why do I feel anxious while I am driving on the highway?

[picard]

why do I feel anxious while I am driving on the highway?

does anyone have anxiety while driving your car?

[silivrentoliel]

I do. I hate hate hate it. Ok, actually, I don't hate it, but it makes me very anxious and edgy. Not sure why, but I'm a very cautious driver because of it.

[jiffyPOP]

Yes, out of the blue, sometimes I will get very anxious. It all started when i was driving through a long underwater highway tunnel that had only 2 lanes with no divider. this is the first time I recall this feeling. It was very narrow. Now I get this feeling on ordinary 2 lane roads. I'm good on the highway with divider.

[picard]

I was in an accident once when my father's car flip over during a long drive in the winter. my father was driving at that time when the left front wheel lost grip and the car plunged into the ravine in the center of the highway. I felt absolutely terrified on that day. I thought I would die horribly. The car flip over several times but the deep snow had acted as cushion to lessen the force. everyone was ok including my mother. My mother was crying profusely since she was in shock. I wonder if that accident caused me to feel anxious until this day.

[jiffyPOP]

That is terrible picard. Glad everybody came out physically OK.

I think you might be onto the origin of the anxiety. that crash must be it. I remember exactly he first time I felt it in that long tunnel. I guess mine is like vertigo, I can't tell if I'm going up hill or downhill. It happens to me driving in the fog also.

[sarahsweets]

I am always anxious when driving but i was traumatized by the cops.

[spunkysmum]

Originally Posted by sarahsweets

I am always anxious when driving but i was traumatized by the cops.

Yeah, I got pulled over by one tonight. He said something about my loud exhaust and my long pause rather than full stop at the stop sign. Then he asked to see my license, registration and insurance card, and asked me to walk back and sit in his car with him while he ran them. He had some character in the backseat who I could only assume was in custody. Then all he did was call in my license number, say something casual about getting my windshield fixed and tell me I was free to go. Really, if there's not even going to be a written warning involved, what was the point of the whole exercise? I think the same guy has pulled me over twice before and he never even writes me a warning any of the times.

I think they pull my car over thinking they might get one for their quota out of it. Then they figure out that the person driving the wreck with the loud exhaust isn't a bum or an old drunk but a messy but otherwise perfectly respectable-looking spinster, and they get bored with the idea of nailing me (I mean with a ticket, those with their minds in the gutter! LOL)

[Raven01]

I love driving, having grown up in a driving family. However I am more relaxed when i am listening to an audio book and I think that I am driving better. I don't have to listen to all the chatter in my head lol.

[Hellogirlbye]

Driving used to make me unbearably anxious. I didn't drive on the interstate until I was 22 because of it. From time to time, I still get that moment of sheer panic -- a feeling of being completely trapped with no way out. I usually just grip my steering wheel tight and push my brain through. The moments are the worst ever but I've noticed I can almost let them pass through me, if that even makes sense. I just accept for a moment what is happening, rather than fight it, and it goes away. I find if I try too hard not to acknowledge that it's happening, my anxiety level heightens and there's never a release, which makes me a more distracted and unsafe driver.

[Fuzzy12]

Originally Posted by picard

why do I feel anxious while I am driving on the highway?

does anyone have anxiety while driving your car?

I sometimes get anxious when I'm taking a new route or when I have to park in a difficult spot.

I actually prefer driving on the motorway than in the city. It's much more streamlined and there is less that you've got to watch out for: No signals, no junctions, no pedestrians or cyclists, etc.

There are a few things that have helped me reduce anxiety while driving:

1. Sat Nav: I am lousy at finding my way, remembering directions or reading a map and I definitely can't do it while driving.

2. Parking sensors. Even after more than a decade of driving I still can't park and I know it. I don't fully trust the parking sensors (and I still can't parallel park) but at least they reduce the worry of crashing into anything a bit.

3. Allow for plenty of time for the journey. If I need to be somewhere on time I usually leave much earlier than required so that I don't have to get nervous when there is a traffic jam, I lose my way or I need to take a break.

4. Breakdown service & comprehensive insurance

[Galactica75]

I'm the complete opposite, I love driving on the highways but hate driving on regular streets because of stoplights. I get really anxious at stoplights because I always feel the folks in the cars to my side are staring at me, judging the type of car I'm driving and want to harm me in general. It's complete insanity I know, but therapy is starting to help.

[Danteloogi]

I get anxious just driving in cities. We road tripped to Seattle about two years ago and I drove mostly on the outskirts of Idaho where there were hardly any cars. In February I drove around in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Needless to say I was so anxious and nervous.

People get angry at me when I'm driving and I get snippy. I'll say "SHHH" or I'll turn down the radio. Everybody says I'm over reacting, but when there are so many things going on in the street (cars pulling out, people darting across the road, confusing roundabouts) I just start to lose my mind

[Mystikz]

It could be agoraphobia. Thats what I have, it basically means you get anxiety in certain environments where you feel trapped or that there is no where to go if you were to have a panic attack. It sucks driving around town or in familiar areas I'm fine but the highway going long distance is a killer. If you feel it coming on just try to find the closest exit to a gas station or anything like that and just get out of the car for a bit.
Hope that helps

[spunkysmum]

Only when I realize I've missed a turn, can't place myself, or gotten lost.

Or if I'm on a fast-moving freeway or interstate. That makes me nervous.

Give me a two-lane county road or state highway and I'm free as a bird and a happy camper.

[stef]

Not too much, as long as I could stay in the right lane (and never afraid to drive on state highways, county roads, etc) ;

But I was terrible driving downtown; and then there is this part of the interstate between Mpls and St Paul, where no matter what you do, you somehow end up in the middle of, I swear, 30 lanes of traffic, terrifying.

I have never driven in Europe, I never renewed my MN license and now I would have to take the drivers test all over again! We don't even have a car (couldn't have afforded it before; now, we just don't want one).