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nle_is_me
04-18-2010, 05:27 PM
I have issues with cars. I have no fear of driving but using my car causes me great anxiety. I don't know how best to explain it...I feel almost as though the car has feelings and I shouldn't drive it a lot. I feel guilty driving. I have to plan my life around how much I can handle driving. I used to commute to work and I had to constantly validate using my car to get to work. Since I drove so much to get to work I would not allow myself to drive on my days off so I ended up being stuck at home. I used to limit driving to only five hundred miles a month which is nothing compared to how much I drive now. I have great anxiety about the car unless it is just sitting in the driveway...which is ridiculous because cars are meant to be driven but that doesn't change my feelings about it. I am just hoping someone can sympathize or perhaps provide a name for it. Thanks for listening...

palow
04-21-2010, 05:16 AM
You don't need a name for it. You have something (a car) that causes you enough anxiety to restructure your life (avoidance behaviour). You have an anxiety disorder and you need to get some cognitive behavioural therapy or some self-directed anxiety treatment programme based on CBT.

If all other aspects of your life, like work and relationships etc, are fine, then you can get over this very quickly without drugs and without psychoanalysis. Just take action and get into a systematic treatment programme.

Patrick