18 Problems Only Claustrophobic People Will Understand
2. Flying Is Never Fun
Airline companies like to sell you an image that flying is just like checking into a five star hotel. While you shoot through the sky at 30,000ft and tuck into your carefully packaged ready meal, you should be experiencing a little of what it feels like to be a billionaire on your own private jet; a private jet that you happen to be sharing with 200 other people. Excluding all the run of bad airplane news this year, no matter how hard airline companies spin you a dream, flying is a nightmare for some people. Mostly they cant deal with the fact that they are defying gravity in an aluminium tube, but as a claustrophobic you can add that to a mix of other terrors that ruin the joy of flying. As soon as you get on the plane, the low ceilings and the seemingly endless run of windows gives you a feeling of intense pressure. You have had to do everything you possibly can to secure a window seat. There is nothing worse than being stuck in-between two people or the feeling of confinement in an aisle seat as all you see is people around you. When you are by the window, at least you can have a reassuring check to make sure there is wide open space beyond the interior of the air plane. Then you remember that the flight attendants have locked the doors but the plane is still sat on the ground and not moving. Why is it not taxing to the runway? Each minute feels like an hour as you fight of the urge to start screaming. You are trapped in a plane and you cant open the doors. If youre feeling like this before the plane has taken off, how are you going to make it through the next 12 hours? Then a gentle jolt signals the plane is beginning to taxi and all is well again... for the moment. For the remainder of the flight, you try and distract yourself with the in-flight entertainment while making sure you stick to soft drinks so in the case of a problem, you are not too drunk to fight off a panic attack. But with a crack of a whip, you are quickly reminded of just exactly how confined and helpless you are. The close proximity of the seat in front of you, the tiny aisle you walk down to climb into the tiny toilet or the curtain separating the business class passengers from the commoners; they are all triggers for an in-flight panic attack. Therefore, its best to take a sleeping pill and keep your fingers crossed that you wake up just as the plane touches down at its destination.
