This actually happened to me when I was younger. Nothing specific to trigger it, it just suddenly started out of the blue. My flight history sounds similar to yours - something I'd been doing very regularly my entire life.
I remember the specific flight where I got over my fear - a 10 hour flight to India on an Airbus A330 (I live in the UK). It must have been about halfway through when I was just so exhausted from being terrified that it just stopped. I had a couple of internal flights on very dubious planes immediately after this and they didn't bother me at all. Perhaps it's what psychologists call "flooding".
I'm now back to flying all over the world again and I really look forward to it. The worst part for me now is the hassle of security and delays and the like.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you some hope that there is indeed an end to all this. As others have suggested, in my case I think it was just a general anxiety issue manifesting itself in this way rather than a specific phobia of flying itself.
For me at 25 I had my first true panicked state while flying which coincided with being afraid of being on highrises + all bridges over Thames in London.
This all also coincided with panic attacks in crowded theatres.
I am currently 27 and it’s getting better. But damn it freaked me out the first time and when it persisted - I had been anxious before, but could control that.
But I agree - I myself think it’s pure anxiety which is disconnected from specific phobias; it’s just somehow triggered by specific high-level concepts.
I remember the specific flight where I got over my fear - a 10 hour flight to India on an Airbus A330 (I live in the UK). It must have been about halfway through when I was just so exhausted from being terrified that it just stopped. I had a couple of internal flights on very dubious planes immediately after this and they didn't bother me at all. Perhaps it's what psychologists call "flooding".
I'm now back to flying all over the world again and I really look forward to it. The worst part for me now is the hassle of security and delays and the like.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you some hope that there is indeed an end to all this. As others have suggested, in my case I think it was just a general anxiety issue manifesting itself in this way rather than a specific phobia of flying itself.