Hi
I am completely new to this site and its topic.
I recently drove along the motorway and just felt a complete irrational fear take over my body. I had been driving 100 miles with no problem. (Earlier, I was slightly uncomfortable going over Dartford Bridge but that was natural as I have always been uncomfortable with heights.)
As I drove along I felt my whole body instantly appear to go into panic attack. It wasnt a slow feeling of uncomfortableness, or slight worry/caution. It just hit me in a split second and I just had to slow down and get to the slow lane. But even then I was terrified while doing 30mph! It was absolute fear - completely irrational? I could no longer drive on the motorway despite resting, breathing, singing etc
Since then I keep getting it on motorways and bridges and now its happening on dual carriageways too. Wot is going on? I'm a man in my fourties, always loved driving, and pride myself on being very rational. I have just read that this can happen if you are under stress and I know I have been through a stressful time. But to have panic attacks just seems ridiculous (appologies to those who suffer from this). Wot is wrong with me? What can I do? I now seem to fear the fear which is a self prophesising thing.
It seems people recommend breathing exercises, music, singing, persevering in small amounts to conquer your fear, etc. This doesnt seem to help. By confronting my fear I seem to be making it worse?
I would appreciate it if anyone could give some advice. (I'm not saying I'm going mad but I am contemplating going to see the wizard of oz to see if he can give me some courage - trouble is I'm too scared to drive there! (I jest but I'm really quite worried)
Thanks in advance.
Hello,
Your starting to fear the panic attack, your predicting it before it happens, I did this and still occasionally do regarding many aspects of my life, CBT helped in some ways, self realisation in other ways.
Believe in yourself and you will over come your fears,
Oh, i recommend the yellow brick road to OZ.
xx:flowers:
Hi,
I get the exact same thing, especially with bridges and motorways, and I know what you mean about going over the dartford bridge, daunting looking bridge that. It comes on all of a sudden and you go very hot and have to get to the slow lane and slow down, I find sitting behind a lorry until it passes, quite relaxing for me. Mine started when I had an accident on the motorway 9 years ago. It has eased up a fair bit since then, it got to a point where I was stopping at every service station on the motorway, then I started giving myself 50 miles and then stopping at the next one, and finally managed to do a full 250 mile journey without stopping, I still got the panic occasionally, but I persevered, noodle is right, you end up fearing the panic attack coming on and that brings it on, always in the back of your mind.
Stay strong,
Hi dwatson :D:hugs:
:welcome: to the site
I know this is hard for you right now to understand, BUT PLEASE, DON'T think this will last forever, YOU CAN get through this with a lot of hard work, time and the right support.
You have come to the right place, there are lots of nice caring people hear who know what your going through.
PLEASE take time to read through the site, eg, first steps, how to cope, this is on the left hand side of the page.
Hun, you said yourself that you have been under a lot of stress lately, please hun, try and understand that your driving on the motorway has NOTHING to do with panic, your driving was NOT the cause, just a trigger, the last resort, so to speak. Our minds ARE very powerful, it has ways in warning us that there is something not quit right with our thinking, eg, to much stress, not dealing with the stress, a few other things too, it does warn us, BUT if you have never had high levels of stress symptoms, you would not know what to look out for.
I know its DAME hard for you right now, but please, try NOT to target your driving as the cause of your panic, Mmm, this can be hard, but in time, you WILL learn how to do this. There are threads on hear about panic when driving, do a search and if you can't find them, let someone know on hear and they will find them for you. :hugs:
**I now seem to fear the fear which is a self prophesising thing. **
HAY, this is good, you understand that you are fearing the fear, NOW hun, you have to TRY and show yourself that there is nothing too fear, Mmm, this can be hard, after all panic, IS very frightening. I know this is strange, but when you panic, you have to try and resure yourself, tell yourself its OK, to be scared, ALLOW the panic, use reasuring statments and let it ride through you (ohh I know this is dame hard:hugs: ) BUT, you can do thing, believe you can and your mind WILL find ways to do it.
**By confronting my fear I seem to be making it worse?**
I understand this, there is a saying on hear, feel the fear and do it anyway, this can work for alot of people because they have tought themselves over time, to reasure themself about panic, but not for others, from what I underand that those people who it does not work for, when facing the fears, (which is panic itself, fear of fear ) they find it dame hard to reasure themselves that they are in NO danger and have nothing to fear, so each time they try and face it, it seems to prove to them more and more that this is going to happen all the time.
Ohhh hunny, learn as much as you can about panic, knowledge is a powerfull thing. Please be kind to yourself, you are NOT the first and you will not be the last person to expierance this.
YOU HAVE something to work on, the fact that you KNOW you love driving, this WILL help you move forward a little hun, PLEASE use reasuring statment, ALLOW yourself to be like this FOR NOW, NOT FOREVER, tell yourself its OK, FOR NOW, it WILL NOT last forever, tell yourself YOU WILL get back to driving WITHOUT panic.
