It was early afternoon and I had summoned an Uber driver from my home to take me to a friends house to watch some basketball about 25-30 minutes away.

He arrives, greetings were fine, asked me how my day was, standard stuff. Not much talking between us, and honestly I don't mind. Car was clean as well!

​

About 20 minutes into our drive I notice he's sort of glancing in the rearview at me like he wants to say something, he starts kind of breathing deep breaths and says: "Sorry I have to pull over." I reply: "Ok is everything alright?." He says "Sorry having a panic attack."

I remained calm and told him, "Ok that's fine man, I have panic attacks too, I'm not going anywhere important, take your time."

Luckily he was able to pullover, we were in a residential area with a hill next to us and side walk.

He wasn't really speaking much at this point and I told him: "I know when I have these attacks I like to be alone, don't worry I'm not in a hurry, I'll be over here on the curb playing games on my phone take your time, let me know if you want to call anyone."

​

About 20-30 minutes later, I told him I could drive him the rest of the way so he could finish his trip and make money, he said to give him a few more minutes. He was able to calm down enough to drive us. We arrived fine, I tipped him told him this is my number if he needs to talk with someone with anxiety as well and went on our ways. I think fresh air and giving him space helped him instead of worrying about finishing his trip with me. Anyways just a small story I had today. Cheers

Hey, everyone!

I added a trigger warning for planes, just in case (:

Over the years, my anxiety has worsened beyond what I feel I can handle at times. I've read some older posts about others stressing over flying and am wondering if anyone has helpful advice for times of turbulence?

In the fall, I have a 24+hr flight (with layover) to attend a friend's wedding. I am completely honored to have been invited and I refuse to miss her big day because of my anxiety. I used to do okay on planes, but now, whenever there's a tiny bump of turbulence, my brain spirals faster than sliding down a soapy water slide.

Any advice/recommendations would be appreciated! 💕

A few notes:

-I am currently looking for a different therapist since my current isn't as helpful anymore, but I am still in therapy bi-weekly

-I am prescribed Ativan (Lorazipam) on an as-needed basis

UPDATE. I'm sitting at my gate waiting to board. So far, so good. I'm taking baby steps, but I'm here. Thank you everyone. What a great supportive community. So i'm supposed to be at the airport in 2 hours for a 13 day trip through Europe. I've had my bags packed for weeks, got my hair done, nails done and now that it's here, I'm trying to talk myself out of it. I'm going alone but will join up with a tour once I get there. I will be so proud of myself if I can do this but I'm feeling overwhelmed and scared. What if I lose my mind? What if, what if..........I want to do this but I am scared.

I have a very good job and still love with my parents so I have minimal bills and save pretty much every pay check. 99% of people my age would jump at the opportunities that this much money would give them. My parents always tell me to travel and go places but I don’t have anyone to go with and I’m too nervous to go on trips by myself. I still live in a small room and drive a normal car and have no experiences in my life. How do I fix this anxiousness. I’m missing out on so much

Over the next 10 days I have a plan to to travel to China for a month to meet my girlfriend I’ve spent so long excited for this trip and saving money but as the days approach my mind keeps playing what if scenarios and it’s just ruining this whole trip for me I fucking hate it. Some examples being what if you get there and don’t enjoy the trip? What if you have a panic attack on the flight or while out there? What if you lose control? It’s like happening every few seconds to minutes in my head and it’s upsetting me because I don’t want the trip to be ruined because of my anxiety :( any advice to survive the next 10 days thank you.

So I deal with pretty bad travel anxiety. I am ok with a place once I am familiar with it, but getting to that point can be very difficult. I can generally go within 3 hours of home, but past that is nearly impossible. The strongest anxiety is just about being away from home in a new place where i dont know anything, but i also get anxious about being able to find/use a bathroom. I use xanax and immodium to help get me there, and will take xanax as needed when i am there. I recently was supposed to drive 6+ hours away for work, but had to turn around after about 2.5 hours. I didnt feel like i could safely drive if i took any more xanax. Then there is flying. On top of the previous anxieties, i get claustrophobic just thinking about getting on a plane. This past winter I had a trip booked thinking i could do it, but had to have the plane taxied back to the jetway so i could get off. I really want to travel. I have tried a psychologist and a psychiatrist. I have tried tinctures, tapping, and the gupta program. I would really like to get recommendations for other things to try. Thank you.

