I find this an incredibly humbling thread. Over the years I have flown with crew have been nervous when flying and I have always tried to fly in such a way that I did not exacerbate their discomfort. I have known others who would often find productive work to avoid being on the flying programme and some who had a very high rate of declaring themselves unfit to fly. Hopefully I have never put any pressure on them and I praise the openness of those who have described their feelings here.
I am at the other extreme of the scale and have a deep seated fear of being unable to fly. I have watched friends be killed in air display accidents and I have had to lead a formation home after the leader crashed. I have to get back on the horse as soon as I can and get back in the air and fly as I always do as soon as I can. This is not bravado or disrespectful but I find it very stressful across my whole life if I am not able to. Most aircrew fear the power that doctors hold over our flying careers and I have had temporary medical restrictions and groundings which have been amongst the most stressful and emotional experiences of my life. There never appeared to be any real consideration of the mental health impact of such actions, no offers of counselling. I am sure that there will be some cynics who may not understand that there are two sides to this coin but please accept what I have said as being an issue that does need to be considered.