Addicted Pilots: Flight Plan to Recovery

Pilots are among the most educated people in our workforce. They have complex and demanding careers. They focus most of their energy on managing a multi-million dollar piece of equipment traveling through the air, and making the passengers’ flight to their destination as comfortable as possible. Seldom does a pilot have a place to discuss a difficult flight or crew interaction. There seems to be no support group for pilots. So pilots, like every other person on this planet experience stress. Some know how to deal with stress and live happy, healthy lifestyles.

Unfortunately there are a few who don’t manage stress well and slip into learning ways of “medicating” their stress. Due to the easy access to alcohol, and in some countries prescription drugs, substance abuse tends to be one of the ways 10 to 12 percent of all pilots “medicate.” There are 12 Step meetings across the country and the world to attend, and even some that are closed to only Pilots–Birds of a Feather meetings. This may be a place to find peers to connect with and not feel so isolated in your recovery.

As this book suggests, addiction is a very complex and difficult issue. A variety of factors are associated with addictive problems, and the understanding of such issues represents the first step on the road to avoid addiction, or to recover from them. Pilots are in a special situation when considering addictions.

Pilots are not more likely to develop an addiction than the general population, but their roles in providing safe transportation to millions of people, while flying a metal tube through the air is stressful. This book demonstrated the most commonly abused substances, their effects on the brain functioning, physiology and psychological characteristics of the abuser.

The most important message of this book is that although addictions can represent a risk and endanger patients and health care careers, timely interventions, adequate treatment methods, and long-term monitoring can allow pilots to fight their demons and come back stronger to continue their careers. The author emphasizes that success over substance abuse is possible. Pilots are far too valuable to be lost to addictions.

ISBN-13: 978-1500739812

ISBN-10: 1500739812