Fear of driving

Hi everyone,

I've been doing a lot of thinking about why my axniety is on a rampage, and my panic has been the worst every. I had been tracking my panic and seeing if I could find a pattern in why it's come back after one year. I have noticed that all my panic attacks happened while in my car. I had a horrible car accident about 5 months ago, and have been driving for abut 3 or more since. I never felt a fear up until now, but I have been preoccupied with the feeling of dying in my car, or the concept of death period since my accident. I was the only person in my accident to walk away, the others were pinned and had to be extricated from their cars. I had some sort of survivors guilt, even though I think all of us survived, it was just I was about 2 inches from having another car crush me, which would have killed me. When I walked out of my car, everyone kept saying "you are so lucky" "that car was so close to crushing you" I never once had a panic attack up until recently. I started thinking it was some sort of post traumatic stress, which I'm going to talk to my therapist about. I was just wondering if anyone who's had a fear of driving, how did you get through it? or if you have any suggestions of how to get through some of these fears? I appreciate all your help. There is so much more to my story, but it's just too long. Thanks everyone

lots of anxiety sufferers have panic attacks and anxiety problems when in cars, CBT and meds help

Most of my panic attacks happen in cars, or in stores.

Mostly in cars though. Fear of death isn't usually what drives it though, usually it's the thought of how far I have to go and if I can make it through and if I can turn around and get back home as quickly as I can.

I HATE driving sometimes, and choose to only drive maybe 20 minutes from home.

I plan to increase this to 25 minutes tho, and then maybe 30 and even farther.

God only knows how I'll do that without panicking. (a high dose of Ativan? lol)

I had a panic attack last night in Target and really thought I was going to die and so I grabbed a huge bag of dog food and carried it thru the store so I would focus only on the weight of the bag, rather than the panic, but both seemed to weigh heavily on my mind. I was literally sprinting thru Target trying to get the heck outta there as quickly as possible.

It was miserable.

I don't understand why I have such a fear of Target when it is only 5 minutes from my house, and I thought I was over the fear, so now I'm back at square one again.

I would definately say that your panic attacks are somehow related to the accident, for sure.

*hugggggggs* Just give Seb a pet when you're in the car.

Twiggygal~

I use to not drive but now to get thru panic attacks I am on the back roads with tunes cranked (oldies) and driving in the wind I love it
I am sorry for what you went thru and hope you can work thru this maybe with some CBT or some therapy
take care and be well
Lyn

Hi steph, im horrible in cars, i wish i could do it to relax, but panic almost everytime im in a car, especially if im driving, you are def not alone in that, i hate it. I used to love to go on a sunday afternoon joy ride :(
shell