Aa
Driving Anxiety
I am a 43 year old woman with driving anxiety/panic. I get massive panic attacks when I am driving, but as with most panic attacks it is not everyday, all the time. I have some good days and some bad days, but lately the bad seem to be outweighing the good. It started 22 years ago and I have been in therapy 3 seperate times and taken anti dpressants in the past. None of which have ever completely helped. I have always had good and bad times. Now I take Klonopin or Xanax occasionally if neede and sometimes I can out think the anxiety. I feel so frustrated that it seems to be taking over again, and I am becoming more reclusive. I have been obsessively thinking about driving lately, and have to call my husband everytime I am in the car. Anyone else get panic attacks while driving? What do you do for them? My main symptome is extreme chest tightness...I feel that I can't breath. My "fear" when driving is that I won't be able to "get help" I I know there is nothing to get help for because it is an anxiety attack, but I can't stop thinking about it) and I start to feel like I can't breath and I have to get out of the car at that exact moment!!! I had a debilitating anxiety attack while driving 10 years ago and had to call an ambulance from a quick check parking lot. My coping mechanisms have failed intermittently since that time. Any advice is appreciated.
I think that my problem is inner ear. I have really bad ear drainage. The doctor tells me it's not my ears. As if I don't know my own body.
I am on day 6 of prozac and it seems that my driving anxiety is lower lately (knock on wood). My overall anxiety is a little elevated right now because I have some sinus crud going on and I automatically think it is cancer. Uggh!
Thank you so much for your comments. They all ring so true. I have many different coping mechanisms. Some work sometimes, and sometimes I just feel so out of control that nothing works. I too use distraction if I am stuck in unmoving traffic too!!! Usually facebook or something on my phone, but I am now going to put a sudoku book in my car. Genius idea!! What do you know about hyperventilating? Sometimes I feel that I am/will...I used to have a paper bag in my car, but then I read that breathing into a paperbag is not helpful for hyperventilating. Any thoughts? I too feel that I have come a long way since my first PA in 1992 (OMG 20 years!!!!!!!), but I have to admit there are times I do feel right back where I started. Sometimes just giving in and imagining the worst and beyond, taking the "what if" thinking to the final destination does help. Giving in to the panic, but it is scary.
Boy, can I relate!! MANY of us can! This goes hand in hand with panic.
" I am known as the "back roads" queen because I can get to just about anywhere on small streets and county roads. I always feel like I need to have a place I can pull over".
Me too! LOL. I HATE highways. I explored this fear with my therapist years ago, and she explained to me that the fear stems from our basic fear of becoming "trapped" somewhere, with no option of "escape". That's SO true. I will fear traffic jams, bridges, tunnels, because of that exact reason. Hence you saying you always want somewhere you can pull over. That's the basic underlying fear with panic. Just like being at a crowded concert, etc. We want a way OUT if panic should strike.
.
Those of us who have experienced panic attacks know that the very first thing we want to do is flee. You can hardly do that when you're sitting in your car on the highway, in rush hour traffic. Well, you COULD, but not without making a heck of a scene (another one of our fears). Driving for panic sufferers is a real challenge.
So, what do we do about it? For one, I think it's ok, to an extent, to find alternate routes when we may be facing a driving task that is just off the charts. What I did for myself is started setting up little goals and working my way up. The initial tasks were SMALL...down the road and back. I had to work my way up to longer bigger drives, on highways. I'm still not perfect in that dept, and there is still one route I avoid like the plague....where I had a massive PA with my kids in the car years ago. I used to make myself drive that route at least once a month, which helped (as hard as it was). Luckily, I have little need to ever go that way for anything. To this day, it would be hard for me to go that route.
There are some things you can do to minimize anxiety. Make sure you have plenty of gas and a fully charged cell phone (with a car charger). When we PLAN ahead with those kinds of things, it gives us comfort that we've taken some of the possibilities of getting stuck in the car out of the equation (ie...running out of gas). The cell phone of course, gives us a peace of mind that if something DID happen, we'd easily be able to reach someone to come help. Bring a drink along with you (not an alcoholic one, lol). That will help, to sip on something...especially if you get dry mouth when anxious. Have an emergency kit in your trunk at all times. Those kinds of things add a sense of security and "planning", plus it's a good idea anyway. It's the "unknown" us anxious people don't do well with. The more we plan for most circumstances, the better we feel.
