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Weird Driving Anxiety?
Please help I am so desperate! I am a 28 year old female, in good health other than this problem I am having.
I have not driven since January. In Jan. I was driving home and a warm sensation came over me and I felt like I was going to faint. I pulled over on the side of the highway, and my husband drove the rest of the way.
Ever since then, I have had the weirdest sensations which make me unable to drive. To sum it up when driving, or in a car, I feel
-like my brain is shutting down; like my light is dimming
-can't comprehend what's going on
-my eyes see everything funny; like I can sense an exaggeration of motion
-dizzy in the lightheaded sense, like I am going to faint
-my brain can't take in everything that my eyes are seeing
-like the feeling right before you nod off
-like I am frozen; body and mind.
As you can see, it is impossible to drive when you have those feelings-- like you're about to faint or nod off.
This happens every single time I am in the car, without fail. It also happens as a passenger, but I can pretty much ignore it because I'm not trying to drive a vehicle.
I have
-had my eyes checked
-ears checked (Vertigo)
-chest x-ray, blood sugar, blood pressure
-CT scan
All normal.
For anxiety I have tried
-desentization (baby steps)
-hypnosis
-xanax
-low dose of zoloft
-beta blockers.
None worked.
I don't know what else to try or where to turn. None of my doctors have ever heard of anxiety manifesting itself in this way, without any of the other symptoms. For example, I don't have anxious thoughts, I don't fear having a panic attack, I don't dread going in the car, no racing heartbeat, no sweating, completely normal breathing.....
Has anyone ever heard of anxiety doing this to someone? I don't know what to do about it, but I am getting depressed being completely dependent on my husband to drive me everywhere. If anyone can help I would be SO grateful. It is such a mystery that no one, not even doctors seem to understand.
I have not driven since January. In Jan. I was driving home and a warm sensation came over me and I felt like I was going to faint. I pulled over on the side of the highway, and my husband drove the rest of the way.
Ever since then, I have had the weirdest sensations which make me unable to drive. To sum it up when driving, or in a car, I feel
-like my brain is shutting down; like my light is dimming
-can't comprehend what's going on
-my eyes see everything funny; like I can sense an exaggeration of motion
-dizzy in the lightheaded sense, like I am going to faint
-my brain can't take in everything that my eyes are seeing
-like the feeling right before you nod off
-like I am frozen; body and mind.
As you can see, it is impossible to drive when you have those feelings-- like you're about to faint or nod off.
This happens every single time I am in the car, without fail. It also happens as a passenger, but I can pretty much ignore it because I'm not trying to drive a vehicle.
I have
-had my eyes checked
-ears checked (Vertigo)
-chest x-ray, blood sugar, blood pressure
-CT scan
All normal.
For anxiety I have tried
-desentization (baby steps)
-hypnosis
-xanax
-low dose of zoloft
-beta blockers.
None worked.
I don't know what else to try or where to turn. None of my doctors have ever heard of anxiety manifesting itself in this way, without any of the other symptoms. For example, I don't have anxious thoughts, I don't fear having a panic attack, I don't dread going in the car, no racing heartbeat, no sweating, completely normal breathing.....
Has anyone ever heard of anxiety doing this to someone? I don't know what to do about it, but I am getting depressed being completely dependent on my husband to drive me everywhere. If anyone can help I would be SO grateful. It is such a mystery that no one, not even doctors seem to understand.
Hello!! I am having the same problem as you;( have you found a cute yet??? I thought I was going crazy and did not know how to explain my symptoms to anyone! But you listed everything I am going through ! Please write to me
I feel for u.. I have the sane symptoms.. hints why I saw million Dr.s and had MRI thought I was going crazy.. I still deal with it..starting therapy and acupuncture this week to help I pray!!
I feel for u.. I have the sane symptoms.. hints why I saw million Dr.s and had MRI thought I was going crazy.. I still deal with it..starting therapy and acupuncture this week to help I pray!!
To everyone who is suffering from driving problem , weird feeling while driving.
