Starting to tackle travel anxiety - any tips?

[Grace A]

Hello everyone - my name is Grace and despite having a successful career in the City and great home life, I've pretty much suffered from anxiety all my adult life. Only a small handful of friends and loved ones are aware of my condition and although I do very well at work, I have always managed to hide my anxiety well from colleagues.

My day-to-day existence is good, but my anxiety is now focussed on travelling - I'm terrified of trains and being stuck in a carriage and not being able to get off. It's not a great way to live as I am based in London (so busy commuting is a must), and I have to admit that I've used every excuse in the book to avoid meetings that involve crippling train journeys.

I have just moved house and now live in South London, so a 30 minute busy train journey is pretty much the only way to get into work. Following some counselling late last year, I've started to get the train into work every day with my partner, and this is my second full week of travelling. I can't begin to tell you how difficult it has been and I've found some of the physical symptoms really overwhelming. I'm trying really hard, but the desire to get off and the feeling of being trapped is totally overwhelming.

I'm determined to keep going, so two things:

Has anyone had any experience of continuing to expose themselves to a situation where they feel anxious, and will my anxiety start to diminish eventually? I'm scared that these feelings will last forever!

I've also been experiencing an extremely upset stomach as a result of a really bad 'anxious' build-up of acid before I take a journey. It's so bad that I'm almost doubled-up before I take a trip, and it's now making me feel more anxious as I'm nervous about not being close to a toilet in case I'm sick or similar. I'm carrying Rennie's with me, but does anyone have any advice as to how I can stop this dreadful build up of acid?

Thanks everyone, and good to know that I'm not suffering alone!

Grace

[venusbluejeans]

Hiya Grace A and welcome to NMP :welcome:

Why not take a look at our articles on our home page, they contain a wealth of information and are a great starting place for your time on the forum.

I hope you find the as site helpful and informative as I have and that you get the help and support you need here and hope that you meet a few friends along the way :yesyes:

[Grace A]

Thank you - I will. Already finding all the info very useful!

[Isabel26]

Hi Grace, a large portion of my anxiety is travel related so I sympathise with you - it really sucks as its an unavoidable part of everyday life and means I'm often shaken up and tired by the time I reach my destination, even if the days only just beginning.

I haven't yet found a foolproof method of dealing but I tend to use a combination of breathing techniques and listening to something calming on my mp3 player - maybe see if you can find an album that is the length of your journey and try to 'zone out' to it? If you like listening to podcasts/recordings of books that can help too. If I'm on a bus/train and feel a particularly bad spell coming on then I listen to a hypnosis type tape i downloaded for anxiety - whilst it may not have helped my anxiety that much, listening to the womans calming voice and doing the breathing/visualizing/muscle relaxing exercises can help to chill me out when an attack is approaching.

Also, this might seem obvious but its important to keep reminding yourself that at any point in the journey you can just get off the train - For example if I have a journey that's 5 stops away, I'll say to myself "this is okay, if worst comes to worst I get off at the next stop and get a taxi home. I only have to make it the next 4 minutes to that stop, 4 minutes is nothing." - whilst I've never actually gotten off the train, breaking the journey into smaller chunks in my head makes it less daunting, and reminds me that I am the one in control and not as trapped as I feel I am.

Sorry for the essay, hope some of this helps :)