Fear of Highway Driving, Bridges and Height. Unusual fears.

[ch33zw1z]

this kind of breaks down when applied to vicious rabid pumas

or death. lol

 

[MrSquished]

Irrational fear is a biochemical process. I recently had to deal with something similar and the only thing that helped was medication. Now you would think benzos like klonopin or ativan would be the way to go for anxiety and yes, that does work for a lot of people. But in my case the thing that saved me was an atypical antipsychotic, brexpiprazole. This is a newer version of the older drug aripiprazole (Abilify).

These are normally used as adjunctive therapies for depression and anxiety because they are antagonists for a particular set of serotonin receptors that are over expressed in people plagued by those issues. But in my case, it worked fine just taking it on its own.

The change was nearly miraculous. The same thoughts that would have caused severe anxiety now pass w/o any emotional consequences at all. It takes about a week to kick in because the drug has a 3 day half life so you need about a week to reach steady plasma levels. But at least its not the normal 6-8 weeks that you normally have to wait for anti-depressants to work.

That's interesting for two reasons. One when I asked my psychiatrist about medication for my fear of driving she said there isn't any and to see a therapist, which I haven't done yet but will. The second is that I was on abilify for over a year, for bi-polar disorder. My recent fears developed when I was on abilify actually. I quit taking it altogether because it made me feel like a passionless robot, turning what is normally me the passionate conversationalist into a boring drone.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I would say I have a normal, healthy fear of heights. It's not bad enough that I won't drive over a bridge or on a mountain road or go up to the windows in a high rise building and flying doesn't bother me but jumping out of an airplane? No fucking way I'm doing that.

 

[JulesMaximus]

That's interesting for two reasons. One when I asked my psychiatrist about medication for my fear of driving she said there isn't any and to see a therapist, which I haven't done yet but will. The second is that I was on abilify for over a year, for bi-polar disorder. My recent fears developed when I was on abilify actually. I quit taking it altogether because it made me feel like a passionless robot, turning what is normally me the passionate conversationalist into a boring drone.

How long have you been off abilify? It might be a side effect of that and could take some time for that effect to wear off.

 

[PJFrylar]

It was the opposite for me, I was afraid of bridges and height in general when I was a kid. Even a small bridge like 10-15 feet or so above a river would make me squirm. Something like waiting in line for a roller coaster, near the end when you're up pretty high, could do it too. I just kind of got over it when I was a teenager, though it is still there to a degree. Those glass bottom pedestrian bridges would probably make me nervous. I wish I had something useful to say on how it got better, but it just did naturally on it's own.

 

[Charmonium]

That's interesting for two reasons. One when I asked my psychiatrist about medication for my fear of driving she said there isn't any and to see a therapist, which I haven't done yet but will. The second is that I was on abilify for over a year, for bi-polar disorder. My recent fears developed when I was on abilify actually. I quit taking it altogether because it made me feel like a passionless robot, turning what is normally me the passionate conversationalist into a boring drone.

If you tolerated Abilify well and just didn't like the way that you responded to it, it might be worth giving Rexulti (brexpiprazole) a shot. I'd start out at .5mg for the first month and see how you feel. Any effects should be slight and you might not even notice them but if there are any and you're observant, you should start to get some idea of how you'll respond.

If everything looks good, then go to 1mg for the next month.

 

[MrSquished]

If you tolerated Abilify well and just didn't like the way that you responded to it, it might be worth giving Rexulti (brexpiprazole) a shot. I'd start out at .5mg for the first month and see how you feel. Any effects should be slight and you might not even notice them but if there are any and you're observant, you should start to get some idea of how you'll respond.

If everything looks good, then go to 1mg for the next month.

Seeing my doc next week. I'll ask her about it. She might be hesitant to put me on an anti depressant medication due to them sometimes triggering manic episodes. I may take that risk if it can help with the highway driving thing. That's very important to me. Thanks.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

My mother in law is EXACTLY like you described OP. Just going over a freeway overpass scares her. The only way to get her anywhere distant is if someone else drives and she doesn't pay attention.

