Classical conditioning

The behavior I have is a fear of flying. This behavior developed when I was younger on an international flight back to the U.S., there was a bad storm and the turbulence was really bad and the plane felt like it was dropping out of the sky. Also there was another instance where I was flying through the mountains in a propeller plane. These particular planes do not fly as high as say a Boeing 757 or a jet, therefore you feel every single wind gust and bump. As the plane was descending into our destination the plane would ever so often drop to where we were bouncing out of our seats. Since those two incidents I have since flown again, however I get anxiety as we are ascending and once above the clouds I feel a sense of safety and no longer feel anxious or fear the plane is going to crash. The Neutral Stimulus I identify with is “flying”, The Unconditioned Stimulus is identified as “Turbulence” and lastly the Unconditioned response is identified as “anxiety” and fear the plane is going to crash. Therefore the Conditioned Stimulus is flying and the Conditioned Response is Anxiety. The conditioned response exhibits Stimulus Discrimination. I do not receive the feeling of anxiety when traveling by any other means, nor when I am high in the air (i.e. rollercoasters or Ferris wheels). I only receive the feeling of anxiety when I am boarding the plane and once we are ascending until the plane reaches above the clouds. From that first incident my anxiety grew which in tail caused me to miss a lot of important events and trips. Especially as I was a young child during this period my mother did not want to impose any more stress then normal as it could start to affect my life in a general sense. As I grew older trips became more frequent (i.e. Graduations, funerals, family reunions) all of which required a plane as form of transportation as the area being traveled to was frequently further away than my mother was willing to drive. The second flight I took was a complete