Shakes On A Plane
January 3, 2007 9:40 AM Subscribe
My SO (female) started laughing loudly on a recent plane journey. She has flown a lot in the past and had stated that she is increasingly nervous about the experience. What gives?
My SO has flown a lot in the past but recently (past year) has found it a more and more nervous experience. On our most recent trip she started laughing (not really 'hysterically' but at a fair volume and with no control over it). Later that night on the ground started laughing again at the memory of it. She does not find the experience or recollection 'funny'. Anyone with any experience of this? Is it likely to continue/ get worse? It's very probable that she'll have to fly without me in the near future and, given that I apparantly reassure her by my presence, am worried about her flying alone if this could be the start of a worsening trait. Personal experience or pointers to resources apreciated.
My SO has flown a lot in the past but recently (past year) has found it a more and more nervous experience. On our most recent trip she started laughing (not really 'hysterically' but at a fair volume and with no control over it). Later that night on the ground started laughing again at the memory of it. She does not find the experience or recollection 'funny'. Anyone with any experience of this? Is it likely to continue/ get worse? It's very probable that she'll have to fly without me in the near future and, given that I apparantly reassure her by my presence, am worried about her flying alone if this could be the start of a worsening trait. Personal experience or pointers to resources apreciated.
I fly 30+ times per year and have most of my life. I don't think I even registered that I was on a plane, it was so routine. About 5 years ago, I started to FREAK OUT on planes. Shaking, panic attacks, the whole gamut of the scared-to-fly thing. And I started feeling this way out of nowhere.
For me, it's all about the xanax - I take it before I leave for the airport so I don't give myself the chance to get worked up about the flying and then continue to take it at intervals through the flight. I also put an elastic band over my wrist and when I start to get freaked out, I snap it - don't ask me why but it helps. And I continued to fly - now it's almost back to normal. But these drugs are made for a reason...thank god for them.
posted by meerkatty at 10:29 AM on January 3, 2007
For me, it's all about the xanax - I take it before I leave for the airport so I don't give myself the chance to get worked up about the flying and then continue to take it at intervals through the flight. I also put an elastic band over my wrist and when I start to get freaked out, I snap it - don't ask me why but it helps. And I continued to fly - now it's almost back to normal. But these drugs are made for a reason...thank god for them.
posted by meerkatty at 10:29 AM on January 3, 2007
hysteria. she just freaked out and started laughing. it's the alternative to crying.
i cry when faced with flying. i get myself so worked up about it that i'm crying weeks ahead of time, crying at the airport, barely have myself together to get thru airport security. it sucks.
then i got xanax. i've only used it for one flight, but it worked well for me. i got a script for it from my doctor, told her i wanted it because i hate flying. she said it's common to prescribe xanax to people for just that reason, and didn't bat an eyelid while writing the script for me.
your wife's fears don't have to be rational or realistic (mine aren't) but they are real to her and obviously cause her anxiety. don't wave them away as silly, and tell her to talk to her doc and get some drugs.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 10:42 AM on January 3, 2007
i cry when faced with flying. i get myself so worked up about it that i'm crying weeks ahead of time, crying at the airport, barely have myself together to get thru airport security. it sucks.
then i got xanax. i've only used it for one flight, but it worked well for me. i got a script for it from my doctor, told her i wanted it because i hate flying. she said it's common to prescribe xanax to people for just that reason, and didn't bat an eyelid while writing the script for me.
your wife's fears don't have to be rational or realistic (mine aren't) but they are real to her and obviously cause her anxiety. don't wave them away as silly, and tell her to talk to her doc and get some drugs.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 10:42 AM on January 3, 2007
There was a terribly sad story on NPR a couple of years ago about a Central American refugee who was denied political asylum in the US because, whenever he tried to describe the horrific torture he had survived, he broke into this involuntary, staccato, machinegun-like laughter, which, when he did it in the course of the interview, kind of made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
Blake's take? "Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps." I wouldn't hesitate to medicate myself before I flew if this kind of thing started to happen to me.
