Three Critical Facts About a Panic Attack While Driving

If this has happened to you, you know how horrifying this experience truly is. However, there are 3 facts you need to know.

When you think of driving and having an attack is that you will be involved in a collision or hurt someone on the road or you will harm yourself. The fact here is that, oddly enough, people that have had panic attacks while driving do not have accidents. Possibly it is due to the fact that the high anxiety person is hyper vigilant or because the rush of adrenaline in their system improves their reaction time. Regardless of why, having a panic attack while driving will almost certainly not cause you to have an accident. This singular fact should make you feel better immediately.

Consider your prior driving record. If you don't have a history of having accidents or a bunch of citations, you are a responsible driver. Why would that change during a panic episode? It won't. You will still be the careful driver that you have always been.

Point number 2. Some people fear being in a traffic jam, gridlocked with no escape. Although this condition is not the ideal driving condition, it does happen. However, the situation clears and life goes on. You know it as a fact that a traffic jam is a temporary situation for everyone. Even if traffic stops on a bridge or a narrow roadway, it will not last very long. Actually it is unusual for the interstate to be completely stopped. This might happen when an accident occurs or when the authorities close the road until emergency vehicles can get to the site to assist, but, again, this is a temporary situation.

The third important fact about a panic attack while driving is that no matter how horrible you have felt during an episode, the panic attack will not harm you in any way. You may feel like there is not enough air or that you are having a heart attack, and you may pass out momentarily from hyperventilating. As soon as you do, your breathing will return to normal and your heart will quit pounding.

Are you interpreting that the whole panic attack disorder problem is manufactured in your brain? No. That's not what it means at all. There are physical changes in your body that are triggered by anxiety. We need to control the fear. By understanding that having a anxiety attack while driving is not going to result in harm to you or others and that the anxiety attack symptoms are not going to harm you, what is left to be fearful of? Not much. Learning to not fear the panic attack is the cure. With easy to do training, this is easy to accomplish. You are much stronger than you think you ever could be.