river_one
12-19-2008, 11:41 AM
I would like to say that this is totally behind me, but that is not the case yet. I had incredible progress two weeks ago right after I diagnosed my problem as agoraphobia. The symptoms that brought me to this conclusion are my fear on the road on losing control and being trapped and also being very concerned with what people around me think about my problem and my slow driving. I can drive fine in heavy traffic on inner-city roads, but on an open road between towns or on a highway I get panic attacks.
The past two weeks have been great. I can't remember having the kind panic attacks I had regularly before. I am also calmer when not driving. I previously had tension all the time, anticipating having to drive. Day and night I would anticipate fear of having to get in the car and drive. I am not over the problem yet, but I am so much better. I couldn't bring myself to pick up speed beyond 60kmh, I am now comfortable at 70kmh at lot of the time, sometimes up to 80kmh and then sometimes again down to 60, but for the most part without those attacks of "OMG, I'm going to lose control". I have not had the feeling of a need to pull over and stop. I find myself much less in the shoulder of the road. I still feel very uncomfortable when I am in a one lane road with no shoulder and have a fast moving vehicle behind me, I then feel trapped and being pushed, instead of ignoring him and letting him slow down according to my speed until he can pass, I feel the urge to hit the breaks, and then I get even more nervous because I think that what I am doing is dangerous and could cause an accident, especially if the vehicle behind me is a big truck.
Over the past few days I have allowed myself to take people outside of my immediate family on short rides (up to 10 KM) I would have never done that two weeks ago out of fear that I might embarrass myself by driving slowly and show my fear.
Yesterday I drove for an hour straight twice with out stopping and for the most part did not feel terribly concerned with the cars behind me. At times if a felt that I was moving too slow and in the way I would make some room for a car to past and keep going, A couple of times I even pasted cars or trucks that were moving slower then me.
I would like to progress to a point where I could drive at 90KMH comfortably and take people with me with out feel intimated. I still need to work on driving on freeways and open roads.
The past two weeks have been great. I can't remember having the kind panic attacks I had regularly before. I am also calmer when not driving. I previously had tension all the time, anticipating having to drive. Day and night I would anticipate fear of having to get in the car and drive. I am not over the problem yet, but I am so much better. I couldn't bring myself to pick up speed beyond 60kmh, I am now comfortable at 70kmh at lot of the time, sometimes up to 80kmh and then sometimes again down to 60, but for the most part without those attacks of "OMG, I'm going to lose control". I have not had the feeling of a need to pull over and stop. I find myself much less in the shoulder of the road. I still feel very uncomfortable when I am in a one lane road with no shoulder and have a fast moving vehicle behind me, I then feel trapped and being pushed, instead of ignoring him and letting him slow down according to my speed until he can pass, I feel the urge to hit the breaks, and then I get even more nervous because I think that what I am doing is dangerous and could cause an accident, especially if the vehicle behind me is a big truck.
Over the past few days I have allowed myself to take people outside of my immediate family on short rides (up to 10 KM) I would have never done that two weeks ago out of fear that I might embarrass myself by driving slowly and show my fear.
Yesterday I drove for an hour straight twice with out stopping and for the most part did not feel terribly concerned with the cars behind me. At times if a felt that I was moving too slow and in the way I would make some room for a car to past and keep going, A couple of times I even pasted cars or trucks that were moving slower then me.
I would like to progress to a point where I could drive at 90KMH comfortably and take people with me with out feel intimated. I still need to work on driving on freeways and open roads.