Learn to drive without panic attacks.

I am a lot better than I was before and now drive to work through a city and on the highway every day. New places still worry me but I am usually ok if I get real good directions.

Started cognitive behavioral psychology for the driving phobia. By god, it’s working. Slowly. I am driving on parts of the freeway I haven’t driven on in years—as well as over bridges I haven’t driven over in years.

A brilliant book to read to get a handle on morbid thoughts that won’t go away: “The Imp of the Mind” by Lee Baer. If you have any thoughts that freak you out and won’t go away when you want them to—READ THIS BOOK!

Bottom line about dealing with this phobia: being okay with the fear. Knowing that it’s not likely that I will pass out, that I can drive just fine even when I am feeling light headed and out of my body, knowing that panic attacks only have a short life span of 30 to 90 seconds before the body has to take a break from the intensity of the symptoms and chill out.

I still have more work to do—but I am reclaiming stretches of the world around me that had been lost to me for almost 10 years.

There are therapists out there who focus on phobias! Straight-forward psychotherapy works! Who woulda thought???

It all started about 9 years ago. I used to be able to drive on the freeways fine-fabulously, acutally. Then, I began to think random thoughts while barrelling along at 70mph like “what if I were to just turn the wheel?” and instantly a picture of my car rolling over and over, crashing and burning would burst into my head and it would freak me out. The imagery and morbid thoughts eventually converted to dizziness and feelings of wanting to pass out-not good while going 70mph! So, I started to avoid the routes that made me feel that way-until all freeway driving did it for me. 8 1/2 years later I was doing so much better-ready to start tackling the freeway bridges (the last hold out)—when a morbid thought crossed my mind while driving, and it’s been a panicky year and a half since when it comes to those damn freeways…

I recently drove in the city. Big progress!

I’ve been living in my current location for 2 semesters now, and I only know how to go to school and back. I need to work on driving new places.