I am on the same boat. I had my frist panic attack on the motorway, when i felt like i will die, some how managed to get to the work and see doctor from there. It didn't improve, but made things worse and even worse for me. i tried yoga breathing techniques and from there on more panic attacks started. more fobias. but the important part on how i overcame my phobias.
It happened to me when life became very busy for us and stressful, use to drop my wife to her new job, about 50 mins drive to her work, and then backwards to my work, and then night time pick her up again, and had filed my permanent residency at the same time, was really stressfull time for me. and panic attack happened.
I had no choice but to continue work otherwise my residency was in danger. and to do that i started using public transport train. next thing i did was, sent my wife for driving lessons, and got her to get license, i would sit with her and direct and instruct her.
Over the time developed all different types of phobias, don't wanna mention them in case you guys get more scared.
now because of the need of hour i had to continue work, i continued my work at all the costs , even though i was feeling worst then hell.
found people over the time who had these experiences before, kept discusing with them , which relieved me over the time.
now i stopped doing all the activities i use to do for leisure all together because of panic attacks and anxiety. but i never gave up on my work.
after a 5 months i decided to start going out, as my wife was not feeling happy at all i could see, because we use to do lot of fun.
We went to the mall and then we went some more places and then we went to see friends we haven't spoken to in months. I tried driving, first day was bad, second day slightly better, third time slightly more better. and 1 day wife got sick at work , went to pick her up in the car, and she was so sick that she asked me to drive back, now this time when i was having awfull feelings behind the wheel, it started turning into more confidence, and no anxiety any more,
Anxiety came back again, then agin 1 another day, started driving wife asked me to drive, i did driving for morning till afternoon, with her sitting beside me. and i never felt as good before, when i could drive like before after 1 hour of driving.
So the key to driving and all other fobias is to be active. and have support like how i did, having my wife sitting beside me gives me security , if anything goes wrong she is there to drive from there for me, but trust me it only gets after after you drive for 30 an hour and continue from there, it gives you inner happiness, and keep meeting all the friends you know, keep going out,
And for your guys security , i would say purchase a full car insurance for yourself it will sort of give you security for your ride as well.
Keep doing things with the annoying feeling, and one day sun will rise for you guys, do take counselling , it really helps, always remember it is very slow recovery process, and definately you will all get there, just a matter of patience.
Another trick for any negative feelings is, acknowledge the thoughts, and then thinking your upper head is the chimney, let it out from there, definately will help you get out the clutches of negative thoughts as well. i m more over 95 percent better. still working on it, untill i kick this mofo
I am on the same boat. I had my frist panic attack on the motorway, when i felt like i will die, some how managed to get to the work and see doctor from there. It didn't improve, but made things worse and even worse for me. i tried yoga breathing techniques and from there on more panic attacks started. more fobias. but the important part on how i overcame my phobias.
It happened to me when life became very busy for us and stressful, use to drop my wife to her new job, about 50 mins drive to her work, and then backwards to my work, and then night time pick her up again, and had filed my permanent residency at the same time, was really stressfull time for me. and panic attack happened.
I had no choice but to continue work otherwise my residency was in danger. and to do that i started using public transport train. next thing i did was, sent my wife for driving lessons, and got her to get license, i would sit with her and direct and instruct her.
Over the time developed all different types of phobias, don't wanna mention them in case you guys get more scared.
now because of the need of hour i had to continue work, i continued my work at all the costs , even though i was feeling worst then hell.
found people over the time who had these experiences before, kept discusing with them , which relieved me over the time.
now i stopped doing all the activities i use to do for leisure all together because of panic attacks and anxiety. but i never gave up on my work.
after a 5 months i decided to start going out, as my wife was not feeling happy at all i could see, because we use to do lot of fun.
We went to the mall and then we went some more places and then we went to see friends we haven't spoken to in months. I tried driving, first day was bad, second day slightly better, third time slightly more better. and 1 day wife got sick at work , went to pick her up in the car, and she was so sick that she asked me to drive back, now this time when i was having awfull feelings behind the wheel, it started turning into more confidence, and no anxiety any more,
Anxiety came back again, then agin 1 another day, started driving wife asked me to drive, i did driving for morning till afternoon, with her sitting beside me. and i never felt as good before, when i could drive like before after 1 hour of driving.
