anxiety of driving

Does anyone have an advice how to overcome the fear of driving?
I am able to drive around town without a problem, however each time i need to drive on the freeway i have an attack. i did it few times but i was driving in fear and i could not relax. just the thought that i have to do it gives me severe anxiety.

Sira,

Boy, Kitt sure knows her stuff. . . I am always amazed and well informed :)

When I first started driving again after my major panic attack that landed me in the ER last October, I was so weak and afraid to get behind the wheel. I kept worrying about passing out while driving, couldn't hardly breathe and was very tense. So I took off from the farm to town to return some rental movies and I was trying to give myself positive self-talk during the trip. I made it to the store okay and on my way back home I realized that my car tags were up and I just about blacked out from my heart pounding and head spinning. Totally freaking out about being pulled over and getting a ticket or worse the way I was carrying on. I started doing my breathing techniques and made is safely home. After that experience I was very frightened but kept driving and walking longer distances everyday for a few months and things began to get better. Flashing forward a couple of months to the end of January, I went into town by myself a couple of times to pay bills and buy groceries, and when asked for my license by a clerk, I saw that it had expired on the 20th of that month. . . I began to tremble with all of those old symptoms and scary thoughts racing through my head, but I remembered to stay in the moment and realized that it was only anxiety. I knew then that I would be just fine because I've conquered my health anxiety and agoraphobia as much as I could. I calmed down, smiled at the clerk and got into my vehicle to drive back home without panicking. And today I drove into town by myself to the post office, meeting an old teacher/cousin there, so we had a great chat and I came home very confident and happy :)

I hope my story will inspire you to realize that you can do anything you set your mind to my friend. I know how scary it is and I can go out now, be around a lot of people, and for the most part, I just don't care anymore. If something happens it will, and more than likely about 99.9% of the time, I understand it is just my darn anxiety talking. . . So as Kitt would say, "Kick them stinkin thoughts to the curb." :)

Take care and good luck! I want to see your success story on here in the future :)

Post Edited (Green Grove) : 2/18/2009 11:22:06 AM (GMT-7)

good luck kitt, drive safe.
I need to drive on the freeways of Los Angeles and it can be really scary.
hugs
sira

I have stopping driving over bridges and on highways over 10 years ago. I only drive from my house to my job and then home again. This past week though has been torture doing that now as I am getting panic attacks at red lights. I feel like I am going out of my body and I scream real loud (thank God the windows are down) and then I feel numb all over. I just switched over from taking a 25mg. Librium to a .5 Klodopin 3x a day. The Klod makes me feel even more dizzy and lightheaded when I drive (did spilt the pill in half and take 4 halves every 4 hours for the past week.) Last night I took a whole .5 Klod as I thought maybe I should be taking the dose the Dr. told me to take. (yes, I have a phobia taking medicine too.) Anyway, when it came time for me to drive the car this morning, I was spazzing out and wanted to just run into my house and be safe. But I can't take off of work for fear I will lose my job. So I stayed in the car and started the drive and I was panicing the whole time that I couldn't take it anymore and reached for my old pills (librium) and took one of them thinking maybe i am going through withdrawl and that is why i am getting worse driving. It did stop me from being dizzy but now that I am at work behind my desk and typing this it feels like my fingers are so heavy and my left ear is red and i cant catch my breath.

i don't know if this was the right place to type all this so please let me know if i should have posted under another topic. being new here i dont know my way around just yet and just want to be normal......i am so afraid. tomorrow i have blood work at 9am and i am afriad of that. i feel like just going to the er for them to find out what is wrong with me. the last time i did that though was back in oct. and they gave me and ekg as my blood pressure was 250 over 160. they put me on iv and gave me ativan and then my bp went back down to 130/85. They told me i was suffering from an anxiety attack. my blood pressure on tuesday at the doctors was 156/106. He also gave me a script for a beta blocker but i am afraid to take that and want to work my bp down naturally. but with these stinking panic attacks and equilibrium probs i dont know which end is up.

thanks for letting me talk here. any feedback will be helpful.