Driving Anxiety Disorder is a common form of anxiety. Driving Anxiety can occur due to a bad experience while driving such as coming close to having an accident or actually having an accident. It can also occur from other things such as a loved one getting in an accident. Whatever the case is that caused this anxiety, your mind is falsely associating driving with fear.Someone with Driving Anxiety Disorder may experience,Anxious or scary thoughts while driving,Uncomfortable driving on bridges,Dread driving in traffic,Do not like driving alone,Having panic attacks while driving with symptoms such as sweating, trembling, thoughts of losing control.
Psychologists describe anxiety as irrational fear. While it is common for most people to feel nervous or stressed when driving in heavy traffic, this is not the same as having anxiety. In some driving situations, some degree of fear or anxiety may even be justified. With driving anxiety, the physical and emotional symptoms are severe and go beyond nervousness. Those who experience the fear get physical as well as an emotional reaction, and the tension is often very high. This condition has left a number of people too scared to drive.
A number of people who get the driving anxiety often find that getting off the road and stopping, will often help to calm them down. The minute they feel an attack coming on, they can pull over and calm down which often takes a few minutes. Once they are off the road, the obsessive thinking that comes with the anxiety attacks is diminished. It is, however, important to get back on the road after the attack has passed. Like with most fears, the best way to deal with it is by not giving in to the fear. The more you build up a negative experience, the worse it becomes.
Learn NLP.The fear of driving typically occurs because of previous car accidents or trauma while driving with one's parents growing up. The phobia occurs because the mind continues to live in the past and it creates irrational thoughts and mind movies of getting into future accidents. One way to overcoming driving phobia is to use NLP. NLP stands for neuro linguistic programming, and it is a technique that takes away the power of the negative images of your mind.Use Affirmations.The use of Affirmations has been another method for helping me conquer my fear of driving. Affirmations help to program the sub-conscious mind into accepting empowering beliefs. The best time to recite affirmations is before bed and upon waking up. It's best to set affirmations in a positive and present tense. An example would be "I am a safe driver and I have safe trips each and everyday".
Some of those who experience debilitating emotions, find that they are unable to control their actions on the road as they feel disconnected. Some feel like the car is not balanced and can swerve off the road at any time. They may even feel like swerving onto the path of an oncoming vehicle, or hitting the brakes in the middle of the road. Those who feel like this should not drive until the condition has been dealt with. They can cause accidents if the condition keeps getting worse. It is important for those with driving phobia to seek advice and help. Trying to overcome a phobia without any help can be very difficult. This is especially the case if it has been allowed to go on for a long period of time.
Driving phobia can occur when an individual undergo a traumatic event such as road accidents, near misses or even something mild (like feeling uncomfortable with high-speed freeways). Because humans have the tendency to associate familiar feelings to a particular situation, these traumatic events can slowly build into driving phobia. For example, you may feel uncomfortable about merging into highways and thus, every highway episodes will trigger memories of your initial uneasiness. Over time, this can deteriorate into fear of transiting into highways.
Anyone who suffers from driving phobia or any other form of driving related anxiety can easily relate to the emotional suffering and limitation brought by their phobia/anxiety. For example, you may avoid driving on high-speed freeways, hills or even bridges because they terrify you. You can also experience scary, uncontrollable thoughts that completely overwhelm you. Physical symptoms can also manifest as severe panic/anxiety attack while driving: rapid heartbeat, hyperventilation (over-breathing), feeling faint and nausea, tunnel vision, etc.Let untreated, you may stop driving altogether and be totally dependent on family members and friends to fetch you around.
The treatments for driving phobia/anxiety must come in the form of behavioral and mental conditioning. Drugs and medication have limited application in driving phobia/anxiety as they can only suppress your physical symptoms - they can never help you overcome your phobia/anxiety.Behavioral and mental conditioning works by slowly subjecting yourself to your phobias or situation that triggers your anxiety. During the process, you would need to experience the fear without running away and thus, becoming less sensitive to the situation. This idea is simple and it does not necessitate the help of professional (although you may choose to do so if you are really uncomfortable about it). Nevertheless, professional help or not, certain level of courage and determination is required as you would need to confront your fears and overcome them.
