Drinking dehydrates you? We all know that. IT does so HERE ON THE GROUND as well. It may be more extreme up there and it may happen quicker but if you know what you are doing then it can make your flight just as pleasant/unpleasant as an enjoyable night out that ends in a hangover. Or else you may blackout, wake up drunk and never realize you were in the air. The only people adversely affected by dehydration aboard flights are either overweight, pregnant (ought not to be drinking anyway), old and distorted, schizophrenic, or else people who simply can’t hold their drink. Staying up for three days straight before your flight is another option but I’ve always found it easier to down a few or more during the process. That way you can adjust the dose to your need.
Don’t watch that Tom Hanks film where he crashes in the Pacific.
That movie was particularly effective at elevating my fear of flying.
Believe it or not I once went on a long distance flight and thought I get myself a book to read. Without thinking I choose “Airframe” by Michael Crichton - not realizing it’s about a plane crash. Well, made an interesting read … 
If you want to avoid being deported, as when you overstay your visa, you will have to produce medical evidence of a “morbid fear of flying.” Then, if you cannot get a ship ticket off of the island, there is a remote chance the authorities here might let you stay . . .
(I just thought I would mention this in case any of the readers of this thread have considered this scenario.)
When I took a ferry from Hull in UK to Rotterdam overnight (I was a student - no dosh), the airconditioner sounded to me like rushing water. I was so on edge the whole trip! I kept thinking of Zeebruge. Now I’d rather fly than take a ferry. The Chunnel? - no way. Anyone more paranoid than me?
jrc,
I’m not picking on you. I didn’t even look at who posted.
Relax. I’m all bark…
As I’m cool and hard, I’m not afraid of flying and in fact love the feeling of being high above the clouds looking down on everything. Therefore I don’t understand why, despite absolutly everybody knowing that it is the safest form of travel, people are so obviously petrified of it. I’m not knocking anybody here as I do realise that it is a real fear but what is it about it that sets you off. Is it the lack of control? If so, why don’t you feel the same in a train or in a car you’re not driving? Or is it the bombs? The bathroom? The bread roll?
Mr or Miss or Ms – there is not much help available. if you really do suffer from this phobia, and it is real, the best thing for you is to keep avoiding flying whenever possible. yes, take the bus to kaohsiung from Taipei or whatever. Fear of flying is real, like cancer or leukemia.
stay on the ground and understand that you are normal, but with a rather eccentric view of modern travel. you are not alone. John Madden the famous football announcer in the USA has not flown in 20 years, same reasons as you. even the leader of the Tzu Chi Buddha group here in taiwan has fear of flying and has never flown. notice she always go by car or train around taiwan and never goes overseas. okay, so she is buddha master, but she still suffers from this mental phobia. the best way to deal with it is don’t ever ever fly. flying is not neccsary. my sister suffers from this too, just work around it.
i myself love to fly and don’t udnerstand my sister at all, but i repesct her fear. it think she was in a thundestorm one day, in Arizona skies. she got scared after that. never flown in 30 years. it is possible. for those who do fly, hey we are brave right?
I am flying to Shanghai tomorrow. Business trip. I am not worried but my Taiwanese GF is praying hard. And next month we are moving to Paris for a new job i got as translator. Got to fly there i guess.
my advice to you is: just don’t do it! Fly that is. stay grounded, be happy as you are. and people who laughat you, may a thunderbolt strike their plane someday soon and put fear into their hearts!
The whole business of airports and planes is so bloody awful that I try to avoid flying as much as possible. The first time I came here, in 1985, I managed to make it from London to Taiwan without taking any flights at all, and thoroughly enjoyed the entire journey. I wish I had the time to always travel like that.
I wouldn’t be so proud of not flying. It’s a fear but it’s an irrational one. These are people who don’t think twice when crossing the road or diving into a swimming pool but who conjure up all kinds of horror scenarios when confronted with an aeroplane. People who are afraid of flying can overcome their fear, just as children learn not to be frightend of an open cupboard door in their bedroom at night. It has a lot to do with uncertainty and not knowing exactly what’s going on. Kids soon realise that monsters don’t live in cupboards (they’re far more comfortable under the bed) because they learn that monsters don’t exist in the real world. Perhaps those afraid of flying should learn a bit about physics and that in the real world you’re more likely to get hit by lightning a couple of times than die in a plane crash. And that goes for Denis Bergkamp too.
Gertacha!
biggles. no, it is not irrational. you are wrong there. fear of flying is a rational response to a real fear. My sister has been to a shrink and told me of this. we normal people think it is irrational, but we are wrong. you are wrong here biggles. what these people fear is not the plane crashing. they are morbid fear of some memory from childhood or teenagehood or adulthood when they experienced some kind of huge fright and loss of control. taking a train is more dangerous than flying but it is not the plane people are afriad of. Like someone said YOU have nothing to fear but fear itself. what fear of flying people fear is fear. fear is not irrational. it is just strange to us normal civilians. My advice to that person who started this discussion is stay on the ground, live your life fully and happily, just avoid flying, except when you have to return to your home country, wherever.
In many cases, flying phobics can learn to fly again, yes, rewire the brain. but in many other cases, there is no solution. just vitaman V as once poster said and drink and hypnotisim, or… just stay on the ground.
Hey, the guy who went from Londotn To Taipei in 1985 via land and sea, what was your route? COOL…
I know some people are afraid of being in an enclosed space… some people are afraid of not being on control and others are afriad of the plane falling apart…
Is there a list of fears of what is going to happen or is it some people just feel SCARED of flying… and they don’t know why
no, they are not scared of flying in the present time. they know the plane is safe. what they are afraid of is panic, claustrophobia, closed in feeling, based on earlier memories of something that happened in the past to them. They do not fear the present or the future. they just have bad memories.
take spider phobia for example. spider phobia does not happen until someone experiences something bad with a spider experience or a movie of spiders etc. The phobia is based on memory. It is the therapist’s job to erase the memory. same with fear of flying. not easy
Speaking of fear of flying, that plane that John Kennedy Junior was flying and crashed, remember!
And this just in: that Senator Wellstone who died in plane crash in Minnesota state in USA last week, Sen. Ted Kennedy was in the same state that same day campaigning for Sen. Wellstone (both are were leftwingish Democrats) and Kennedy was scheduled to fly with Wellstone to that funeral he was attending. Kennedy was scheduled to be on that same plane that crashed! This is news.Why was it never reported in the media here? And the sad story is that Wellstone, who was flying to an instate funeral as a political favor, was attending his own funeral.
See! Flying doesn’t pay. The person who first posted here and said she he doesn’t like to fly. You are right. Flying leads to death. Well, life does too, but it just takes longer … Stay on the ground, Fear of Flying Lady!