Effective Tools for Driving-Related Panic

These six strategies can help you stay calm behind the wheel.

Driving is one of the most common triggers for panic. Bridges and tunnels can be especially challenging since they present the possibility of getting stuck with no easy escape route. If you struggle with panic and high anxiety about driving, you might have avoided certain driving situations, or stopped driving completely.

I’ve spent many hours in the passenger seat as a therapist helping people to overcome driving-related panic and avoidance. Here’s what tends to help:

1. Challenge catastrophic thoughts.

Panic-related fear tells you that something truly awful will happen in certain situations. For example, it might tell you that you’ll have a panic attack and “lose control” and drive off a bridge. The fear mind is good at telling you that the “next time” could be a disaster, even if panic has never caused you to lose control before.

That doesn’t mean nothing scary will happen. It’s possible that an elevator could get stuck between floors, or there could be a traffic jam on a bridge or in a tunnel. But even if those things happen, they won’t be the catastrophe that your mind fears. The only things that panic leads to is more fear and panic, and eventually your nervous system settles down.

2. See through emotional reasoning.