O.K Here I go....

[deanstnt]

I have been living with this driving fear/anxiety for 10 years now. Sickly enough, I have somewhat gotten used to it. My husband and I work together so it is easy for me to just let him drive all the time. I feel like a shell of my former self as I used to be a very independant person, but again it's just easier to succomb to this thing.
I worry that if I make myself drive, my anxiety level will be so increased all the time that I may just snap one day and then be worse off than ever. I fear becoming completely agoraphobic. I used to drive my daughter to school every morning and then drive myself to work and then back home in the afternoon. But even though I did this every day, it never got any easier. So I have never felt that the desensitation method would not work.
So there's my delimma in a nutshell. Oh and I hate taking pills so I will not try Paxil, Lexapro, Xanax, etc. I am open to anything new though. I would give my eye teeth to have this magically disappear.

[teaser]

Hi dean..

First... are you trying the program?

Second... you don't "make" yourself drive.. you have to "want" to drive

Third.... what is the worst thing that is going to happen if you panic?

Fourth...it won't magically disappear... you have to work at it. It can be frustrating, but it is worth it! :)

teaser

[Rich-Admin]

Hi Dean,
Welcome aboard.
teaser is right....

but you CAN do it if you decide to.

Rich

[Fiore]

Hi Dean,

Welcome to the forum.

I'm no dentist, but I can tell you that you don't even have to consider losing your eye teeth to fix your problem. All you have to put up as collateral is a determination and commitment to succeed. How cheap is that?

I highly recommend the program. From reading various posts, and from my own experience, I see varying degrees of success in terms of time/effort, but I can't think of a single instance where someone has posted that Rich's program doesn't help. It does. Start there and good luck.

Fiore.

[deanstnt]

Hi dean..

First... are you trying the program?

Second... you don't "make" yourself drive.. you have to "want" to drive

Third.... what is the worst thing that is going to happen if you panic?

Fourth...it won't magically disappear... you have to work at it. It can be frustrating, but it is worth it! :)

teaser


Well I guess the worst thing that could happen if I panic while driving is I swerve the car into oncoming traffic, jump the median to get off the highway, run a red light to avoid sitting there..... The bad possibilities seem endless to me!

[Rich-Admin]

How many times have you REALLY swerved into oncoming traffic because of a panic attack?

Read through the posts here, see if ANYONE has had that reaction.

They haven't. Neither will you.

You'll fear it, but that's it. It's just an illusion.

Read this:
http://www.drivingfear.com/Blog/how-to- ... our-closet (http://www.drivingfear.com/Blog/how-to-handle-a-monster-in-your-closet)

Rich