The most important thing is to start challenging those "what if" thoughts. That's also known as "catastrophizing"...imaging the very worst case scenario. "What if I get on the bridge, and my car breaks down and I'm trapped?". What we have to do is challenge that thought. OK, what if that DOES happen? Would I be stuck on the bridge forever? No, I would call for help, someone would come get me, and my car would be towed away. The more you replace the FEAR with FACT, it takes the power out of the panic. I would often tell myself those kinds of things..."No one in the history of man has ever been stuck in a traffic jam for life, it's a temporary problem."
I have also found that distraction works well. Like you said, maybe talk to someone on the phone (safely of course). I even keep crossword puzzles/word search books in my glove box in case I hit traffic. Or play one of my games on my cell phone. When I find myself in dead-stopped traffic, I stick the car in park, and busy myself a little bit. Before I know it, the traffic starts moving. I'll be honest, those situations usually aren't anxiety FREE, but I've managed to get it to a tolerable level.
Also, if you are planning a harder than normal drive, take your anti-anxiety med (ie Ativan, Xanax) about an hour before you leave your house (providing it doesn't cause you drowsiness...it doesn't for me). That helps as well. Just knowing you have the pills next to you will be reasuring as well. More times than not, just knowing they were THERE was comfort enough for me.
To summarize, set goals, realistic ones. Work your way up. Keep challenging those "what if" thoughts...and tell yourself even IF the "worst" happened, you'll get through it...even if you DO have some uncomfortable moments. My therapist told me something else too...she said "don't you think pretty much EVERYONE would be somewhat anxious if their car broke down, or they got stuck on a bridge?". I was like, "YES! You're right!!". That was one of those "a-ha" moments for me. She told me that an anxiety sufferer needs to accept that some situations in life are GOING to illicit an anxious response, that's NORMAL and okay. We need to train ourselves to recognize when anxiety is just anxiety...and not a panic attack coming out of nowhere.
Hope this helped a bit. My driving situation will never be perfect, I've learned to accept that, but I've gotten MUCH better through the years! At one point in my life, I was barely able to drive a mile down the road, and stoplights made me nervous. I've come a long way since then. Youre definitely NOT alone...there are MANY of us with this issue!
" I am known as the "back roads" queen because I can get to just about anywhere on small streets and county roads. I always feel like I need to have a place I can pull over".
Me too! LOL. I HATE highways. I explored this fear with my therapist years ago, and she explained to me that the fear stems from our basic fear of becoming "trapped" somewhere, with no option of "escape". That's SO true. I will fear traffic jams, bridges, tunnels, because of that exact reason. Hence you saying you always want somewhere you can pull over. That's the basic underlying fear with panic. Just like being at a crowded concert, etc. We want a way OUT if panic should strike.
.
Those of us who have experienced panic attacks know that the very first thing we want to do is flee. You can hardly do that when you're sitting in your car on the highway, in rush hour traffic. Well, you COULD, but not without making a heck of a scene (another one of our fears). Driving for panic sufferers is a real challenge.
So, what do we do about it? For one, I think it's ok, to an extent, to find alternate routes when we may be facing a driving task that is just off the charts. What I did for myself is started setting up little goals and working my way up. The initial tasks were SMALL...down the road and back. I had to work my way up to longer bigger drives, on highways. I'm still not perfect in that dept, and there is still one route I avoid like the plague....where I had a massive PA with my kids in the car years ago. I used to make myself drive that route at least once a month, which helped (as hard as it was). Luckily, I have little need to ever go that way for anything. To this day, it would be hard for me to go that route.
There are some things you can do to minimize anxiety. Make sure you have plenty of gas and a fully charged cell phone (with a car charger). When we PLAN ahead with those kinds of things, it gives us comfort that we've taken some of the possibilities of getting stuck in the car out of the equation (ie...running out of gas). The cell phone of course, gives us a peace of mind that if something DID happen, we'd easily be able to reach someone to come help. Bring a drink along with you (not an alcoholic one, lol). That will help, to sip on something...especially if you get dry mouth when anxious. Have an emergency kit in your trunk at all times. Those kinds of things add a sense of security and "planning", plus it's a good idea anyway. It's the "unknown" us anxious people don't do well with. The more we plan for most circumstances, the better we feel.
