Drama in the Skies

It was a perfect day. The sun was shining and filled with white puffy clouds. It was going to be a great day. That’s what I told myself when I left the house. I reminded myself, happiness is a choice, and it will be a great day. I’m not anxious about flying; I feel oddly calm tens of thousands of feet above everything. But I am anxious about pretty much everything else. Everything normal people are not anxious about, so I have conversations with myself.

Now I’m sitting in my chosen window seat. I’m so glad I was able to upgrade to first class instead of being stuck in seats that are too small for a normal human. I’m sitting here, relatively comfortable, looking at the sky out the window. It’s relaxing watching as the plane goes in and out of clouds. I can imagine for a moment that I am sitting on a cloud enjoying a drink and an amazing view of the world. The world looks so peaceful and non-threatening from here; I wish it felt that way on the ground, but I don’t have to think about that right now. I have another six hours in flight before I must think about the stressors awaiting me on the ground. I am up above all of that, and my only responsibility is to sit and relax until that moment comes when the plane descends towards the land and makes it’s somewhat violent impact on the ground. So that is exactly what I will do. I plug my earbuds back into my ears and listen to my favorite songs while I watch the clouds roll by. I close my eyes and enjoy the calm that washes over my body. There is no stress up here, only sitting and watching the blue and white colors roll past my window. Or so I thought.

I had reached that state of calmness that one experiences on the cusp of being asleep. I was content; I had a nice cool drink, a snack, music, and a view. What more could a person ask for? But that ended when the person across the aisle from me began panicking. The sound of another passenger getting loud and sounding distressed broke through the peaceful atmosphere and soothing music I had been enjoying. At first, I looked at the person and noticed the flight attendant heading toward him. I turned back to my window and raised the volume on my phone. The passenger was being taken care of and it was not my responsibility. I was going to continue to enjoy my flight and the relative peace I was experiencing above the clouds.

The flight attendant walked down the aisle and spoke with the passenger. I briefly glanced over to see what was happening before turning back to my pleasant journey and my calming space. The flight attendant was able to calm the passenger down and returned to the kitchen area to prepare the carts with drinks for passengers to enjoy. I checked my drink supply and was glad they were about to come around with more refreshments. I did not have time to pick up an extra drink before getting on the plane and my current drink was nearly empty. I took my earbuds out of my ears so I could speak with the flight attendant and politely asked for a drink. I returned to my music and window watching as the flight attendant continued down the aisle offering refreshments to my fellow passengers.

The next couple of hours passed by pleasantly and we were getting closer to our destination. According to the inflight map in the back of the seat in front of me, we were a little more than three hours from our destination. The flight was going smoothly but a random wave of anxiety ran through me and dark thoughts began creeping into my brain. No. I told myself. There is nothing to worry about and I am not bringing my anxious thoughts into my calm place. I eventually convinced myself that the random pang of anxiety was just stressing out about when I landed. I was fine, I knew I was fine. I had flown my whole life and nothing bad had ever happened. I was going to enjoy my last few hours of time in the air before I was back in the real world and had to attend to normal stressors again.

I had just gotten myself back to my previous state of relaxation when the man across the aisle began behaving strangely again. The flight attendant returned and attempted to calm him down but this time it wasn’t working. He kept rambling about the plane not taking us to the right destination.

“The devil has taken over the plane,” he mumbled. “We’re going the wrong way.”

The man continued rambling, getting louder and louder. The flight attendant tried to calm him to no avail and other passengers had noticed his agitated state. Some of the passengers were panicking with a mixture of wondering what was wrong with him and fear that he was going to do something terrible. Other passengers wanted to restrain him and muzzle him until we landed. I had put my earbuds and phone away at this point and was watching the man and trying to understand his rambling. Something was clearly agitating this man but what was it? I continued to watch and decide how involved I wanted to get in the problems of other passengers, after all, I was off duty.

Before I had a chance to decide if I should offer assistance, another man stepped in. He obviously had no idea how to deal with someone like this man and attempted to restrain him. When the other passenger put his hands around the agitated man, he lost what little self-control he had. He began thrashing and panicking more trying to get out of the grasp of the man restraining him.

“Stop.” I said realizing that the situation was only going to be increasingly violent.

“What?” The man said. “Are you crazy?”

“No,” I replied calmly, “He isn’t either but if you don’t stop trying to pin him down someone is going to get hurt.”

I tried to convince the man that restraining him was only worsening the problem but he wouldn’t listen. In his world brawn was always better than brain. Too bad this man didn’t live in his world and restraining him was making the other man more aggressive. The man finally headbutted the other passenger in an attempt to break free.

“I’m a psychologist,” I said to the flight attendant. “This man is likely having a psychotic episode triggered by the stress of flying and needs help to calm down. Restraining him will only make the problem worse and harder to manage.”

The flight attendant tried to get the other passenger to let him go, but he wouldn’t. Clearly, I was going to have to try to help my fellow passenger despite him being restrained. I walked closer to the man, who was now pinned to the floor thrashing like a trapped animal. I tried to be calm, but inside I was terrified. I had never dealt with anyone like this before and hoped that I would be successful for all our sake.

“I need you to look at me,” I said to him. “My name is Coraline, what’s your name?”

He looked at me for a second but continued thrashing and trying to get loose.

“Can you tell me your name,” I asked as calmly as I could. Again, he didn’t answer.

“That’s ok,” I replied. “You don’t trust me yet, but I want to help you.”

He looked at me and this time didn’t immediately break eye contact. This was a good sign, he was listening. I continued to speak to him calmly. I talked about mundane things so I would not trigger him more. He was still watching, I continued talking. I told him a little about me and occasionally asked him questions. He wasn’t answering but he was listening. I talked him through some exercises that his therapist had probably taught him. I asked him if he was seeing a therapist and he nodded yes. I asked if his therapist had taught him any calming techniques. Again, he nodded yes. I asked if he took medication. Another yes. He continued thrashing at the guy holding him, but he was responding to me and that was a good sign. I asked the other man to loosen his grip, he said he would not because the man would attack us. I tried to tell him that he was more likely to attack while being caged, but the meathead wouldn’t listen. I guess in his position I would probably feel the same way.

About an hour and a half had passed and I still had this man’s attention. He had calmed down a good bit and I was able to convince the meathead, Brock, to loosen his grip. He had finally told me his name, Jack. Jack told me that he was on a different medication, and he just started it.

“Did you take it today,” I asked.

“Yes,” he told me.

I asked him if he had his medication with him and what his doctor said about increasing the medication. Jack was not sure if he could take a double dose, but he was now able to communicate more easily with me and in full sentences. I continued to work with him using calming techniques and helping him ground himself. We worked on using his senses to focus on what is real and present in the world. He had finally calmed down enough that Brock loosened his grip again and was barely holding him. The less restrained he was, the more he was able to focus on what I was saying to him. He was calming down. We talked more. We talked about his family, friends, anything, and everything to keep him focused on where he was. When he had finally calmed down enough to return to his seat, the other passengers nearby returned to their seats. We were almost to our destination, and he was nervous about landing. I told him I would be here with him. He returned to his seat across from me and we continued to talk the rest of the flight.

I did not have the relaxing and stress-free flight that I was hoping for, but I was able to be there to help Jack and ensure the situation did not escalate and become deadly. Before we disembarked, I reminded Jack to call his doctor about what happened once he got to his destination.