Driving anxiety/episodes. Something clicked whilst driving in France

[stchris356]

Here goes!

I drive for a living and an advanced driver with IAM. Love driving and was very confident, until one day in France 10 years ago driving away quite happily enjoying the journey and something clicked and I was overcome with the sensation of being pulled to the left especially when overtaking.

This still happens every time I drive on a motorway and mainly overtaking, I have to pull myself against the arm rest for grim life to stop myself from "being pulled" into the side of the vehicle I'm overtaking, once I get back into the nearside lane if finally passes and I won't overtake anything for the rest of the journey even a 30 mph crane once! On short motorway journeys and normal roads it's not a problem.

I've tried hypnotherapy, acupuncture and all my GP wants to do is put me on Fluoxetine or sertraline which help a little but not a lot.

I've Googled it to death but that's difficult when it's so hard to explain exactly what's going on and I'm at the point where I have to live with it but it can't be doing my health/heart any good.

I just hope someone reads this and thinks, that what happens to me.

Thanks for reading.

Chris.

[Goldfish_]

How strange. Hypnosis sounds a good idea, but as you are still troubled what about trying affirmations and self hypnosis sites.google.com/site/behav...

[Beevee]

Hi Chris

I note from your previous post that you suspected you might be having thyroid trouble but tests were negative. The fact that you have found your way to this website suggests that your symptoms are anxiety or fear based. Something triggered your fear all those years ago which led you to believe that something was wrong. It appears to me that you have since developed a technique to avoid the same feelings from coming again.

What you are doing is a classic sign of avoiding an anxious situation which has become habit and the wrong thing to do. Instead of tensing yourself when you overtake, learn to relax yourself as much as possible and go towards those feelings. Do not shrink away from them because this just enforces the message that there is something wrong which keeps the anxiety alive. This is another way of describing acceptance or, as I like to say, learning to be comfortable about not feeling comfortable and the route to recovery.

Gradually, this approach will train your mind and body not to react in the way it is currently doing and those thoughts (hitting the vehicle you are passing) and feelings will disappear.

Happy motoring and keep on trucking, by practising acceptance.

Hope this helps

Beevee