Macchi30

Has anyone here ever experienced anxiety or stress for no particular reason? Or a feeling of like “what am I doing?”

It’s very discouraging and frustrating for me. I’m a commercial student with just over 150 hours and I’ve never had this issue until recently. I don’t know why but I recently have been getting very anxious before flights. I did a XC Solo last week and the whole flight all I could think about was landing. My palms were sweating the whole flight too. For no reason. Or today, I was suppose to go flying but I flagged myself on the “S” of the IMSAFE checklist, so I canceled.

This is all just very frustrating. I want this to go away so I can enjoy the rest of my commercial training.

rickair7777

Be careful with this, if you get diagnosed (or medicated) for any sort of anxiety disorder it will be a lengthy struggle to get your medical back. But if this is affecting your daily life, don't hesitate to get professional help if needed.

If you haven't really had depression/anxiety before then look at what may have changed with your lifestyle recently...

Long hours, new school/job, stress at school/work, relationship stress, living in a new place, all can contribute.

Also if you are subject to stress, it's vital that you live a healthy balanced lifestyle... minimal booze, plenty of sleep and exercise, and give yourself whatever time off you need (some daily down time, and one day off per week). Not kidding about this part, situational anxiety probably reflects on your overall mental outlook, ie it's the symptom of something broader.

If the anxiety/stress only has to do with flying, then you might just be able to work through that (you can google it). If some aspect of flying is bothering you, then try to do a few flights avoiding that aspect. Make sure you understand aerodynamics... some maneuvers (like stalls) which might seem utterly terrifying to a layman are complete non-events if you understand what and why the airplane is doing what it's doing. I have a friend who got badly scared in a plane once as a student, and her instructors had to treat her with kid gloves for a while until she got over it. She had pretty bad anxiety in certain conditions for a while but she gutted it out and got over it (she's at DAL now).

Macchi30

Oh I’m aware of this. I think I will go see a therapist for talk therapy (they don’t diagnose or perscribe meds).

Nothing has changed significantly in my life recently and I feel I’m a healthy person (eat healthy, exercise, rarely drink, never smoke).

Like in your last paragraph, I think it’s flying related. Which bothers me a lot because I’m a commercial student. I shouldn’t just be getting these feelings with where I am. I did great on both my private and instrument check rides. I know what I’m doing, but I’m just been getting nervous and stressed lately. Like my confidence has dropped off. The only thing I can think of is I did have some worrisome flights in the past.. my very first flight in IMC during instrument we had a vacuum system failure while in overcast IMC during an ILS approach, in a steam gauge. ILS failed too. My instructor took the controls and we had to get vectored out. Then another time (which bothered me the most) we were flying at night during my long Instrument XC in a BRAND NEW C172S G1000, the plane wasnt even 6 months old but at night with nothing but dark black terrain below us our #1 CHT gauge redlined at 500 degrees. That bothered me a lot, to think our engine of a brand new plane could have failed like that at night and we surely would have went into the forest. I tried to forget these feelings. But maybe they are resurfacing now? Like a matter of trusting the plane and all? I don’t know.

rickair7777

That's what happened to my friend, got scared (for good reason), and had a post-trauma kind of thing going on. Talking to a counselor might help, but I'd read the fine print on the medical form first to make sure you're not going to trigger a reporting requirement.

General aviation is not the safest activity in the world, may just need to accept that. The good news is there's so much redundancy in airline aviation that failures and problems are mostly annoyances and nuisances, and you'll probably never actually be afraid in airliner. Even an engine failure (like SWA the other day) is very well rehearsed by the crew and well within the envelope of the airplane.

Macchi30

I won’t flag anything. For therapy services the confidentiality agreement is just in regards to self harm or harm of others. Anxiety/stress isn’t reportable.

Yes I know you’re right. I’m sure I wouldn’t feel like this in the airlines. I know it’s true how GA isn’t the safest thing in the world. I just need to get into the mentality that I dont care anymore (but stay responsible of course)

Macchi30

How did your friend overcome his issue?

leardriver

Maybe the answer for you would be to stop flying. It’s not for everybody.

I tried to be a international real estate tycoon. I was an epic failure. I don’t have the skill set for that. No matter how hard I try. I would not succeed. My best friend did follow that path and has more money than he could spend in a lifetime. He owns his own private jet.

As for me. Because I’m the kind of person that is weird to handle stress and fear in real life and death situations. Plus I always loved operating fast dangerous machines as a young person. Dirt bikes, snowmobiles, cart racing, aerobatic airplanes. Basically anything I could get my hands on that was loud and fast. I ended up turning my skill set into a living.

Please don’t take offense. But the key to your future may be understanding what it is you are really supposed to be doing.

You may want to be a pilot. But ask yourself if you were made to be one.

I hope you figure it out and are happy with whatever your future turns out to be. Good luck.

zerozero

You might be training too hard. Perhaps you need a break, especially after a few stressful training events.

Good to know you're healthy overall, but I know too much caffeine can sometimes exacerbate an anxiety attack. Obviously you find caffeine in more than just coffee: soda pop and energy drinks. You might want to look at your diet too.

Good luck.

Macchi30

That’s depressing to think about.


The thing is, I’ve done dangerous things in the past. I used to be an infantryman and I spent a year in Afghanistan. I also have spent 4 years doing Armed Security for the government. I just don’t understand why all of a sudden half way through my commercial I’m having anxiety

Swedish Blender

Maybe your anxiety/stress is goal related. Try taking a day and getting the $100 hamburger. Make it a fun day instead of "I have to do this" day.

I had an ACP walk in and say,"So, taking the company jet for a beer, huh." We were headed to Germany.