Panic Attacks While Driving? What to Do and How to Cope

Do you deal with panic attacks driving? If so, this live is for you. Today we're going to talk about why panic attacks may happen while you're driving and what to do about it. If this information is valuable for you, please like this page and subscribe to our podcast and our YouTube channel. It helps me know that what we're creating is valuable for you. Also, leave us a comment or send us a DM about other topics that you would love to hear about, and we'll make sure to get those going. So today we're going to talk about panic attacks while driving. If you've ever experienced this, you know that panic attacks can be absolutely debilitating. You feel like you can't breathe, you feel dizzy, you feel tingling, your heart is pounding. You may even feel like you're getting chills or you're sweating, or you might even feel like you're going to lose control. If this is happening, you need to be able to do something about it that works quickly and effectively so that you can stay safe and keep others around you safe. So the first thing to know is, why do panic attacks happen while you're driving? And one could be just simply you've had a family history of panic attacks, or you have had a personal history of a panic attack and they just decide to come out at the most inopportune times. Another reason for panic attacks to happen while driving is that if something scary happened to you in the past, your brain may have made an associative cue that driving is something that's scary or unexpected. Another reason could be that if you've had a scary thing happen while you're in the car as a passenger or as a driver, and this could be something that may have been when you were younger and your brain just still remembers that and it's swimming around in your unconscious and decides to come up when you least expect it. And then other triggers for panic attacks that could happen while you're driving may be if you're under a lot of stress or major life change, or if you've gone through a recent trauma, even if it has nothing to do with driving. And so the biggest thing with panic attacks while driving is if one has happened before, is that oftentimes we worry that it's going to happen again, and then our nervous system starts to respond as though it may happen again. And so your amygdala is turned up and then those feelings of worry or hypervigilance are amplified and then that prefrontal cortex gets turned down. So we have Less mental breaks. And so we may have more intrusive thoughts, more worries, more analysis, paralysis. And then our brain stem, that reptilian brain, will jump on board and start to produce those feelings of stress, which, if untethered, can amplify into panic and anxiety. And so the way that we diagnose panic attacks is we have you go to a mental health professional and then they ask you about what your experience is. And the most important thing to know about panic attacks is that the anxiety can't hurt you. Anxiety isn't harmful, it won't hurt your brain, it won't hurt your body. Anxiety in and of itself isn't harmful, but it can feel incredibly dangerous and it can feel incredibly real. And, and having tools to get that anxiety under control is going to be life changing and game changing. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So the number one thing that we need to do if you're worried about having panic attacks driving is to do the work ahead of time. For example, if you've been through a car accident or if you've had a lot of stress in your life, make sure that you're dealing with that stress and dealing with the trauma in a way that is very honoring and therapeutic and beneficial for you. That might mean doing some EMDR or going to do some CBT or seeing a hypnotherapist or your doctor. So make sure that you're doing the work ahead of time. The second thing is to change the relationship with how you understand panic. And I know this is a big ask, but to remember, number one is panic is not harmful. Panic isn't going to harm you, it's just intense. And to also know that it will pass. And so the third thing is to use safe distractions. And so if you're driving and you're starting to notice that you're amplifying, you're getting out of that green zone, that I feel good, I feel calm, I got this. If you're amplifying into yellow, that's the minute that we start to need to use interventions. We want to do that before you get into the red zone, which is the panic attack zone. And so I talk a lot in my work with my anxiety warriors about force field strategies. A force field is something that surrounds you, that protects you, that keeps you safe. And force field strategies are things that you can start employing before the panic attack even hits. And so make sure that you're paying attention to where you are on the red, the yellow and the green and start to employ these force field strategies based on how you're feeling emotionally before actually getting in the car. When you get in the car, let's say you're driving down the highway and panic, straight strikes. It comes out of nowhere. You go from green to yellow in an instant, or yellow into red in an instant. And you need support right away. The first thing is that I want you to do distraction. So look at the car in front of you. I want you to name the color of the car. I want you to notice details, like if there's a cool bumper sticker on the car or something on the license plate or something about the year of the car or the logo or does it have paint chipped out of it? Whatever you can notice, pay attention to the details in the car in front of you. You want to make sure that you're staying in the here and in the now. One of the things