Overcoming my fear of flying was the reason for my doing my PPL - I have to fly all over Europe on Business and was in a bag of nerves before (and after) each flight. I'd registered for the Lufthansa "fear of flying course" but was told this wouldn't help me, my issue was more a psychological issue, the thought of the pilot making a mistake, a lack of control and was advised to learn to fly, or at least take a few lessons to see whether that would help.
So I took a lesson and although it was hardly "pleasure", I signed up, thought "I can do this" even though every nerve was screaming at me to get out of the plane. I was fighting my fear all through the early lessons, would step out of the plane drenched with sweat - partly from the effort, partly from the fear. It didn't help me that my instructor was nearly 80 and on a few occasions I thought: would I be able to land the plane if he suddenly became unconscious? Only when I felt comfortable with the landing phase did I stop thinking that, however wind was the next issue to contend with - when I had a lesson booked, I would look out the window and see how the trees were moving and hope it would die down before I got flying.
Even now, I can still recall the flight where the wind was no longer something I feared but suddenly flying became something I enjoyed - it was a nasty day, overcast at 2000 feet with winds blowing around 15 knots, around 30 degrees from the side. Nowadays nothing serious, but back then.... I had reached the stage where I had gone solo, now I was due to do solo circuits at 3 different airfields I'd not practiced at and the one I was lined up for was known for it's slope....
The flight there was bumpy as hell, plane being blown all over the place... Finally landed at the airfield, my instructor walked me through what he was expecting me to do and I said "first I'll have a coffee with you". My instructor looked me in the eye and said:
"Steve, I can't force you to go up solo in this weather but if you don't face it, you'll duck out the next time too. Sooner or later, you'll be ducking out more than flying and eventually you'll give up flying. All I can say is that you can handle this and more."
I thought: He wouldn't send me up if he didn't believe I can handle it, so I went up, was planning to do 3 circuits and each one was better than the next, on the final circuit I heard my instructor call out "ok Steve, this one's the last one, so full stop landing please" to which my reply was "must I? can't I do one more circuit?" After that, no more sweaty palms or white knuckles, passed my PPL without further hassle....
Since then, flying is a real pleasure for me, am glad I did my licence, even flying commercial airliners is much more relaxing for me.....