So the key to driving and all other fobias is to be active. and have support like how i did, having my wife sitting beside me gives me security , if anything goes wrong she is there to drive from there for me, but trust me it only gets after after you drive for 30 an hour and continue from there, it gives you inner happiness, and keep meeting all the friends you know, keep going out,
And for your guys security , i would say purchase a full car insurance for yourself it will sort of give you security for your ride as well.
Keep doing things with the annoying feeling, and one day sun will rise for you guys, do take counselling , it really helps, always remember it is very slow recovery process, and definately you will all get there, just a matter of patience.
Another trick for any negative feelings is, acknowledge the thoughts, and then thinking your upper head is the chimney, let it out from there, definately will help you get out the clutches of negative thoughts as well. i m more over 95 percent better. still working on it, untill i kick this mofo
I'm glad I found this forum. I'm a 28 year old female. I use to love driving everywhere. After my weird incidents that started last year, however, driving scares me so much! I've noticed this strange feeling also happens when I'm not driving. Its happens at work, at the store, out with friends. It makes me want to just stay home. I've experienced it at home too, but I'm not as anxious. Driving is by far the worse time to have this happen.
The first time I experienced the weird symptoms I was driving on the freeway. I started to feel extremely tired and weak, especially my arms and legs. I was having such a hard time holding the steering wheel and pressing on gas pedal. I was afraid I was going to fall asleep going 70 mph. It felt like my brain was shutting down. It couldn't process what I was doing fast enough. I relate it to my body having a low battery and its about to die. I felt like everything was shadowed, not fully colored. I felt very hot, but my skin was cold. My ear started ringing and got really hot. The music on the radio started to get very distant and quiet. Everything seemed like it was tilting and not real, very dream-like. I felt very out of my body, but at the same time in my body not connected somehow, like maybe my body and spirit were apart (Hard to explain) My heart was pounding, I felt like I wasn't breathing right. I kept wondering if my lungs were even working. I luckily was able to get off the freeway right away.
I was almost to work, I had to wait at a red light, (which now every red light makes me anxious) and I was on the verge of fainting. I kept wondering if I should put the car in park, just in case I fainted. I was talking to my sister on the phone when all of this first happened. I told her I didn't know what was wrong, that I felt very weird, and I had to go because I was going to pass out. When I got to work, I tried to breath and relax to get rid of that feeling. I asked my supervisor if I could have the day off. While asking her, I had to sit down because I couldn't see right- I had vertigo. She asked if I was having a panic attack. I told her no, I just felt strange. I didn't think I was having a panic atack. I've seen people having panic attacks and I wasn't hyperventilating.
By the time I got to the ER, most of my symptoms passed. In a way, I wanted to still have the symptoms so the doctors could see what I was going through and diagnose me with something. I'd rather have a diagnosis than have them say nothing's wrong. They did an EKG and a chest xray. The only thing that was slightly abnormal was elevated oxygen levels. (Due to breathing a lot of deep breaths.) I told the doctor that I thought it was anxiety related, he told me not to jump to that conclusion. That it could be because I had a head cold. Come on, I've had many head colds and they never made me feel like this. The doctor taught me how to breathe out of my nose and then he sent me home. I thought, what a waste of a visit! That's when I decided to research this. It's nice to find similar experiences as mine.
Check out articles on depersonalization/derealization. I'm pretty sure this might be what some of us have experienced.
Thank you for sharing everyone and take care!
The first time I experienced the weird symptoms I was driving on the freeway. I started to feel extremely tired and weak, especially my arms and legs. I was having such a hard time holding the steering wheel and pressing on gas pedal. I was afraid I was going to fall asleep going 70 mph. It felt like my brain was shutting down. It couldn't process what I was doing fast enough. I relate it to my body having a low battery and its about to die. I felt like everything was shadowed, not fully colored. I felt very hot, but my skin was cold. My ear started ringing and got really hot. The music on the radio started to get very distant and quiet. Everything seemed like it was tilting and not real, very dream-like. I felt very out of my body, but at the same time in my body not connected somehow, like maybe my body and spirit were apart (Hard to explain) My heart was pounding, I felt like I wasn't breathing right. I kept wondering if my lungs were even working. I luckily was able to get off the freeway right away.