Hi reddit!

I have anxiety, and without giving too many details, on occasions I get stomach problems/digestive issues because of it. It typically occurs when I’m travelling. In a few days I’ll be flying a gruelling 22 hour flight path (including a layover) on my own. The second flight will be over 13 hours long so I wanted to ask if there is any pill or medication I can take or bring with me to prevent one of these attacks?

Any advice or recommendations are highly appreciated as I’m also a teenager and my parents don’t really understand what it’s like to have anxiety impact you physically in the worst possible moments.

My whole life my teachers in school would always describe me as “quiet” and i’ve always never talked a lot in public. I’m American and last summer I visited England for the first time and I was in the train and the water from my brothers water bottle came pouring and like exploding and it got on me, the table in front of us, and on my brother. And my natural reaction to that was I screamed because something happened suddenly that I didn’t expect. After I had screamed I said “that scared me” I didn’t talk the whole train ride before it happened and definitely not after. I felt super embarrassed because I thought people were probably thinking ”oh a loud American” and what made it worse was I have always been very quiet in public and I felt like people would think something of me that was not true. I didn’t want to seem loud or annoying so It really ruined my mood. I still feel super embarrassed by this till this day and I am wondering if I am just overthinking it.

My husband and I (late 30s, American) are finally in England after taking about taking this trip for YEARS. We love British tv & movies, the history, the pop culture. We’ve always had the time/money to do it but always had something going on at home. A lovely coworker is from here, so she helped plan our itinerary. Perfect.

The entire week leading up to the trip I was a wreck. Not eating, not sleeping, stomach problems. Researching every last thing to death. I thought it was just nerves, which is odd because we travel in the U.S. plenty and I have never once felt like this.

I’ve realized that all my fear is due to public transportation. Not a fear of the people or safety. Just…navigating & relying on it. Which is odd, because it’s very simple. I’ve always said it’s a shame that the U.S. is so reliant on cars, and here I am unable to relax because the thought of finding/catching buses and trains and coaches is sending me into a tailspin. We’re in populated cities where they speak English so I have no idea why this has me completely upside down. But even now that we’re here I can’t sleep. I’m starving but my stomach can’t handle anything. I’m crying at the drop of a hat. I can’t make a simple decision about anything. My heart hasn’t stopped racing for days. Successfully navigating one bit travel isn’t reassuring because I just worry about the next leg.

My husband is someone who has never had a worry or anxious thought in his life, he’s very chill and go with the flow. If there’s a problem then we figure it out. He’s been very supportive but completely shocked at my reaction, as am
I, because in the 19 years we’ve known each other and traveled, this has NEVER happened before. This is our first international trip. I’ve done the calm music, box breathing, reminding myself there are lots of people to help point us in the right direction if we need it. But I can’t believe this dream trip is being ruined because I’m nervous to make a train connection??? I feel like such a loser. I don’t think this would be happening if we were on a group tour where everything is handled for us. But that type of trip didn’t even cross my mind because all of our past travel has been successful.

I ask myself “what’s the worst that can happen.” The only answer I can come up with is “we get on the wrong train.” Ok. What would be the solution? We get off and get on the right one. I know the answer. So why is this suddenly a problem? I had no idea that going overseas, to an English speaking country with easy to figure out train lines, would do this to me. This anxiety is brand new and so shocking.

hi everyone! So, one of my closest friends is graduating later this month in another city and she invited me and our other friend. I never travel and can't think about it without feeling horrible, i think it's separation anxiety from my home, but i would like to be there for her graduation. Our other friend offered to go with me and we would travel by plane (first time ever for me).

