Help with anxiety please?!
Question: Help with anxiety please.?
I have acute anxiety when i am in a car. i have panic attacks anytime there is another car around while driving. i can't even drive. my husband has to. suggestions.? i don't want to go back on medications. im looking for different solutions. Health Question & Answer
Answers:
I was like you - anxiety in the car. Only mine hit when I was in heavy traffic, boxed in, can't escape. Sitting completely still would panic me and I'd start getting dizzy and light headed, like I was going to pass out at the wheel. I was beginning to go out of my way to avoid any highways. These attacks started happening in dark theaters and even on long walks when I would get too far from home.
After 3 years of this, I finally went to my family doctor. He put me on Celexa, an anti-anxiety drug. I take 20 mg's per day and after a month, it was amazing how the panic attacks stopped. I would be in the car, approaching a traffic jam and get that uh-oh feeling....waiting for the dizzy feeling, panic, etc. and it would not come. It's helped me so much to be able to go anywhere without worrying about these unpredictable feelings.
Don't discount the drugs - they are useful and can definitely help. Taking meds does not mean you are weak. It's just a way to treat you like a bandage on a cut. You should visit your family doctor and talk about it.Health Question & Answer
After 3 years of this, I finally went to my family doctor. He put me on Celexa, an anti-anxiety drug. I take 20 mg's per day and after a month, it was amazing how the panic attacks stopped. I would be in the car, approaching a traffic jam and get that uh-oh feeling....waiting for the dizzy feeling, panic, etc. and it would not come. It's helped me so much to be able to go anywhere without worrying about these unpredictable feelings.
Don't discount the drugs - they are useful and can definitely help. Taking meds does not mean you are weak. It's just a way to treat you like a bandage on a cut. You should visit your family doctor and talk about it.Health Question & Answer
Systematic desensitization might work a bit, but it depends on the extent of the issue. I have anxiety surrounding vehicles as well. If you see a therapist that specializes more in cognitive therapies instead of medications, perhaps that might help.
You may try just working your way up to driving in small steps. For the first while, just imagine being in a car. Just sitting in a parked car. When you feel less anxious about that, imagine driving your car around town. When you are feeling less anxious again, go outside and sit in your parked car. Then next step, perhaps you might pull say out of your driveway, or up a few houses. Just watch the other cars go by. When you begin to feel more comfortable, take a trip around the block.
I know my fear stems from the fact so much can go wrong behind the wheel of a car. However, it should be noted that accidents (especially fatal accidents) are not nearly so common as we see flooding the news on television. You are actually quite safe behind the wheel of your car.
Watching the people around you is actually an advantage when driving. You may even want to look into a defencive driving driver's training course. This can help calm you and teach you the skills you need to avoid accidents. This might calm your nerves.
Best of luck!Health Question & Answer
You may try just working your way up to driving in small steps. For the first while, just imagine being in a car. Just sitting in a parked car. When you feel less anxious about that, imagine driving your car around town. When you are feeling less anxious again, go outside and sit in your parked car. Then next step, perhaps you might pull say out of your driveway, or up a few houses. Just watch the other cars go by. When you begin to feel more comfortable, take a trip around the block.
I know my fear stems from the fact so much can go wrong behind the wheel of a car. However, it should be noted that accidents (especially fatal accidents) are not nearly so common as we see flooding the news on television. You are actually quite safe behind the wheel of your car.
Watching the people around you is actually an advantage when driving. You may even want to look into a defencive driving driver's training course. This can help calm you and teach you the skills you need to avoid accidents. This might calm your nerves.
Best of luck!Health Question & Answer
You need to somehow conquor your fear. You need too be more confident in your driving. I suggest you spend lots of time driving around other people, you will need to this a lot and get used to it. You need to take a leap of faith and focus on your driving and the more you do it the more you will come to realize that its a fear and that you have control of the wheel.
If this doesn't work I think you need to go to see a psychologist so that they can recommend exercises to treat anxiety. Health Question & Answer
If this doesn't work I think you need to go to see a psychologist so that they can recommend exercises to treat anxiety. Health Question & Answer
Ive heard of this with many people, and that means they cant drive. You will have to stop driving. I sold both my cars this month (not because of anxiety though, but it wasnt worth it because I travel alot and am never home but kept paying insurance just for them to sit there) so either move to a city that has cheap public transportation or let your Husband do all the driving for you. Medication will make you unalert and drowsy, its not worth it for you to drive and to put our lives at risk out there. The guy who said marijuana is right, and I get it prescribed for my anxiety, but I dont get anxiety when Im driving and I wouldnt recommend driving around after smoking marijuana even though I did it many times as a teenager.Health Question & Answer
Well, if you try to deal with the situation by avoiding it, you will always be afraid of the car. Psychologists should be able to work with you on this in the same way that they train people to overcome their fear of flying. It's pretty similar. Maybe you can find someone that specializes in helping people overcome their fear of flying and they could work with you, too.Health Question & Answer
try to look for the reason to why you are panicking, when you find that reason try overcoming it by giving it a different approach, like driving on a highway for a little while every time you go out. eventually your body will become used to it and you will be comfortable driving even with anxiety.