Psychologists describe anxiety as irrational fear. While it is common for most people to feel nervous or stressed when driving in heavy traffic, this is not the same as having anxiety. In some driving situations, some degree of fear or anxiety may even be justified. With driving anxiety, the physical and emotional symptoms are severe and go beyond nervousness. Those who experience the fear get physical as well as an emotional reaction, and the tension is often very high. This condition has left a number of people too scared to drive.
A number of people who get the driving anxiety often find that getting off the road and stopping, will often help to calm them down. The minute they feel an attack coming on, they can pull over and calm down which often takes a few minutes. Once they are off the road, the obsessive thinking that comes with the anxiety attacks is diminished. It is, however, important to get back on the road after the attack has passed. Like with most fears, the best way to deal with it is by not giving in to the fear. The more you build up a negative experience, the worse it becomes.
Learn NLP.The fear of driving typically occurs because of previous car accidents or trauma while driving with one's parents growing up. The phobia occurs because the mind continues to live in the past and it creates irrational thoughts and mind movies of getting into future accidents. One way to overcoming driving phobia is to use NLP. NLP stands for neuro linguistic programming, and it is a technique that takes away the power of the negative images of your mind.Use Affirmations.The use of Affirmations has been another method for helping me conquer my fear of driving. Affirmations help to program the sub-conscious mind into accepting empowering beliefs. The best time to recite affirmations is before bed and upon waking up. It's best to set affirmations in a positive and present tense. An example would be "I am a safe driver and I have safe trips each and everyday".
Some of those who experience debilitating emotions, find that they are unable to control their actions on the road as they feel disconnected. Some feel like the car is not balanced and can swerve off the road at any time. They may even feel like swerving onto the path of an oncoming vehicle, or hitting the brakes in the middle of the road. Those who feel like this should not drive until the condition has been dealt with. They can cause accidents if the condition keeps getting worse. It is important for those with driving phobia to seek advice and help. Trying to overcome a phobia without any help can be very difficult. This is especially the case if it has been allowed to go on for a long period of time.
Driving phobia can occur when an individual undergo a traumatic event such as road accidents, near misses or even something mild (like feeling uncomfortable with high-speed freeways). Because humans have the tendency to associate familiar feelings to a particular situation, these traumatic events can slowly build into driving phobia. For example, you may feel uncomfortable about merging into highways and thus, every highway episodes will trigger memories of your initial uneasiness. Over time, this can deteriorate into fear of transiting into highways.
Anyone who suffers from driving phobia or any other form of driving related anxiety can easily relate to the emotional suffering and limitation brought by their phobia/anxiety. For example, you may avoid driving on high-speed freeways, hills or even bridges because they terrify you. You can also experience scary, uncontrollable thoughts that completely overwhelm you. Physical symptoms can also manifest as severe panic/anxiety attack while driving: rapid heartbeat, hyperventilation (over-breathing), feeling faint and nausea, tunnel vision, etc.Let untreated, you may stop driving altogether and be totally dependent on family members and friends to fetch you around.
The treatments for driving phobia/anxiety must come in the form of behavioral and mental conditioning. Drugs and medication have limited application in driving phobia/anxiety as they can only suppress your physical symptoms - they can never help you overcome your phobia/anxiety.Behavioral and mental conditioning works by slowly subjecting yourself to your phobias or situation that triggers your anxiety. During the process, you would need to experience the fear without running away and thus, becoming less sensitive to the situation. This idea is simple and it does not necessitate the help of professional (although you may choose to do so if you are really uncomfortable about it). Nevertheless, professional help or not, certain level of courage and determination is required as you would need to confront your fears and overcome them.
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