That said, she can't even deal with Airplanes without getting a doctor to prescribe her some happy pills or some shit. And even then she still freaks out. It's rather sad - especially since she is so religious. Where is your god that you pray to every day that is making you fearful of doing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that involves being 2 feet off the ground? I mean, it's to the point where it's absolutely sad - she wouldn't even go to her daughter's wedding if someone didn't force her and hold her hand the entire way. If someone were to die I guarantee she wouldn't make it to a funeral or anything.

 

[OverVolt]

I firmly believe that your body is correct.

I'm thinking you don't have the reflexes you used to have, the alertness you used to have, and the dexterity you used to have in order to catch yourself. I would say your instinct recognizes this and it takes awhile for the brain to catch up.

Just be careful! Keep your car maintained so that a tie rod or something doesn't snap when you are driving near a drop-off.

I'm very much so against anti-depressants. They work by shutting down your frontal lobe. If you want to turn into a thoughtless and emotionless condescending asshole then by all means I'll just talk about what an asshole you are right infront of you because it won't even really register "up there."

 

[OverVolt]

Irrational fear is a biochemical process. I recently had to deal with something similar and the only thing that helped was medication. Now you would think benzos like klonopin or ativan would be the way to go for anxiety and yes, that does work for a lot of people. But in my case the thing that saved me was an atypical antipsychotic, brexpiprazole. This is a newer version of the older drug aripiprazole (Abilify).

These are normally used as adjunctive therapies for depression and anxiety because they are antagonists for a particular set of serotonin receptors that are over expressed in people plagued by those issues. But in my case, it worked fine just taking it on its own.

The change was nearly miraculous. The same thoughts that would have caused severe anxiety now pass w/o any emotional consequences at all. It takes about a week to kick in because the drug has a 3 day half life so you need about a week to reach steady plasma levels. But at least its not the normal 6-8 weeks that you normally have to wait for anti-depressants to work.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz 2-3 years and I'll be getting into arguments with you I guess.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Never been afraid of heights at all but my irrational fear is spider webs, I've always been deathly afraid of those, I can't explain why, I just am, and I can't do anything about it because it's all in the head. I will wave a broom or stick around before walking in an area that may have some. It's actually an annoying fear to have because I love the outdoors and being in the forest but I'm always looking out not to run into any spider webs. The actual spiders or bugs don't really scare me, it's specifically the spider web. Something about how they look and feel.

It took a lot of courage to clean this out. - very long pole and shop vac. Even with that much courage, I don't know if I'd have enough courage to remove a headphone jack on a product that I'm selling though.

 

[MrSquished]

I firmly believe that your body is correct.

I'm thinking you don't have the reflexes you used to have, the alertness you used to have, and the dexterity you used to have in order to catch yourself. I would say your instinct recognizes this and it takes awhile for the brain to catch up.

Just be careful! Keep your car maintained so that a tie rod or something doesn't snap when you are driving near a drop-off.

I'm very much so against anti-depressants. They work by shutting down your frontal lobe. If you want to turn into a thoughtless and emotionless condescending asshole then by all means I'll just talk about what an asshole you are right infront of you because it won't even really register "up there."

I'm 41, not that old. My reflexes are quite good and I'm highly alert. I don't doubt my abilities in that way. I doubt other people's abilities to drive. That doesn't matter so much driving in the city or burbs where you are going max 40mph. When people are going 70mph that car is now far more deadly.

I'd prefer not to take another pill, but if one will help with that fear with minimal side effects, I'd consider it.

 

[Charmonium]

Seeing my doc next week. I'll ask her about it. She might be hesitant to put me on an anti depressant medication due to them sometimes triggering manic episodes. I may take that risk if it can help with the highway driving thing. That's very important to me. Thanks.

It's not an anti-depressant. Those tend to work augment one or more of 3 pathways - dopamine, serotonin and/or norepinephrine. Brexpiprazole is an atypical anti-psychotic. It augments certain dopamine and serotonin receptors but antagonizes other serotonin receptors.

