YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Does anybody else have a driving anxiety? I feel very stuck. In the last 4 years, I have only ever driven out of town, by myself, twice. I even have trouble driving around the county unless it's a route that I've traveled many times. I have tricks that I use when the anxiety gets to be too much or to stem the stress-tide before it begins. Tricks like touching each finger of a hand to my thumb one finger at a time, over and over again. Or I listen to a podcast or an audio-book. What's best is if I have someone in the car with me. I don't know why this anxiety started but I am sooooo tired of feeling trapped by it. So tired.

I am debating whether or not to try to drive out of town tomorrow. My man is helping to unload and load equipment for a band tonight and I can either wait around for about 10 hours before and after the show, or I can make my second attemts in 4 years to give it a try. It's is highly likely that I will not fare particularly well from the stresses of the sitch of kicking around town. Plus, It would only be 1 and a quarter hours of driving each way but it feels like it may as well be 4. It's bad enough to feel like you're having a heart attack in a safe environment but while driving, it feels way more severe and scary. The road starts to look wavy and I'm aching to pull to the side of the road because I'm afraid that I may get into a car accident. My face gets flushed and I get hot waves, then cool waves. My heart pounds, then feels like it stops for a few seconds that seem like minutes. Oh, god, oh, god! Why do the words look so much less intense than the feeling really is?

Any advice would be helpful and very much appreciated. Thanks for reading, if anyone reads this post. Which I doubt.

I have no advice, but I too have a driving anxiety -- in fact, I'm 27, have lived in the suburbs of the US where not driving is at best an inconvenience and at worst completely disabling, and have never gotten my driver's license. I'm horrified of making a fatal mistake in the blink of an eye and hurting or killing someone. When I had my permit, I was able to drive around very quiet and empty neighborhoods with my driving instructor, but once we got out on to the main road, I panicked. So, yeah, you're not alone.

I don't have driving anxiety, but I do have subway anxiety. Even though the vehicle is different, I think the anxiety is the same. You said you didn't know why this started, but maybe it's good to try and figure it out...if you can't do it by yourself, maybe talk to a therapist. I've realized that I can't just let my anxieties rule my life anymore and the only person that can change the situation is me. I too feel better if someone is with me on the subway, but that is not realistic, so I need to start small and deal with it. For me, the anxiety is coming from feeling that it is unsafe for me to be alone in public. I have Dependent Personality Disorder where I feel like I need to be protected by others at all times... I've not fully matured emotionally...and I'm in the process of figuring out why. I've been groped on the subway when I was a teenager, so maybe that has something to do with it...I don't know, but I'm committed to finding out why and take baby steps to overcome it.
Being the victim of your own anxiety and just reacting to it won't get you anywhere...I hope you realize that you have the power on the inside to change yourself, YOU are your only hope. We're all in this together. Just knowing that I'm not alone in this battle helps me out tremendously. Don't know if I helped any, but I wish the best for you.