More on Driving Anxiety - Scared While Driving

By Christian Saurel


For many drivers, once they get behind the wheel, they are totally calm and the act of driving is so natural, it becomes second nature. There are, however, those who get anxious about driving and every time they are behind the wheel, they experience different levels of anxiety. There are many ways to define anxiety and panic attacks. Most people define them as feelings of tension, fear or dread, in the absence of a direct threat or any clear justification. Those who get driving anxiety can not explain why they feel the way the do.

If the above symptoms sound familiar to you, then you may be experiencing Driving Anxiety Disorder. Though this may seem like something very difficult to deal with, because it is, there are solutions out there that will help and even some that will eliminate this anxiety.When a person experiences an anxiety attack it is because their mind is not reacting properly to a particular fear. For example, you had a bad experience while driving and now you have a fear of driving. When you get in the car to drive with this fear in your mind, you mind takes this fear and intensifies it into a larger fear. Your mind can start wondering away with scary thoughts where you feel as though you cannot control these thoughts.

This is your mind reacting in a way that drives the anxiety, what you need to do is learn how to control these thoughts by teaching your mind to not have this type of reaction and to realize that these fears are unnecessary.Having a fear of driving can take control of your life. If you are currently in a situation where you suffering from panic attacks, anxiety, embarrassment because you have a driving fear, this article is for you. I am going to provide with three tips on overcoming driving phobia.

It is important to recognize the symptoms of phobia in order to deal with it. Those suffering from various phobias experience a range of emotions, as well as physical reactions. The intensity of the reactions varies from those which are mild, to some which can be debilitating. Some common reactions include sweating, chest pains, headaches, tingling lips, nausea, heart palpitations, desire to vomit, dizziness and feeling faint. Many people who are scared of driving have decided to avoid the activity all together.

Be in the Moment.Learning about mindfulness meditation and being in the moment will help you from having negative or irrational thoughts while driving. If you are in the present moment it is impossible to have irrational and negative thoughts while driving. It also helps to not have music while driving. Music tends to bring up past memories which will keep you from being in the moment. If you need to listen to music while driving it would be preferable to listen to positive instrumental music.If you begin to implement the NLP, Affirmations and mindfulness meditation techniques. It will make overcoming driving phobia much easier. The techniques that I have provided will help you tremendously with your driving phobia, but the best program for overcoming driving phobia is the driving fear program.

Anxiety while driving is a mental disorder affecting both males and females. This involves feelings of immense dread, anxiety and or apprehension towards driving with no justifiable reason. Experts have shown that this condition affects about one in ten people at some point in life. Anxiety while driving falls under mental disorders known as neuroses. Neuroses are phobias that affect individuals behaviour but not their rational thinking. They may exhibit anxiety every time they sit in a car driving or not. Though it affects both men and women, women are more affected by this condition regardless of their age.

This condition may be triggered by a traumatic experience in the past that affected the motorist like a collision, car accident or any other event. This may cause a motorist to be more apprehensive, unsafe and insecure while driving. The condition may also be triggered by driving under stressful conditions like speeding vehicles on a motorway, or traffic congestion regardless of previous driving experience or accidents encountered. The signs that show a motorist experiencing an anxiety attack are dizziness, trembling or shivering, nausea, headaches, flushing and stomach upset. As these anxiety signs progress, the motorist develops driving phobia. Phobias tend to protect the body against potential dangers. This is when the mind conditions the body into believing that driving is dangerous, so the person may be apprehensive and he may experience panic attacks while on the road.

The treatments for driving phobia/anxiety must come in the form of behavioral and mental conditioning. Drugs and medication have limited application in driving phobia/anxiety as they can only suppress your physical symptoms - they can never help you overcome your phobia/anxiety.Behavioral and mental conditioning works by slowly subjecting yourself to your phobias or situation that triggers your anxiety. During the process, you would need to experience the fear without running away and thus, becoming less sensitive to the situation. This idea is simple and it does not necessitate the help of professional (although you may choose to do so if you are really uncomfortable about it). Nevertheless, professional help or not, certain level of courage and determination is required as you would need to confront your fears and overcome them.




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