Driving Phobia

I've had the honor of working with a number of people that suffer from the debilitating fear of driving.... mostly freeways. Interesting enough, it's more the open freeways rather than driving in heavy traffic. Most find the traffic more comforting. Now, a phobia has no known root cause - it just starts happening one day. Then you add the anticipatory anxiety and viola - a phobia is born. How does it start? Believe it not, a drop in one's glucose levels (hypoglycemia) is often the culprit coupled with an overload of stimuli and off you go. Low blood sugar can have a dramatic impact on the body, as well as the mind. You wake up and slam a glass of OJ (all sugar) and take off to work. Maybe you grab a doughnut and for lunch, well maybe you eat a burger and fries or nothing at all. Perhaps the night before you didn't get good sleep either. Perhaps mentally you are already stressed with thoughts of your obligations or life in general. At some point during your day you are driving on the freeway and along the way your body starts feeling odd. Your palms sweat, your heart races, and your hands tremble. What's happening is your body is reacting to the drop of your blood sugar but your subconscious doesn't know that - all it knows is that you are driving on the freeway so instantly the connection is established. "I feel like this because I am on the freeway". The feeling overrides attempts of rational thinking. How confusing - your body is doing its own freaky thing yet in your mind you are wondering what the heck is going on - why, how? Again, the connection is established subconsciously - your mind connects the physical experience to the stimuli coming in through your senses.

I've had great success with my clients. In addition to the therapy I provide, making sure to consume proper amounts of protein is key! Eating proper meals is also very important. Desensitizing the client to the expectation is my first approach. Clients learn calming techniques that they can practice anytime, anywhere. I've also used the infamous NLP fast phobia cure.

Anyone taking a long road trip - take along some protein snacks for the ride. Raw almonds rock!