Panic attacks in cars? I need some friendly advice :(

[Aspire]

about a year and a half ago now, i experienced this for the first time. I was in a taxi, dropped him off to work before i went home. After we had dropped him off, I had a sudden weird sensation, that got worse as we drove along.

I find it really hard to explain because it had never happened before. I suddenly got really panicky, and as we got faster it got worse, to the point i felt i was going to black out.

Since then, it has happened a few times, but over the past few months it has been happening nearly every time i get in the car. It's getting to the point now where i'm scared to get in the car. It even happened on a train once, though i managed to calm myself down.

I'm going on a plane in 2 months, and now i'm getting myself worked up worrying that its going to happen on the plane.

The only way i can describe this feeling is that it feels im going to pass out, i dont feel in control, and i start feeling panicky and just think to myself "get me out of this car" or i need to stop. It's really upset me now, because this has only been happening for the past one and a half years.

Does anyone else suffer with this? Can you help me understand it more :( I don't really know what to do.

[times71]

Hi Aspire.

I can relate to this one. I had similar experiences, took me awhile to work it out. The reason I had them was the feeling of being trapped, no escape and not in control. If you're in a restaurant you could get up and leave if you felt panicky, in a vehicle you do not have this escape route.

Therefore I felt sometimes like I was going to black out.

The solution. Well it's different for different people and I am sure there are loads of people who could help and advise on this. Though as real as the panic feelings are, they are totally false and rather than dwell on the fear of the plane, replace this with the joy of flying somewhere.. that's always exciting.

God bless

times71

[Magic]

I have fear of car travelling. I honestly am such a baby in a car. I cannot drive.

I use the bus. feel safer. I have only travelled by plane once and I felt safe, believe it or not!!!.

I have ice cold water to drink when in car, and deep breaths, to take your mind off things have the radio on.

[steve_p]

I experienced this for years, though my attacks started on a packed train. The more I started to avoid trains I started having panic attacks on buses and taxis as well.

The solution in a nutshell is to learn some calming techniques and voluntarily go face your fears one step at a time, starting off with say a short car ride by yourself and eventually graduating to a packed taxi with others in heavy traffic.

This allows you to slowly build your confidence and helps you realize that you won't lose control or black out no matter how bad it gets and your fear of the fear itself starts to die off. Yes it's very hard to do at first, but it's the only real way to conquer these types of situations.