Sheri, You should be really proud of your accomplishment. I will practice visulizing. I do a teeny bit better when I am driving. I feel more in control, but nevertheless, scared. I haven't been able to ride with anyone in quiet some time. I do not live close to an interstate so I travel them so infrequently. I live in the rural south. I used to could drive anywhere at anytime by myself or with others until I quit smoking 7 months ago. That is when my GAD was discovered. Apparently had masked it for years by smoking. Sometimes I feel like heck let me smoke, relax and be fine and deal with the physical probs later because these mental probs are too much to handle...but I don't light up and I can fight this GAD somehow. My doc keeps telling me as intense as my anxiety is I need to stay on meds. I don't have the physical symptoms of panic attacks, except once. I just have extreme anxiety, racing thoughts, inability to relax etc...I don't like that idea of using meds now to continue to cover up the prob and am trying to learn some coping skills and only use them as needed. You have been a great help. Our situations sound similar as I am sure many others among us. Thanks for the advice.

Mel, when it comes to this dreaded disorder, it is never too early to worry!!! That is half the problem, we tend to anticipate and worry well before an actual event, so that when the time actually comes we have worn ourselves out so much that we do not have enough energy to face the fear!!! don't you think? 18 months ago our family went on a holiday to Florida. The flight was from Manchester airport (3 hour drive from here on the motorway) overnight stay at the hotel, then a 9 hr flight. I LOVE Florida. We booked it a yr in advance & the kids (who had never been before) were so excited. I was too, I had been 2x before. However, every once & a while my excitement turned to horror as I realised what I was going to have to face. The motorway journey & then 9 whole hrs of being trapped on a plane. I do not fear crashing, I fear being out of control, ie. not being able to say STOP I want off now. All I could keep thinking about was that plane door being shut & me running up & down the aisles like a mad women begging to be let off. So, the worry started very early. About 1 month before it, the worry became so intense that I truly would have done anything to get out of that holiday. I made myself ill with fear, so much so that I lost a stone (14pounds). My gums, teeth & jaw ached with the tension. I tried so hard to pretend that I was excited about the holiday, but that was what it was, a pretence. However, I did go through with it. I was a nervous wreck travelling to Manchester & I hardly slept that night. I thought I was going to pass out with fear before I got on that plane. But I did get on it, and apart from some panic attacks peaking for the 1st hr or so, & an occasional small attack throughout the flight, I was actually ok. Yet, we are booked again for 1st April next yr. & even though I know I will get through it,(I did the last time) I am starting to worry. However, my advice to you Mel is to try & use the time between now & Aug to visualise yourself doing this 3 hr trip & instead of seeing yourself in a panic attack, picture yourself enjoying the journey. Picture yourself enjoying getting away from the everyday routine. Picture yourself welcoming the opportunity to heal yourself by doing this journey. This is what I am going to try t

Sheri, I am with you there! I just got hired onto a new job myself and they advised me we would have two trainings a year at different locations. I luckily just missed the one that just past (7 hours away!!!!!!!!!) but the one coming up in August is about 3 hours from here and can you believe I was so nervous I was almost wanting to back out of the job when they told me. I started thinking "am I going to have to ride with someone else and feel trapped and have an attack or drive myself and not be able to handle it alone? I am starting worrying early huh? Let me know if you or anyone has some advice. I am like that with the exits too....................I thought I was alone there! Mel

Hi Mel, Even though I am petrified of traffic jams I am also petrified of the open spaces too on the motorway. That is what I hate, being trapped between exits. As I approach an exit I feel that I must get off, then if we continue on past the exit I feel more panic and I am trapped until the next exit again!!!! This is why motorway driving is sooooooooo difficult for me because I hate both aspects of being on it. Spangle, I think that your technique to face up to your panic when at a red light is brilliant. Have you read Claire Week's book? She advises that the only way to really deal with a panic attack is to Accept it then to ride through it, and that sounds like what you are doing. There have been times that I have done this too, and it has worked. There are other times that I still fight it which of course just adds fuel to fire. I am in a real dillema. I help at our children's school 2x a week. When I came in today there was a message on the answering machine from one of the teacher's I help. She wants me to go on the primary 2 school trip next week to a musuem in Edinburgh. This means going on the bus on the motorway for around 30 miles!!!! and with a bus full of screaming 6 year olds!!! I have not phoned back yet. I really want to help, plus I know that this would be an excellant opportunity to face my fear, but all I can think about is possible traffic jams & being on that **** motorway. Even thinking about it is making my stomach churn. What if I completely loose it? What if???? Any advice?