It's a standalone treatment only for schizophrenia. For depression it's only an adjunctive treatment.

But don't let the categorizations bother you. No one really understands how most drug work, especially psychotropics. For example, I know one person who was prescribed an antihistamine for her night terrors, and it worked. And it's pretty common for drugs to be used "off label" simply because they have different effects in different people.

 

[Kaido]

Irrational fear is a biochemical process. I recently had to deal with something similar and the only thing that helped was medication. Now you would think benzos like klonopin or ativan would be the way to go for anxiety and yes, that does work for a lot of people. But in my case the thing that saved me was an atypical antipsychotic, brexpiprazole. This is a newer version of the older drug aripiprazole (Abilify).

These are normally used as adjunctive therapies for depression and anxiety because they are antagonists for a particular set of serotonin receptors that are over expressed in people plagued by those issues. But in my case, it worked fine just taking it on its own.

The change was nearly miraculous. The same thoughts that would have caused severe anxiety now pass w/o any emotional consequences at all. It takes about a week to kick in because the drug has a 3 day half life so you need about a week to reach steady plasma levels. But at least its not the normal 6-8 weeks that you normally have to wait for anti-depressants to work.

I wish I had understood this years ago. I had kidney surgeries as a kid & my gut got messed up (SIBO) after that. Unfortunately SIBO is a recently discovery, so I grew up feeling like crap all the time. I had severe anxiety & panic attacks. I later learned my digestion was out of whack & that dairy caused my panic attacks & gluten caused my anxiety. Removing those from my diet fixed the problem. A couple years ago now, I learned I have SIBO, which basically means your small intestine gets overwhelmed with bad bacteria & quits digesting well, and have been on medication for it. Night & day difference. The anxiety & panic attacks were merely a biochemical reaction.

Apparently 90% of the chemicals that control mood & emotion are generated in your stomach (google "second brain"), which makes a lot of sense when you think about it...butterflies when you're nervous, sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when something goes wrong, getting sick & vomiting and having diarrhea to clear the system out. As I got older & put 2 and 2 together as far as diet goes, this made a lot of sense to me because anxiety wasn't a mental thing for me, it was like having someone pinch you...the effect was external & real, but it wasn't something I was doing to myself, like it wasn't just mental...I'd constantly have that feeling like when a deer jumped in front of your car, for no reason at all.

I think that's why so many people with stuff like anxiety & depression do so much better when they really start taking care of their bodies...go to bed early, exercise, eat whole foods, reduce stress with something like GTD, etc. When your system is out of whack, you get sensitive to things like staying up late, having insomnia, eating processed foods & lots of sugar, never exercising, and being stressed out, especially when you're constantly late on stuff & behind the curve. It's a viscous cycle...interesting to see how much of it ties into your gut. Not that all forms of those do...sometimes it's just a result of mental problems or an accident that left people with negative results & stuff like that, but I think a lot of people would benefit from knowing this information & changing their lifestyle to see if they get some relief.

That's actually one of the big reasons I'm into cooking at home...making food from scratch without a bunch of additives & preservatives and eating those whole, real foods makes me feel awesome all the time. I can tolerate fast food & stuff now that I'm on the stomach meds, but I always feel far, far better eating "clean" with stuff like meat, fruits, veggies, greens, etc.

 

[williamsd76]

anyone acquire this fear? like ever? or any weird fear of yours?

After 22 years of confident driving on highways all over the Northeast US, to highway driving all around Morocco, and Cyprus - where you even drive on the wrong side of the road. Through curvy mountain roads with no guard rails and just a drop off of the edge. Over countless bridges. And always driving fast, not reckless fast, but over the speed limit and usually in the left lane.

Then BAM. A year and a half or so ago started having panic or anxiety attacks when approaching a bridge and it turned into a fear of driving on almost all major highways in my area. Heights? Can't even ride my bike over the George Washington Bridge anymore, too close to the railing and dropoff, after 3 years of doing it on the regular.