posted by jamjam at 10:49 AM on January 3, 2007 [1 favorite]
Blake's take? "Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps." I wouldn't hesitate to medicate myself before I flew if this kind of thing started to happen to me.
posted by jamjam at 10:49 AM on January 3, 2007 [1 favorite]
Slightly tangential: episode 273 of This American Life "investigates" people who suddenly get uncontrollably emotional on planes [mostly crying]. [It's the third act starting at 47:00]. Very intriguing story.
posted by yeti at 11:14 AM on January 3, 2007
posted by yeti at 11:14 AM on January 3, 2007
I've had this. I fly a lot as well, and had a period of a few years where it entirely terrified me. Before then, and now (it seems), I'm entirely fine. It just seemed to come and go for no real reason. I never had panic attacks, but the whole experience was miserable.
A lot of it, I think, came from lots of general stress combined with enforced sitting down and still and quiet.
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName at 11:38 AM on January 3, 2007
A lot of it, I think, came from lots of general stress combined with enforced sitting down and still and quiet.
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName at 11:38 AM on January 3, 2007
Here's a link to just that segment. The narrator at the end speculates why emotions on a plane can be all whacky -which could apply to hysteria/laughter as well as tears.
posted by yeti at 11:43 AM on January 3, 2007 [2 favorites]
posted by yeti at 11:43 AM on January 3, 2007 [2 favorites]
IANAD, but I can tell you that when I feel extremely anxious, like I have no control over anything that's happening and things seem to be getting more chaotic by the moment, I laugh. I laugh like a crazy person and I feel panicky. It could happen at work, while sitting in traffic if I'm running late, or during travel involving airports.
I've always thought it was just my brain's way of telling me it's had too much stress and it needs a break. If I'm at work I can usually just do something else to take my mind off the immediate situation and I feel much better.
About laughing after the situation, I do that too. I don't know if it's beacuse I realize how stupid I must have looked, laughing to myself, and that makes me laugh. Or if in remembering the situation, my feelings of anxiety come back and I react again to them.
It doesn't interfere with my life - I'm not paralyzed with anxiety. So I just deal with it, trying to stifle my laughter, appear as calm as possible and get out of the situation quickly. This may not be an option for your SO, as flying is not something you can just stop doing... So perhaps a glass of red wine or a benadryl/sleeping pill would be in order if she can't handle it. But that would depend on how she feels about 'self-medicating.'
posted by youngergirl44 at 1:43 PM on January 3, 2007
I've always thought it was just my brain's way of telling me it's had too much stress and it needs a break. If I'm at work I can usually just do something else to take my mind off the immediate situation and I feel much better.
About laughing after the situation, I do that too. I don't know if it's beacuse I realize how stupid I must have looked, laughing to myself, and that makes me laugh. Or if in remembering the situation, my feelings of anxiety come back and I react again to them.
It doesn't interfere with my life - I'm not paralyzed with anxiety. So I just deal with it, trying to stifle my laughter, appear as calm as possible and get out of the situation quickly. This may not be an option for your SO, as flying is not something you can just stop doing... So perhaps a glass of red wine or a benadryl/sleeping pill would be in order if she can't handle it. But that would depend on how she feels about 'self-medicating.'
posted by youngergirl44 at 1:43 PM on January 3, 2007
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I am not sure of the exact source of this, but I have heard a couple of times recently that laughter is very closely associated with fear in the brain. Indeed, it was suggested that before we allegedly evolved from monkeys, the monkeys used to make a laughing type sound which registered their fear with others. (How anyone was around to record this beats me but...)
So, it seems that we have just re-used this sound for things like humour; in which case the step from fear to laughter doesn't seem too far fetched.
Guess this would explain why people use swear words etc in humour plus also use some scary elements to humour to get laughs...
posted by pettins at 10:09 AM on January 3, 2007