUR MINUTES. I made the decision to just. . . do this. I feel like the only way I will ever get this first experience over with is to just plow through without overthinking it, so that’s what I’m doing. I didn’t tell anyone but my mom because I want to wait until I land to announce it. My therapist and best friends won’t believe it!! Send happy thoughts or anything I should know! I have a window seat in the last row!

Successful flight! Landing was a little Hectic because the pilot made all sort of crazy turns and banks, but otherwise good.

So last about a month ago, I took my first flight ever. I flew with Delta and it was an amazing experience! As a larger person, I was always afraid of flying and thought I was too big and there was no way I could do it. I’m excited for my next flight ❤️

pictured: note from an incredibly kind flight leader today who knew I was nervous.
not pictured:

• last month’s FA that gave me her eye mask thinking it would help my anxiety
• December’s pilots that took time to answer my questions during boarding and cheered for me at the end of the flight
• an off-duty pilot 2021 who CHANGED HIS SEAT on our flight to sit next to me and talk me through turbulence.