anxiety is curable you just have to figure out the solutions.Health Question & Answer
anxiety is curable you just have to figure out the solutions.Health Question & Answer
try one day, when you have nothing important to do, get your husband to drive you somehwere where there's no cars around you, and start driving around, practicing turns. just like the first day of taking the test to get your license. then start going up higher by driving around streets and then in the long run, you'll find yourself on the highway. my mom has the same problem, and she managed to be able to drive. Health Question & Answer
Perhaps you might try figuring out the reason why you are feeling this way within a car.? Do you think it is from a trauma from the past.? a fear of closed in spaces, or an anxiety of a car wreck.? I would say to you to always trust your instinct. Be careful when you feel these heightened senses and tell your husband to slow down if you are feeling strange. I experience the same attacks and have recently discovered that they are usually premonitions. I am NOT saying to be worried, only trust what you feel. Take some deep relaxing breathes while in the car and picture yourself surrounded by white light for protection...Hope this helps.Health Question & Answer
There was a show on MTV about this, those true life shows, and it's pretty common for people to be anxious about driving or being in a car. One girl tried hypnotherapy and it worked fine for her. It's just mind over matter and you'll get over it. If it becomes a severe problem, you need to see a doctor specializing in things like this.Health Question & Answer
Breathing exercises and training your mind to think or respond differently to the situation that causes you anxiety. Those are some things we learned in nursing school. also I took a class in homeopathy, there are some all natural products that they sell in health food stores that claim they can help with anxiety.Health Question & Answer
my sister is the same way. Do you drive.? does it happen when your just a passenger.? is it because you've been in accidents before.?
Whenever I go with my sister she always has fears of driving across bridges or passing big trucks. I would suggest baby steps and to keep reminding yourself nothing will happen. Maybe you can drive around the block until you feel comfortable. Then expand your path of travel until you include some more objects.
Not sure if this helps, but I would try it. Health Question & Answer
Whenever I go with my sister she always has fears of driving across bridges or passing big trucks. I would suggest baby steps and to keep reminding yourself nothing will happen. Maybe you can drive around the block until you feel comfortable. Then expand your path of travel until you include some more objects.
Not sure if this helps, but I would try it. Health Question & Answer
just remember, you will get through it. think, "this is just anxiety it will pass. i have nothing to fear." try doing it in parking lots or smaller areas before taking it on the road.
my mom had the same problem, do you by any chance smoke or drink coffee. the caffeine and stuff can cause the jitters and anxiety so id steer clear of that. my mom switched to decaf and shes a whole lot betterHealth Question & Answer
my mom had the same problem, do you by any chance smoke or drink coffee. the caffeine and stuff can cause the jitters and anxiety so id steer clear of that. my mom switched to decaf and shes a whole lot betterHealth Question & Answer
mmmm ive just started meds. on a low dose. i swear by it.
theres so much negativity about pills but unfort sometimes to have a life with this disease we need some help
i tried alternatives like natural remedies. it didn't work for me
might for u go to the chemist and talk to someone about it. they can be really helpful.Health Question & Answer
theres so much negativity about pills but unfort sometimes to have a life with this disease we need some help
i tried alternatives like natural remedies. it didn't work for me
might for u go to the chemist and talk to someone about it. they can be really helpful.Health Question & Answer
The first thing you need to do is learn the bus schedule cause if you can't trust yourself to drive when there are other cars on the road then you should not be driving. Going on medications are not the why either. You have to build up your self-confidence first.Health Question & Answer
im not trying to be mean but i dont think you should take sugesstions from on here, maybe go to a doctor that could help with that, if you can't drive with cars around you then i dont no how you could drive.Health Question & Answer
You get freaked out with just a car, .?.?
A semi swerving back and forth would get me nervous, but that is just me.Health Question & Answer
A semi swerving back and forth would get me nervous, but that is just me.Health Question & Answer
Try to be logical, thats the only cure, find the way to.Health Question & Answer
Marijuana works well for meHealth Question & Answer
I wish I had good advice for you but I don't... your question just comforted me because I have the same anxiety.Health Question & Answer