My anxiety/panic is brought on by motorways. I was only used to one lane each way. Now I’m living in an area where there is 4-5 lanes each way.
I am a good driver and most of the time very competent, but the last 8 years or so have been so frustrating for me, and I was just wondering if it was due to menopausal stage of my life.
Some days I’ll get out there on the motorway, and go great guns, and other days I over think and have myself wound up and worrying about how I’m going to manage to get myself to my destination in one piece!
I know I can do it, but how does one stop focussing on this rubbish!
The other thing is, I do focus on those that are either travelling beside or behind me and I know they probably are not aware of my angst!
I am doing my best to keep working on this problem, and I enjoy your blogs. They help tremendously.

Many thanks.
Glenda.

Rich

I don’t know if you have tried this yet or not, but I found visualization while being immersed in the situation to be very effective. Next time you are riding as a passenger in the front seat, try imagining yourself driving while they are. Try to visualize every detail. Try to conjure up the fear and feelings. Convince yourself that you are actually driving. Try to almost create the same sense of panic and anxiety. With a little effort, this will be easy to do. It will be very effective and you will feel the fear as though you are really driving.

Don’t run away from it once it starts. Stop and notice what you are feeling and why. Learn everything about the anxiety that you can, how everything looks, feels, smells, whatever… After that, start to ask yourself why you feel the way that you do. What is causing it. Work it all out. Over repeated exercises like this, you will notice that the anxiety is easier to manage when it comes.

You will then be ready to get behind the wheel. When you start, take things in baby steps. Maybe the first step is simply sitting in the car while it is running. Alone. Maybe pulling in/out of the garage or driveway. It doesn’t really matter what the first step is just as long as there is at least some small level of fear associated with it. Don’t wait until you feel ready. You will never feel completely ready.

Oh and regarding your comments about others, bottom line, don’t worry about analyzing others. Trying to analyze what others are thinking or whether they really have anything going on or not is just an extension of your own anxiety. A big part of anxiety is over analyzing everything and constantly checking your body to see if something is wrong. Of course, if there is nothing wrong, you start to think that something should be wrong. And then all of the sudden something is wrong and then you react to that and the cycle starts. It can become so subconscious that you will not even notice it’s pattern.

You will think that anxiety just comes out of the blue and can’t figure out how or why. This of course makes the anxiety stronger because now you fear as an unpredictable monster or something. Always remember that anxiety is very predictable. You create it. Sometimes like clockwork.

I wish you the best of luck. Remember, we are all here for you!

Sincerely,
Michael…