Skip to main content
  • Language
    • Afrikaans
    • Albanian
    • Arabic
    • Armenian
    • Azerbaijani
    • Basque
    • Belarusian
    • Bengali
    • Bulgarian
    • Catalan
    • Chinese (Simplified)
    • Chinese (Traditional)
    • Croatian
    • Czech
    • Danish
    • Dutch
    • Esperanto
    • Estonian
    • Filipino
    • Finnish
    • French
    • Galician
    • Georgian
    • German
    • Greek
    • Gujarati
    • Haitian Creole
    • Hebrew
    • Hindi
    • Hungarian
    • Icelandic
    • Indonesian
    • Irish
    • Italian
    • Japanese
    • Kannada
    • Korean
    • Lao
    • Latin
    • Latvian
    • Lithuanian
    • Macedonian
    • Malay
    • Maltese
    • Norwegian
    • Persian
    • Polish
    • Portuguese
    • Romanian
    • Russian
    • Serbian
    • Slovak
    • Slovenian
    • Spanish
    • Swahili
    • Swedish
    • Tamil
    • Telugu
    • Thai
    • Turkish
    • Ukrainian
    • Urdu
    • Vietnamese
    • Welsh
    • Yiddish
  • Font Size
    • Increase Font Size
    • Decrease Font Size
    • Reset Font Size
Shotfield Medical Practice
Search
Show Main Menu
  • Home
  • Practice Information
    • About Shotfield Medical Practice
    • Accessibility
    • Contact Us
    • Feedback
    • GPs and Staff
    • Jubilee Health Centre
    • New Patient Registration
    • Opening hours
    • Out of hours & 111
    • Policies
    • Vacancies
  • Health Services
    • 111 & Out Of Hours
    • Appointments
    • Blood Test
    • Contraception And Sexual Health
    • Diabetic Eye Screening
    • Repeat Prescriptions
    • Self-referral physiotherapy
    • Services & Vaccinations
    • Test results
  • Health Information
    • Breast Screening
    • Diazepam for fear of flying
    • Local activities
    • Local support
    • Health Information & Self-Care
    • Pharmacists
    • Self Care
    • Think Pharmacy First
    • Useful Contacts
    • Warm Spaces
    • Weight Management
  • Online Services
    • Contact Us Online
    • NHS App
    • Online Services Overview
    • Online Forms
    • Patient Access Login
  • News
    • Practice News
    • Campaigns
  • Covid-19
    • Covid-19 Information
    • Covid-19 Vaccinations
    • Post Covid (Long Covid)
  • Learning Disability Help

Diazepam for fear of flying

The Doctors have taken the decision not to prescribe diazepam in cases where the there is a fear of flying. There are a number of reasons for this that are set out below.

  1. Diazepam is a sedative, which means it makes you sleepy and more relaxed. If there is an emergency during the flight it may impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions and react to the situation. This could have serious safety consequences for you and those around you.
  2. Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep, however when you do sleep it is an unnatural non-REM sleep. This means you won’t move around as much as during natural sleep. This can cause you to be at increased risk of developing a blood clot (DVT) in the leg or even the lung. Blood clots are very dangerous and can even prove fatal. This risk is even greater if your flight is greater than 4 hours. 3) Whilst most people find benzodiazepines like diazepam sedating, a small number of people experience the opposite effect and may become aggressive. Benzodiazepines can also cause disinhibition and lead you to behave in a way that you would not normally. This could impact on your safety as well as that of other passengers and could also get you into trouble with the law.
  3. According to the national prescribing guidelines that doctors follow (the British National Formulary, or BNF) benzodiazepines are not allowed to be prescribed in cases of phobia. Thus your doctor would be taking a significant legal risk by prescribing diazepam for fear of flying as it is going against these guidelines. Benzodiazepines are only licensed short term for a crisis in generalised anxiety. If this is the case, you should be getting proper care and support for your mental health and not going on a flight.
  4. Diazepam and similar drugs are illegal in a number of countries. They may be confiscated or you may find yourself in trouble with the police.
  5. Diazepam stays in your system for quite a while. If your job requires you to submit to random drug testing you may fail this having taken diazepam.

We appreciate that fear of flying is very real and very frightening. A much better approach is to tackle this properly with a Fear of Flying course run by the airlines. We have listed a number of these below.

Easy Jet: Tel 0203 8131644
Fearless Flyer EasyJet

British Airways: Tel 01252 793250

Flying with confidence

Virgin: Tel 01423 714900
Flying without fear

Share

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Bluesky
  • X (Twitter)
  • LinkedIn
Local Services
Home
Care
Jobs
Private
Dentist
Wills
& LPA
Aesthetic
Clinic
Funeral
Plans
Home
Care
Residential/
Nursing Care
Advertise Your
Business Here
Counselling

Site

  • Sign In
  • Sitemap
  • Back To Top

About

  • Disclaimer
  • Website Privacy
  • Website Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Content Attribution

Contact

Shotfield Medical Practice

Shotfield, Wallington, Surrey, SM6 0HY

  • 020 8669 7612
© Neighbourhood Direct Ltd  2025
Website supplied by Oldroyd Publishing Group

Loading...

Local Services
Home
Care
Jobs
Private
Dentist
Wills
& LPA
Aesthetic
Clinic
Funeral
Plans
Home
Care
Residential/
Nursing Care
Advertise Your
Business Here
Counselling