City driving is totally ok. And I can drive on 2 highways - they are on the route from where I live to where my sister lives and parents live. Day, night that route is all good. I tend to stay in the middle lane but flow with traffic. That's the only highway driving I've done in a year at least. I am so comfortable on that route, it's the one I've driven the most in my entire life. Driving on a highway lane with any kind of drop off next to it besides just a narrow shoulder is also a no go. Thus middle lane driving.

I can get away with this for work and my commute obviously, it's either walking or city driving. Luckily I live next to NYC so I don't need to go far to find something awesome to do, or to go on a date, otherwise I'd be screwed. It's all city driving or public trans in my locale. I really don't want or need to leave my area for much at all, but now I don't have a choice.

I have no issue riding my bike all over the NYC streets either. No fear. I'm careful but no fear, and you can die there too.

I'm about to start looking up therapists. WTF? It's just odd. Never developed a severe phobia before.

TLDR: used to drive like a champ on anything for over 20 years. Now have a severe phobia of highway driving, and over bridges, and anything high. What gives?

Did you ever figure out your driving anxiety? I am having the same issues the last 6 months. No issues for 25 years.

 

[LTC8K6]

I only fear one bridge when driving and that's a bridge on I-95 coming in to Philly. Northbound you are on the bottom deck. No problem. Southbound, driving on the top, I can feel the panic rising...

 

[IronWing]

Did you ever figure out your driving anxiety? I am having the same issues the last 6 months. No issues for 25 years.

Have your blood sugar checked. Vertigo can be a symptom of blood sugar issues.

 

[IronWing]

I only fear one bridge when driving and that's a bridge on I-95 coming in to Philly. Northbound you are on the bottom deck. No problem. Southbound, driving on the top, I can feel the panic rising...

At least when the bridge collapses, you'll be the squasher instead of the squashee.

 

[ibex333]

OP, I'm exactly the same. Even with the meds which do help with my agoraphobia and anxiety attacks, I still cannot drive highways or any major roads with more than two lanes.

 

[LTC8K6]

At least when the bridge collapses, you'll be the squasher instead of the squashee.

Somehow that does not comfort me...

 

[BoomerD]

At least when the bridge collapses, you'll be the squasher instead of the squashee.

I remember when the Oakland Cypress structure collapsed during the Loma Prieta earthquake...

 

[Red Squirrel]

Come to think of it I get a bit more worry/anxiety than I used to as a kid. Especially in winter as the danger is real and as a kid you just don't think of that.

Like whenever my family are out on the highway and it's a blizzard I actually worry a bit. My youngest nephew is in hockey and pretty far up in the bigger league at this point and there's tons of traveling involved.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I have a mild fear of heights. I don't fly well, but I have no problem driving over a bridge and I even love roller coasters and tower rides. What gets me the most if I'm a passenger driving in the mountains. If I'm on the backseat behind the driver, and the edge isn't out my window, I'm generally ok. If the edge is on my side and I'm the passenger, I get really nervous and my palms start sweating etc. Me driving in the mountains, I have no problem. It's obviously a control thing for me.

I have a good friend who is deathly scared of driving over bridges. He's better now, but before, we couldn't drive over any bridges with him in the car at all. We'd have to find alternative routes for our destinations. His daughter had anxiety driving on highways, 2-4-6 lanes, it didn't really matter. She's gotten better and drives to work the next town over, but when it's foggy, sometimes she freaks out.

 

[Fritzo]

My son's girlfriend has a fear of highway driving. She takes back roads everywhere...takes her forever to get places

 

[MrSquished]

Did you ever figure out your driving anxiety? I am having the same issues the last 6 months. No issues for 25 years.

Well I started taking this medicine called Neurontin - which is a milld anti-anxiety pill - and a few weeks later when driving I started just feeling less anxious, and then one day just took a different route onto a big bad highway and it was fine. I stopped taking the pill and driving is still just fine.