Anxiety deriving from a low form of 'ptsd'?

[AlexDeLoser]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to post this thread in hopes that someone who has had similar experiences with this to provide tactics/solutions. I know this may sound like an insignificant thing to be anxious about, but I feel the need to mention it because it is affecting me.

I have really bad driving anxiety - more specifically, with traffic lights (when they turn yellow, and the amount of time they remain yellow). Everytime a traffic light turns yellow even within the distance where its clearly better to go, my heart just starts palpitating like crazy; I can feel it going all throughout my body including my head, and also makes me feel like i'm gasping for air and that I can't breath. Oh, and most times when a yellow light appears, I lock the breaks, which isn't safe either.

I don't know if this is worth mentioning: this all pretty much started to happen the first time I locked up on a yellow light. people where looking and laughing at me. At that time, it wasn't even a lack of ability to spatially judge - it had happened because I got lost and was paying attention to the roads rather than the lights; I never had an issue with effective judgement prior to this. It's almost like I lost that ability when it happened.

It's hard to 'just practice' to get rid of this mannerism, since there are serious consequences in failing. That being said, it makes trying to get rid of this anxiety really difficult. Nothing I've done (exposure therapy) has really helped me in anyway. I'm unsure of what to do.

Anyways, I hope I have made sense, and that someone can help me with this matter. Thanks everyone.

Happy new year! (in a few days, of course) 🙂

[Flowertop]

Hi Alex

That must be so distressing and provoke anxiety every time you drive somewhere. It does not sound insignificant at all.
Does this mean you avoid driving?
You said you have tried exposure therapy and that didn’t help. There must be other options. I know that regular meditation ( on apps) has evidence of reducing panic attacks.
Do you have other phobias or anxious provoking things.
Have you spoken to your doctor about this. They may be able to suggest an appropriate therapist for this type of thing. I work with young people who have all sorts of phobias and consequently anxiety episodes which would seem like nothing to others but affects daily activities. The difference when these are addressed in the young person is life changing.
What are you like when other people are driving ?

It doesn’t matter that others appear to be laughing, they probably think you just had a brain freeze and they are not significant to you anyway.
Hope you are able to get this anxiety sorted.
All the best

[AlexDeLoser]

Hey Flowertop,

Yeah, it really is pretty distressing. It is indeed actually the reason I avoid driving as much as possible. It makes it pretty difficult for me to get to places via other measures such as public transport.

I do have a lot of fears, especially with talking to people, and the fear of being judged. I guess they aren't mutually exclusive from one another; I can kind of see a connection there.

"what are you like when other people are driving" Well, I'm assuming you mean like as a passenger? Forgive me if i'm wrong. But to answer that qusetion: Fine. I don't really fear what could go wrong in terms of accidents. I'm really only scared of my judgement, or rather, lack there of.

Thankyou for getting back to me! 🙂

[Flowertop]

Hey Alex

That is positive that you are fine being a passenger. At least that means you can go places when you need to.
Anxiety is a shocking thing and I don’t think a lot of people who have never had a panic attack know how extreme they are. I think people that have severe anxiety are courageous to actually try the things that put them in that uncomfortable and distressing situation. I keep hearing that anxiety is the most treatable of all mental heath issues.

My son had really extreme social anxiety. He would hide if anyone popped around. When he was younger he would always take the attention away from himself, like if he met adults we knew he would say hello and ask them about them so as not to speak about himself. People interpreted this as him being well mannered. As he got older and left school, things became really difficult for him. He would get really sweaty hands and felt subconscious about this. When he would drive the steering wheel would be wet from his hands. We got a furry steering wheel cover to combat this.
He went to uni and on placement would have full blown panic attacks. He completed his placement but had so much self doubt. Even though he was passing well, he believed he didn’t know anything and nothing could change his thinking. He stopped studying. He became quite isolated while his anxiety took over.
Nowadays he seems to be doing a lot better. He told me that if he deals with things they don’t build up in his head and become so big that they take over.
Hang in there. I know that people don’t judge as much as what your anxiety is leading you to believe and strangers are nobody in your life. You need to find a way to outsmart those thoughts which I know is easier said than done.