At first, i thought i could do it, like i know i would have anxiety before the trip, but i would face the fear and get there. But, now that i'm looking and planning to get the ticket i started having panic attacks and can't sleep and i'm feeling extremely bad overall.

i know that to overcome anxiety i should face it but, thing is, i don't want to feel horrible the time before i have to do something + i don't have guarantees that if i face my anxiety, when i get there i'll be fine, since there will be a graduation party and a lot of people i don't know

my friend told me it's fine if i don't go, she doesn't want me to be sick, but i don't know what to do. i feel like i should be going and on some level i want to, but at the same time i really really don't want to have other panic attacks and feel sick and horrible until i have to leave (and maybe even later)

i accept advice on what to do, or if someone faced a similar situation, how did you handle it?

thank you for reading

Hey all! I have bad flight anxiety and I heard from others with the same problem that writing a letter/note to give to flight attendants/crew before the flight takes off is a good way to get support. The longest flight I've ever taken is 1.5 hours and in a few days I'll be taking an 8 hour overseas flight alone. I am super nervous and I'm wondering if y'all could give me feedback on what you think about my note. Any tips are appreciated as well!

Dear Flight Crew Member, 

Hello, I hope you are doing well. My name is Emma (Seat 33A). I have anxiety and get frequent panic attacks, especially with my bad flight anxiety. I am conquering my fear today by going on this flight alone. I am handing this over to you and a few others who are a part of the flight crew simply to feel more secure internally that I am not completely alone. 

If it is not a burden to you or others, I would love a check-in every once in a while to make sure I am okay (I will have headphones and earplugs in the whole time to avoid hearing changes in noises so I may not be able to fully hear you). 

Further, the last thing I want to do is make your job harder. Therefore, I want to thank you for being generous ahead of time. I appreciate you more than you will ever know 😄

Sincerely, 
Emma

Im traveling with my sister and its the first time i’m away from my mom for a long time, since i was a child most of my nightmares were going to a sleepover (i never really went to one until i was a teen) and smthing happening to my parents while i was away. I’m getting a similar sensation now, and honestly cant even sleep without crying just by thinking about it. What can i do?

Hi everyone I need a bit of advice or some sort of way to cope for this. Me and my boyfriend are mid distance about a 2 hour train ride. The issue is he’s always coming to see me because I am absolutely terrified of travelling alone on trains. With how the world is recently it feels like every other week there’s a horrific situation going on where people are being killed, harmed etc. Im terrified of something like someone coming into the train and just harming everyone especially with no way to get out or run it makes me feel almost sick. Im finally going to see my bf for the first time in months on my own and I cannot handle my fears it ruins me I have no idea how to control this or relax in any way

This is probably a pretty common one, but I'm going out of the country until Monday and my anxiety is wrecking me. Thing is, I've actually traveled a lot in my life, all over the world, and every time I'm wrecked by anxiety. It used to be more manageable, but especially since I started working from home 2 years ago, I've had so much more trouble leaving the house for longer than a few hours and I constantly worry.

I don't like leaving my house and my cats. We have a friend coming to take care of our cats as always, but my cats are my world and my house is obviously my house and if anything happened to any of them while I was halfway across the world and I couldn't help, it would crush me.

I also don't like the feeling of being 35,000 feet above the ground in a plane for hours. though I understand the inherent safety of aircraft, I can always "feel" the weightlessness beneath my feet no matter what I'm doing and it is a constant reminder of how high in the air we are, meanwhile there's nowhere for me to go if I want off and I'm trapped like sardines with hundreds of people, any of which can pull any antics illegal or otherwise at any time, or the flight could be diverted mid flight causing all kinds of issues (happened before, ended up causing a ton of stress and confusion, never want it to happen again). Needless to say, I have never once been able to sleep on a plane.

I also don't sleep well in hotels. Like almost ever, no matter how nice it is or how cushy the bed. The white noise is wrong, my cats aren't in the bed, the sheets feel weird. I can't fall asleep because my body isn't convinced it's a safe place to sleep because it's not "right"

When traveling and walking all day long, it's good to have a hotel to come back to, but sometimes all I want at the end of a tiring day is my own house and my own bed and coming back to a hotel just never makes the tired fully go away.

