Terrified of flying + first time flying overseas!

The forum I've used is www.getonthatplane.com. I've found it helpful since there's a pilot for Southwest on there who can give a lot of technical details and explain things well to help dispel people's fears, and there's a therapist on there as well who can give more emotional support and such. Someone on there even filmed his experiences on takeoff and landing and put them on there so people could watch them and get accustomed to the situation before even getting in the plane. I've found just talking to the people on there helps, and the forums are free which is nice since I don't really have the spare money for online courses or somesuch, so hopefully you can find some help as well

Thanks so much!!!! I hate having this intense fear holding me back - I have to fly to two separate locations this summer (Seattle, and then England!) and it really takes away from the pleasure when I have this cloud of doom and dread hanging over my head :-(

(I think to be honest watching a plane fly into a building live on TV didn't help)

That's what pretty much did it for me. I used to LOVE flying before that.

Thanks so much!!!! I hate having this intense fear holding me back - I have to fly to two separate locations this summer (Seattle, and then England!) and it really takes away from the pleasure when I have this cloud of doom and dread hanging over my head :-(

No worries I had never flown before I went to the UK so I was in panic mode because not only was I going to a whole other country, but I was going to a portion of the US I wasn't familiar with for my layover and I wasn't thrilled with the idea of having to get on two separate planes. But the forum did help me a bit--they even have a letter you can print off and show to the gate agent that describes your fear of flying so it can be shown to the crew and they can help you out. For me knowing the details of flying, and seeing how some people tackle it as an everyday type of thing helped me overcome my fears, since not knowing things is more fearful to me than being knowledgeable.

I always say to any of the family about to board a plane "Have a boring trip"  Boring is good.