The most important thing is to start challenging those "what if" thoughts. That's also known as "catastrophizing"...imaging the very worst case scenario. "What if I get on the bridge, and my car breaks down and I'm trapped?". What we have to do is challenge that thought. OK, what if that DOES happen? Would I be stuck on the bridge forever? No, I would call for help, someone would come get me, and my car would be towed away. The more you replace the FEAR with FACT, it takes the power out of the panic. I would often tell myself those kinds of things..."No one in the history of man has ever been stuck in a traffic jam for life, it's a temporary problem."
I have also found that distraction works well. Like you said, maybe talk to someone on the phone (safely of course). I even keep crossword puzzles/word search books in my glove box in case I hit traffic. Or play one of my games on my cell phone. When I find myself in dead-stopped traffic, I stick the car in park, and busy myself a little bit. Before I know it, the traffic starts moving. I'll be honest, those situations usually aren't anxiety FREE, but I've managed to get it to a tolerable level.
Also, if you are planning a harder than normal drive, take your anti-anxiety med (ie Ativan, Xanax) about an hour before you leave your house (providing it doesn't cause you drowsiness...it doesn't for me). That helps as well. Just knowing you have the pills next to you will be reasuring as well. More times than not, just knowing they were THERE was comfort enough for me.
To summarize, set goals, realistic ones. Work your way up. Keep challenging those "what if" thoughts...and tell yourself even IF the "worst" happened, you'll get through it...even if you DO have some uncomfortable moments. My therapist told me something else too...she said "don't you think pretty much EVERYONE would be somewhat anxious if their car broke down, or they got stuck on a bridge?". I was like, "YES! You're right!!". That was one of those "a-ha" moments for me. She told me that an anxiety sufferer needs to accept that some situations in life are GOING to illicit an anxious response, that's NORMAL and okay. We need to train ourselves to recognize when anxiety is just anxiety...and not a panic attack coming out of nowhere.
Hope this helped a bit. My driving situation will never be perfect, I've learned to accept that, but I've gotten MUCH better through the years! At one point in my life, I was barely able to drive a mile down the road, and stoplights made me nervous. I've come a long way since then. Youre definitely NOT alone...there are MANY of us with this issue!
1 Comments
I have tried everything but the rubber band pop to the wrist.
I know exactly what you mean. Some days are fine and others I can't even get around the block. When I am really desperate I will take a half a Xanax or Klonopin, but other times I just try to think my way through it...especially if I am close to home. I don't even go on highways or over major bridges anymore. I am known as the "back roads" queen because I can get to just about anywhere on small streets and county roads. I always feel like I need to have a place I can pull over. I wish I knew why, or how to not feel that way, but nothing seems to help. At least we know we are not the only ones.
1 Comments
OMG this is me. I am no a recluse in my own home unless my fiance comes home to drive. Now I get the anxiety and panic when he is driving. I watch every other car but he knows how to calm me. This has been for 16 years now and I am fed up. I have to beat this. We have to beat this. I was a road warrior now I am a road worrier. Grrrr!
I just added a thread about this a few days ago. I also get anxiety many times while driving. I don't know what to tell you to do. Yesterday, I made a 60 mile round trip for business and held on. Mine get worse on winding roads and narrow bridges. I had never had anxiety while driving until around March. In March, I was being weaned off of cymbalta and I had to drive for hours one week due to people being in different hospitals in different cities. I had some of the worse brain zaps from cymbalta withdrawal that I was probably more dangerous than a drunk driver on the road.Ever since then, many times I will be driving and feel like I am going to pass out.
I have had some good advice on here but it has to be mind over matter, so to speak.
I have had some good advice on here but it has to be mind over matter, so to speak.
Have an Answer?
You are reading content posted in the Anxiety Community
Find out what can trigger a panic attack – and what to do if you have one.
A guide to 10 common phobias.
Take control of tension today.
These simple pick-me-ups squash stress.
Don’t let the winter chill send your smile into deep hibernation. Try these 10 mood-boosting tips to get your happy back
Want to wake up rested and refreshed?