At present moment in time, you mind thinks you are in danger, you had the mother of panic attack and hun, becasue panic, IS very frightening, you are suck ( a little ) on aroundabout, fear of panic, fear of fear.
You have come to understand very quickly that it is panic your fear, fear you fear, I know this sounds strange to you but this is GOOD, this will help you move forward, please hun, look around this great site, not only on the thread but behind the site, there is lots of great info and tips, THEY ALL WORK. Not a quick fix, but over time, YOU WILL come through this.
**I am contemplating going to see the wizard of oz to see if he can give me some courage - trouble is I'm too scared to drive there!**
:roflmao: this did make me laugh, hehe, YOU HAVE courage, when we face fears ( and you are facing your fear everytime you panic ) we have MORE courage than anyone else. Your sense of humer WILL get you through this, use it. This will help you move on a little.
In short, a panic attack is our minds warning system, that we are in danger, when it is uesed for the right things eg, when we are in real danger, we don't even know its there, we act on the danger and get through without even noticing the adrenalin going off, but when its a fails alarm, we feel MORE fear, we tend to look for danger, put 2 and 2 together and come up with 5. Hence, YOU have targeted your driving, OR getting in the care just reminds you of you worse fears ( panic, fear of fear )
As I said hun, KEEP in the front of your mind, THIS WILL NOT last forever, YOU yourself WILL sort things.
I have read and met many people who have had pa's, some people have had 1 never to have another, some have had them over weeks and then they are gone, time is NOT important, whats important is that YOU YOURSELF believe YOU CAN get through this.
I myself have not had a pa in a long time and it was THIS GREAT site that helped me gain the knowledge I needed, about panic, anxiety but also helped me understand myself too, which was just as imprtant.
I know you are worried hun, but this worry alone will feed your panic.
Use this great site, ask advice, read everything you can get your hands on, also please, take time away from trying to sort things out, take time to do things that you like doing, away from panic.
This IS a challenge in your life, but one you WILL rise too AND GET through.
YOU TAKE CARE
LOVE JILL XXX
Hi dwatson, and :welcome: to NMP!
I love reading Jill’s replies – always full of wise words from somebody who’s been there and beaten it :yesyes:
“I now seem to fear the fear which is a self prophesising thing.”
That’s how it often takes hold. The initial panic attack was probably a one off for a good reason, but it’s the fear of having another that tends to keep it going. But the good and encouraging news is that catching this early means you can do things to turn it around before the panic response gets ingrained as an automatic subconscious response to a fear of fear.
They say ‘knowledge is power’, and that’s very true. Learning about something – how it works, it’s strengths and it’s weaknesses, etc – gives one a sort of ‘power’ over it. don’t you think? So with that in mind I’d suggest learning everything you can. There’s a wealth of info in the links on the left to get you started. And you might also be interested to read Nic’s story – it’s on the left too. She founded this site, and her story began on the motorway too.
Take care,
Nigel
I can also sympathise with having a panic attack on the motorway. I was on the busiest part of the M4 a couple of weeks ago when the same happened to me. I had got various symptoms with a panic attack before like nausea, shivers etc, but this time I had symptoms similar (or so I thought) to a heart attack and was convinced I was having one (pins and needles in both arms, cold sweaty palms, heart felt like it was about to explode and overwhelming nausea).
I have health anxiety, so it might be a different form of irrational behaviour, I don't know. At the time you might think you have no reason to panic, but there's probably something you're worrying about that just hit the back of your subconscious mind and sent you into that feeling of distress. I'm no expert, this is just how the patterns seem to come for me.
I thought I was going to die so I pulled over and called for an ambulance. The first thing they said when they got to me was "okay, firstly, I want to you breath slowly, because what you're describing to me is a panic attack..." and so I did so and immediately while in their care I started to feel better. Then they ran all their tests and took me back to the hospital - not because I had any problems, but because it would have been unsafe for me to drive in the state that I was. I got talking to the paramedics (both really nice ladies), and told them I was embarrassed that I'd taken up their time just because of a panic attack. But they assured me I'd done the right thing. When we find ourselves in a situation of extreme panic, often we worry too much that we'd be wasting someone's time. Even my doctor said to me, "don't think you're wasting our time by coming and having these things checked out - we're here to reassure as well as diagnose".
Prior to the motorway event my chest and stomach had been dodgy all week (I think I ate some bad food), so I had been thinking a lot about my heart. Though I think this was the initial trigger at this time, I also have some trauma left over from an incident a few years ago which unfortunately involved the death of a young lad just a year younger than myself. While not directly involved in the incident, I experienced enough (I won't go into details here) to leave me with a lot of trauma and I think that has had a great impact in how vulnerable I sometimes feel.
I saw a counsellor and it helped me so much, just talking to someone about it. I would recommend it to anyone, as when we bottle stuff up it can just build and build, and finally talking in depth with someone about it just sets all that built up emotion free.
Ever had a traumatic experience that might have had an impact on how vulnerable you feel dwatson?
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.