that anxiety sometimes can cause us to do is something called dissociate, where we feel like we want to just leave our body. And being here and now is going to be really important in helping, number one, keep you safe, keep other people safe, and help the anxiety pass more quickly. So use safe distractions. Pay attention to what's around you. If you have somebody in the car with you, ask them to ask you very easy to answer questions like, what color is your shirt? What color is the car? What day of the week is it? What road are we on? And so make sure that you're using very concrete examples to bring you back into your body. The second thing is, if you have a panic pack, use your panic pack. That's what they're here for. I have a panic pack and we have a whole video and a guided imagery that's all free for you to use to create your own panic pack. In my panic pack, there are tools that you can use while driving. So a couple is we have kava kava. And so if you're getting really anxious and you're driving, you can use kava kava. It keeps the brain sharp. It doesn't sedate you or slow you down, but it slows down that physical and emotional response of anxiety. So you can use kava kava. There's also freezer packs that you can get on Amazon. And temperature is super important when it comes to getting us out of that fight flight freeze state. And so if you can get that chemical pack, break it open, or have your passenger ideally break this open and then place that under your eyes, if you can, on your neck or even in the back of your neck. If you don't have access to a freezer pack, then change the temperature in your car, turn the air conditioner up high, turn, roll down the windows, turn the heater on. Whatever changes the temperature to get you back in your body will be really helpful. Another thing is breathing. Sometimes when we get really anxious, we hyperventilate and then we breathe out our CO2 or our carbon dioxide and that changes the PH in the body and the brain, predisposing it for greater amounts of anxiety. The University of Iowa published some articles talking about this part process and how we can change it with the breath. And so in my panic pack I have a straw. I cut the straw shorter so I cut it about in half. And then you can place that straw in your mouth and do four count breathing. And then if the anxiety is intense enough where you need to get off of the highway while you're breathing and while you're in the moment, try to safely merge over and then get off of the nearest exit and then pull into a safe place where you can spread, stop and collect yourself. So we talked about safe distractions using something that could be quick and effective but not make you a hazard driving. So kava kava is my go to. We talked about breath, we talked about cooling off or warming up depending on what's better for you. And then we talked about making sure that you're not breathing out all of your CO2 that's slowing down the breath. And then make sure that you focus on your true reframing narrative. It's really important to be tell yourself again and again like okay, my body is really revved right now, My heart is beating more quickly, my brain and my body are acting like there's a bear chasing us. I'm perfectly safe. I've driven many times and right now my body's feeling anxious and it will pass and anxiety can't hurt me and I can do this. And so start to change the narrative that you're giving to your brain and your body as is producing the feelings of anxiety, anxiety will pass. Panic attacks can be horribly uncomfortable. They can be devastating and scary, but they will pass. And you can conquer panic attacks. If you need to pull off, make sure that you do it safely. And if you can work through this and keep driving, then that is going to be the most important thing. To help you conquer this once and for all. Try to not avoid. But if you tend to get get anxiety driving, then when you're practicing and preparing and doing your force field strategies, try to make smaller trips and bring somebody with you that can remind you of all the things you need to do. One thing that might help when you're in that fight flight freeze is it's hard to remember all of the things that we need to do is try to include in your panic pack a really quick little reminder of what to do. Maybe write down brief temperature smell be here now. Pull over if needed and make sure that you share this video with your loved ones who may be in the car with you. You can get through this. You can feel better. Panic attacks aren't harmful, they're just really miserable. But you can get better. You can get your life back and you can get to the bottom of the panic attacks. So check out our free information. We have tons of resources for you and if this video is valuable for you and you know someone that would benefit from it, please share it. My name is Dr. Nicole Cain and we have tons of free information on our YouTube Dr. Nicole Cain on my website and if you didn't know, we have a free Anxiety One Week Challenge which actually helps get to the root cause of why you're dealing with anxiety to begin with. You'll get 14 free tips, there's videos and there's a community of like minded warriors that can share with you their experiences and what helped them turn the page. So make sure that you join that. It's the Anxiety Freedom Warriors Group. Make sure you give us a good email and then we'll send you the Anxiety Freedom Challenge. You deserve to feel like yourself again. So let's get started together. I'll be here every Wednesday and every Friday right around 1 o' clock Eastern. And if there are other topics that you'd like to hear, let us know in the comments. Send us a DM and I'll see you next time.