A couple of days ago I had a terrible sort of fit/attack whilst I was driving home. Luckily my partner was in the car with me but even she doesn’t understand what happened. Basically I had this overwhelming fear/pressure come onto the whole of my body like I was going to faint and was driving stupidly fast (even though I was driving at 60mph). It happened the previous day but thankfully I was able to carry on driving in the slow lane..but this time I literally stopped my car in the middle of the motorway. I’m extremely worried what is happening and refuse to get behind the wheel until I find out what’s going on because I don’t want to get into a serious accident because of these moments.
I’ve been driving for years, never had them...only really had that fast feeling when I’ve been a passenger and someone was driving; I would go through that feeling of being on a rollercoaster and not being able to control how fast I’m going sort of fit. Has anyone ever experience this before? My doctor has put me on Propranolol 10mg to help but I’m worried this isn’t gonna fix anything. (and I drive for a living). If this some sort of extreme panic/anxiety attack? Does anybody have some sort of advise because I’m starting to think I’m talking to a brick wall with my doctor or I’m actually losing the plot.
it's simply anxiety..... your body, mistakenly, thinks it needs to kick into "fight or flight".... it's not real. ive had this before and there were two ways i dealt with it.... 1st, when it was moderate and i simply used deep breathing, kind of like when meditating... i concentrated on the air that was entering my nose, it went down to my stomach (did not use lungs, instead expanded stomach and filled it with air) and then concentrated on the air going out of my mouth while my stomach deflated.... for a few minutes and the uncomfortable feeling went away... if it was stronger, i used method 2..... same thing as the first method, but i would pull over, and do that exercise with my eyes closed and a bigger effort on relaxing the body while doing the breathing exercise. i only had to do it for a few weeks and then it all went away....
Sounds like a good ol panic/anxiety attack.
I've had this happen to me before, and I've also pulled over when it was really bad. I highly suggest seeing a therapist if you haven't yet, one who specializes in anxiety. I see one for my anxiety issues and it helps a LOT. I realized I was getting these attacks in places like the car simply bc it was somewhere I realized was very inconvenient to have an attack lol so I'd almost subconsciously start thinking and worrying about having one as soon as I got in the car - and that would then bring one on.
I worked with my therapist using cognitive behavioral therapy and rationalizing and such to counter it. I don't really get it much more when driving, although I do still have anxiety issues in general -_-
Would it cause something physical like stopping your car in a dangerous situation though? Ever since this has happened I feel very unstable like I’m gonna fall over all the time. It’s really frustrating when I’ve never had this so intense ever in my life.
You mean would you be unable to stop your car in a dangerous situation bc your body is all out of whack? lol If that's what you mean no, I don't think so. Bc being int he panic state is like hypersensitive state so if anything you would probably reactive faster to any dangers.