Scared..

[mestiza77]

Hello. My name is Laura and I suffer from constant fear when in a car, train, plane. When I get in the car with my boyfriend I am constantly flintching and grasping on to the door as my heart is racing and my body is tense. I think I fear that were going to hit another vehicle or someone is going to hit us. Me jumping at everything makes it also very nerve wrecking for him because I'm constantly gasping.
Yesterday we got stuck in traffic on a double bridge. We were on the bottom and I could hear traffic above us as the bridge was vibrating. I started crying and wanted to get OFF the bridge as soon as possible. I have NEVER had a problem with bridges my whole life until yesterday. Having feelings like this is embaressing to just start bursting out in tears and having the feeling of doom swept over my body.
I have tickets to go to California for my cousins wedding. Me and my boyfriend already spent $1000 on them and now I am so afraid that I will be overwhelmed with fear when I get on there. Our trip totals 7 transfers of flights with the first flight being 5 hours long. I don't think I can last 5 hours..

** I have never been in a bad car accident or been on a bad flight..

Anyone know what I am going through? I am feeling abnormal and freakish.. Have any ideas of what's wrong with me??

[Charlene]

Hi Laura,

I think I can speak for most of us here, we all understand what you're going through. Fear of being in a car, boat, train, plane....it's very common amongst anxiety sufferers. So please know, you're not alone and you're not weird for having these fearful feelings.

You mention that you haven't been in a bad car accident or experienced a bad flight, but sometimes, anxiety creeps its way into areas of our lives that don't make much sense to us. It seemingly comes out of the blue without cause or warning. Often times though, the cause may be just "change". Change of your usual lifestyle, a disruption so to speak.

If you haven't already seen your doctor about your feelings of anxiety, you should make an appointment. Talk it over with him or her and listen to what they have to say. Some people opt for medication to help them get over a bumpy time, but know that there are so many other ways to overcome your anxious thoughts. Sometimes just sharing with others like yourself is enough to help you feel better and give you the strength to persevere and push through your anxiety.

[dtrotter]

Hi laura,

i suggest that you go ahead and check out with a doctor or qualify physician. Do beware that you are not alone and it is okay to have anxiety attack, but be optimistic that it will go away one day.

[mestiza77]

Thank you all for the reponse. I was beginning to feel a little awkward when I didn't get any replies. It feels good knowing that I'm not alone and that other people out there know what I am going through. I found an anxiety treatment center near me that offers a free consoltation so I am going to look into that. :D

[Constantinos]

Hi and welcome to the shitty world of panics,

I am 35 years old and i have been suffering from panic attacks, anxiety, for the last 10 years, though if i can recall correctly i had panic attacks since the age of 10 - 11 without knowing what i was going through. In any case, the last 3,5 years i do psychotherapy and it helped me a lot. I can not say that i am 100% confident for myself but saw a lot of improvement. In addition to that i read an article lateley that helped me lot and i am quoting this below. Believe me it is going to help you.

What you need to bear in mind is that what you are feeling is 100% normal for a panic attack sufferer, and that you are not alone. If you read a book stating symptoms of panic attacks toy will realise that you are a text book case. And if no one else ever died from it ( this is scientifically proven) you will not. So relax. Also very important point in order to make things better, what you feel you have to take it out, so everytime you feel like you are having a panic attack, talk about it, to the person next to you.

Panic Attacks are completely harmless. Although they look really bad, they feel like your mind is out of control, you are feeling like running and hiding from yourself, and you are afraid that you are going to die, still, completely harmless. The secret and method to overcome your problem is that "Without fear of them they cannot exist". I will quote below a part of a text that helped me a lot. Please read it and it will help you.

"In quick overview, to end a panic attack - an overwhelming feeling of fear - you have to pass through the wall of apprehension to the other side of your fear (no, this isn't some weird faith healing or new age crap). This works! I wish I could take you there by the hand myself but YOU have to do it. The trust in it working is something that goes against all aspects of our sense of survival and takes some time to really believe in. Yet IF you are experiencing a fear/panic attack I found the only way to beat it is to try to let the feeling be as worse as it wants to be. Let it be as bad as you can make it. And, because it truly IS a self-created fear, once you have made the desire to travel to the "OTHER side" of fear by letting it do its positively worse to you then ...there is NOTHING...nothing there. No fear. The other side is NO fear at all but a big smile. The moment of realization is a wonderful experience. For me, it was THEN that I realized that these "out of control" feelings were finished!

Stress is the major instigator for panic feelings. Perhaps you had realized a certain level of stress that had exceeded your ability to release it. I say, "had" because probably the event that triggered these panic attacks is over with. There are many relaxation methods for lowering stress and all of them are beneficial. Understanding your stress and learning to manage it will always help you throughout your life. However, the panic attacks were probably the culmination of that initial stress event. I don't care WHAT or HOW you arrived at these feelings - you have them and you don't like them and you want to get rid of them! Right now it's not important that your mother was mean or your father ignored you or if you are a perfectionist, or obsessive, etc. I am not trivializing your situation. Panic attacks feed off of themselves. They are a common disorder that can trouble even the most intelligent or the strongest person. They are an entire entity all in themselves. These feelings seem so powerful and they scare you. But your mind is NOT going bananas, being lost or slipping away into insanity despite your fear or your past. You are only doing what seems natural...fighting them in trying to get control over them. But you are trying to STOP FEAR! Fear is not under your conscious control. It is controlled instinctively in reaction to WHAT YOU BELIEVE! And right now you believe that you are THREATENED! Instead, you are going to accept it and let it become you and, thereby, stop the overreaction. Read on!

Probably you have suspected a myriad of potential illnesses and feared some significant health problem that your physician has not found or explained away as "nerves" or some other reference to your nervous system. If not, please visit your doctor and remove these questions! He/she may even prescribe anti-anxiety drugs that may help you to deal with your panic feelings if you need immediate results. Some medical professionals like to describe panic as a chemical imbalance that might respond favorably to medication. I tried several of them. I preferred to not use them because I didn't like the side-affects and stipulations for use. But for some sufferers medication is very helpful. However, in the absence of a real medical problem, you are, at present, afraid of the panic attacks themselves or simply put, AFRAID OF BEING AFRAID!

I have to be blunt! There is no THING causing this (unless there is a specifically identified illness, situation or event like a wild animal attacking you). It's not a place or situation or thought...not that couch or that car or that room or that strange feeling in your eyes, stomach, head, arms, or that crowded place! Not a brain tumor, not cancer of anything, no breakdown of any nerves! Only you! To think otherwise..to think that a certain room or situation CAUSES you to have the attacks...is false. Sure, I understand that when you are in a place or situation where you have felt these attacks before that you are aware of being there and fear THAT place or situation. BUT IT'S YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM being on a high state of alert. You must understand that it's coming from you! You also are exaggerating those strange feelings that you are having in your body into MAJOR significance. You are boxing in your life more and more by HIDING from these! It's NOT these places or situations or feelings, and I know that's hard to accept. But this is where you change your attitude from HIDING to "giving up"! From superstition to a rational approach!

Once you apply the attitude, "I will let this feeling of fear be as worse as it wants to be, I don't care anymore", and let it happen, let yourself go towards it and begin to believe it (the prime objective), then the truth starts to comes out. You become a little less afraid. IT TAKES PRACTICE. (Research in treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder has demonstrated that persistent practice of skills such as these can result in measurable changes in brain function without medication.) As you begin to "pooh-pooh" these fear feelings and establish the attitude of non-caring more and more you get closer to the rationale about them. Eventually you will be ready for the time when you truly try to make it worse while having a panic attack - and THAT is a key moment!

Good luck :)