AP Features, April 30th, 2007
I looked out the window of the 19-seat turboprop into the darkness over Washington's Cascade Range, and in the sharp moonlight could see the white peak of 14,000-foot Mount Rainier. It was so close it seemed you could reach down and grab a handful of snow.
It was after that trip from Seattle to Yakima, Wash., in 1989 that I decided I really didn't like to fly.
In the ensuing years I flew only when absolutely necessary, always under great duress - and always drunk.
I turned down most work assignments that involved plane trips. I insisted on vacations my family could drive to. I refused to visit relatives in Greece or old friends in other parts of the country. When I did have to fly, the weeks leading up to a trip were filled with irrational anxieties and feelings of doom.
I did a little research and found that some 30 percent of the population is afraid to fly and rarely if ever gets on an airplane. That made me feel somewhat normal.
But something happened recently. I began to resent how this phobia was preventing me from leading the life I wanted. My kids were complaining that they had seen little of the world. My wife was agitating to travel more.
Fear of flying would have to end.
For years I had tried, and failed, at the obvious methods. I read lots of material on how safe flying was, articles that explained the ominous sounds an airplane makes, or why there is turbulance.
But they didn't help, largely because continuous images of 9/11 on television, and news accounts of failed terrorist plots since, drove home the point that there were actually people out there who deliberately wanted to crash the plane, no matter how much safety was built into the system.
So I developed a system of hitting the airport bar after going through security, downing two or three stiff drinks before the flight, and a steady stream of alcohol while in the air. The problem is that booze is not a good cure for anxiety, and arriving at every destination drunk was dangerous.
I began looking for an alternative, and I found it through my doctor. He prescribed Xanax, a common drug that quickly reduced anxiety and induced drowsiness. I tried it for the first time in early April, for a five-hour trip from Portland, Ore., to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I found that taking two pills about an hour before a flight, then slipping on some headphones with soothing music, made the time pass quickly and without anxiety.
It was like the world opening up again.
And no one was happier about the transformation than my four kids. By the time we returned home, all six of us were already talking about the next vacation, debating destinations like Cancun, Greece, Jamaica and Ireland.