Guess we are all the same yet all different. My fear is wide open roads. I feel more secure in traffic with all the cars around me! It is when I am travelling via interstate, wide open spaces, that petrifies me. I feel as if I have an attack, I am trapped in the car with no immediate place to stop then I start feeling claustrophobic and trapped and my mind starts racing. The ride until the next exit usually seems like an eternity and it is scary as heck for me. Can anyone relate to this at all ? :8o:

Hi! So I'm not the only red-light-aphobic out here! This has been a challenge for me for a long time, but I'm finally getting over it. Some things that work for me: 1. In the car I always listen to books on tape of my favorite books. When I get to a red light I say to myself "oh good, more time to listen to my book." 2. If I start to feel panicy, I tell myself "oh good, I'm having a panic attack! Cool, I want to thoroughly examine all my bodily sensations so I can write them down later. Racing heart, check. Dizziness, check. Yup, all the same old sensations as usual. Geez panic, is that all you can come up with?" Okay, I know it sounds silly, but it works for me! It helps me to feel bigger than the panic. 3. Some people use the distraction technique. You can count backwards from 100 by fours. You can recite a memorized poem. One of my favorites is making up silly little songs, such as: (to the tune of "I Dream of Jeannie") Go away, anxiety You've got no hold over me I face each fear and I'm free of you! Okay, sorry about that! I'll go now, but whatever you do, try to keep a sense of humor about it...if you're laughing, you're not panicing. Spangle

Hi there, Boy do I know how you feel. For some reason red lights do not bother me, but traffic jams!!!! Same feelings as you get with the red light. I especially worry about traffic jams on the motorway. The last time I was stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway was last summer when we travelled down to England for our summer holidays. All I could think about was getting caught in a traffic jam. Half way there, we did!!!! Up until then, my panic had been rising and going away, but it had not peaked. But wow, did it peak when we got stuck in the traffic jam. It was that horrible feeling that if i did not get out of there straight away, that I was going to get out of the car and start running & screaming like a crazy women!!! The feeling was that I was so trapped & that I would never be normal again. Everyone else just sees traffic jams as an inconvenience, but I see it as life threatening. My sensible side knows that this is just not so, but when you are in the situation your common sense is nowhere to be found because it is drowned out by the overwhelming fear, that is all you can hear, feel and smell!!! I like the way you described the fear as wanting to peel your skin off to get out of there, how very true!!! whenever I have to take a journey onto the motorway that is all I can think about, possible traffic jams. I listen to the radio, i try to work out leaving so that we can miss peak times etc. It is just so horrible, and so not worth it, so I avoid this situation whenever possible. So I know exactly how you are feeling. The only thing that you can cling onto is the fact that you did get through it, and you know that you will again. Easily said though, different story when you are bang right in the middle of it. Good luck if you try again. I failed yesterday!!! Got my friend to take me & the kids out on the motorway, but had to ask her to get off the motorway because my panic really peaked. Sometimes I can really get through it, other times I just can't, that was one of those times. I was so down for the rest of the day because I feel that I let myself down. Bye for now

Hi Sarah, Thanks for dropping in and for sharing your progress with us :). You have come a long way and we are excited for you! Keep on working on your fears. If you have to start form the beginning again then do so. We always have setbacks and the best thing to do is to not give up and "go forward" in little steps. You can do it Sarah! We are here for you! Looking forward to hearing from you again soon! All the best, Melanie _______________________________ The Panic Center Support Team

Hi everyone, I haven't posted for a while but I do still come to this site and read some of the messages. I have been doing much better but recovery from agoraphobia is still a long, painfully slow process. I feel like its one step forward, two steps back. Anyways, I have been driving again for the passed few months (not further than 5 km from my house) but I now have this red light phobia. One time I was making a left and it was a red light and I realized I was stuck. i couldn't go to the lane to the right because there were already cars there and I couldn't make my turn cause the light was red- I was totally trapped. I went from zero panic before hittting the light, to 100 in a full blown awful panic attack, which I haven't had for months, in no time at all. I actually thought I was going to have to run out of my car and leave it there! The good news- after I made the turn I was still shaking but fine, the panic didn't continue like it used to for hours. Anywys, I am now scared to drive where I cannot move- like, I'm ok at a red light as long as I can turn off that road, but if I'm stuck and there is no way I could turn off, I panic. I get nervous thinking that I may become trapped, getting a red light where I can't move. And the panic is the horrible, horrible old panic I had at my worst, not just anxiety- once you get this kind of physical panic, there are no breathing exercises or self talk that is going to help you. You just want to rip off your skin to try to escape. Anyways, this really sucks because I am getting better and want to do things again- my energy is back and I really want to work and go out and live again. Very hard to do when you can't drive, and no, busses or other ppl driving does not help- I feel then that I have even less control. Just wondering if this is familiar to anyone else and if so, what did you do? Thanks, Sarah