Fear Of Flying

My office is a specialty practice. We go above and beyond, literally. This weekend one of my doctors did an exposure with a patient. Exposures are exercises that put you in the situation that gives you anxiety and work through it with you in real time. As I tell new patients, life takes place beyond the four walls of a doctor's office. The patient I am talking about has a fear of flying and had to go to Florida on Sunday. He was obsessing about the trip saying he could not get on the plane. My doctor offered to go with him on the flight and then she would have a one hour wait until she got back on the plane to New York, while he stayed in Florida. He booked 2 tickets for first class. Every time he became fearful she did therapy with him. He made it to Florida without panicking. Family members were coming to New York for a visit and would fly with him for the return flight. All in all it cost him the price of 2 round trip first class tickets and $1500 for her time. The money did not matter to him because he got a wonderful value from the experience.