I was almost to work, I had to wait at a red light, (which now every red light makes me anxious) and I was on the verge of fainting. I kept wondering if I should put the car in park, just in case I fainted. I was talking to my sister on the phone when all of this first happened. I told her I didn't know what was wrong, that I felt very weird, and I had to go because I was going to pass out. When I got to work, I tried to breath and relax to get rid of that feeling. I asked my supervisor if I could have the day off. While asking her, I had to sit down because I couldn't see right- I had vertigo. She asked if I was having a panic attack. I told her no, I just felt strange. I didn't think I was having a panic atack. I've seen people having panic attacks and I wasn't hyperventilating.
By the time I got to the ER, most of my symptoms passed. In a way, I wanted to still have the symptoms so the doctors could see what I was going through and diagnose me with something. I'd rather have a diagnosis than have them say nothing's wrong. They did an EKG and a chest xray. The only thing that was slightly abnormal was elevated oxygen levels. (Due to breathing a lot of deep breaths.) I told the doctor that I thought it was anxiety related, he told me not to jump to that conclusion. That it could be because I had a head cold. Come on, I've had many head colds and they never made me feel like this. The doctor taught me how to breathe out of my nose and then he sent me home. I thought, what a waste of a visit! That's when I decided to research this. It's nice to find similar experiences as mine.
Check out articles on depersonalization/derealization. I'm pretty sure this might be what some of us have experienced.
Thank you for sharing everyone and take care!
I have the same sort of problems going on with some of you.
about 10 months ago i was driving in rush hour traffic, in December(so it was dark)--- as I was switching lanes I got really bad vertigo. I had to pull over. I continued to feel "off" for a week or so. Every month, this weird light headed, "out of it" feeling would occur. I would notice it at all times of day- but mostly while driving. IT happened just before or during my monthly cycle. Then, I would be fine 3 weeks of the month.
I went to the Dr. where they told me it was anxiety or pmdd. They put me on zoloft. I was on zoloft for 5 days (i know therapeutic effects take weeks) but I felt immediate negative side effects. I could not eat, sleep, I was jittery, heart racing. I was driving to work one day and I had a panic attack driving down the highway. That is when my phobia started. I started takign Buspar--not sure if it is helping or not...
I am in therapy. I start to make progress then once my pms cycle comes around my anxiety is high- i feel depressed (mainly because I get those weird feelings)
I feel like i cannot focus, like i'm in a dream, dizzy, etc. When i drive during this time I regress immensely and then the cycle starts again. ITs very frustrating.
I am wondering if it is only anxiety or if maybe i have some inner ear issues also since its so much exacerbated during my pms time...
about 10 months ago i was driving in rush hour traffic, in December(so it was dark)--- as I was switching lanes I got really bad vertigo. I had to pull over. I continued to feel "off" for a week or so. Every month, this weird light headed, "out of it" feeling would occur. I would notice it at all times of day- but mostly while driving. IT happened just before or during my monthly cycle. Then, I would be fine 3 weeks of the month.
I went to the Dr. where they told me it was anxiety or pmdd. They put me on zoloft. I was on zoloft for 5 days (i know therapeutic effects take weeks) but I felt immediate negative side effects. I could not eat, sleep, I was jittery, heart racing. I was driving to work one day and I had a panic attack driving down the highway. That is when my phobia started. I started takign Buspar--not sure if it is helping or not...
I am in therapy. I start to make progress then once my pms cycle comes around my anxiety is high- i feel depressed (mainly because I get those weird feelings)
I feel like i cannot focus, like i'm in a dream, dizzy, etc. When i drive during this time I regress immensely and then the cycle starts again. ITs very frustrating.
I am wondering if it is only anxiety or if maybe i have some inner ear issues also since its so much exacerbated during my pms time...
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