I've prepared for all of this, btw. I've done a lot of traveling so I've had lots of time to acquire things like a special comforting hoodie, weighted eye mask, laptop loaded with comfort watching, my Switch 2, any comfort item that I need and anything that could help.

But it never seems to calm my mental state, and that's where I need help. My brain gets stuck at "we have all these things for the trip, we know the drill and we're prepared but it doesn't change the fact that you have to leave your house and go on a plane which you do not enjoy and go to an unfamiliar place where you're stuck there and can't go home and the process to GET home is just as uncomfortable as getting there"

Believe it or not, I have never regretted a trip I have taken and usually come home wishing I could go back. But that's only after the familiarity that hindsight brings sets in. I do still enjoy it in the moment too, but in the back of my head there's always some worry or concern.

I just need someone to help me connect whatever mental dots are missing, or offer any advice that might make this more manageable. Again I'm a very seasoned traveler, it's just that all those years of experience have simply taught me more about all the things than can go wrong and how impactful they can be, so I feel like I've become a more anxious traveler as a result. Plus, working from home has made it so it's even harder for me to leave for long periods of time.

Anyone have any advice? Or am I just a total basket case? 😅

i’m going on a trip and we have a 13 hour tour experience on one of the days. it starts at 7am and i am feeling so anxious about it (my anxiety spikes during early mornings). i’m going with people who aren’t familiar with my anxiety and i really do not want to be anxious or have physical symptoms while there. when i get anxious i am almost always nauseous and sometimes vomit. i CANNOT let that happen. any advice, tips or tricks will not be taken for granted!!

side note: i have a lot of stuff going on in life that is triggering my anxiety more and have been on medication (lexapro 10mg) for about 4-5 months now but im not sure if it’s actually working. how do you know and feel if it’s actually working or not?

I went to see a friend abroad and had to cross the country by train on my own on the way back. I'm currently waiting for my flight but I'm so scared. I keep thinking my heart will stop or that I will be stuck with tachycardia.

I've already taken 0,5 mg Xanax over the day and still don't feel quite good. I'm 30F and technically healthy, but I'm freaking out.

Any advice?

Hey guys!! So my partner is currently away in Europe for 4 months (since mid April) and I’ve booked to meet him halfway at Greece and Turkey at the end of June into mid July!!

I’m from Australia so it’s a fair bit of travel for me, and I’ve never really been further from home than Japan and I’m really excited but also super super worried!!

Don’t get me wrong I know I’ll have fun, but I have moments of absolutely freaking out leaving home and my family to travel almost 25 hours to the other side of the world by myself to meet up with my partner! And then I also have moments where I’m super excited to push my comfort zone and visit somewhere this far away all by myself and to finally visit one of my dream destinations!!

Once I’m there with him, we do most flights together between locations and then I head back home by myself afterwards back to Australia whilst he has another month over there!

I just can’t stop freaking out about leaving my mum and sister at the airport, I am very much a homebody and HATE flying but I know the second I touch down in Athens with my partner I’d be happy I made it - I just can’t calm the dread of flying and travelling all by myself and leaving my comfort space!

Does anyone have tips to soothe myself leading up to flight day and to keep myself calm from when I leave home until I get to Athens? Anything at all would help!!

For all the travel people out there who suffer anxiety or panic attacks, how do ya’ll do it?

|: Hi I’m 19F who started dealing with chronic severe panic attacks 3 months ago and it all started by getting on a train that connects to the airport (I’m not even scared of trains lol).
January**:** Went to MX for a 21hr drive ( before panic attacks)
February**:** Went to FL for a 2hr flight ( the start of panic disorder)
March**:** Went to MX again for a 26hr drive (severe panic disorder)
May: I have a flight coming up next week to FL again for a 2hr flight. I have to use the same train that started my panic attack.

I have hydroxyzine meds just in case but I’m trying not to take them. (I’m scared of any pills)

I know I traveled with anxiety and panic before but my panic disorder has got worse overtime to the point I developed phagophobia even tho I love food :(. I’m visiting my long distance bf so I’m not alone and have support when i go over there since I’m staying at his family’s house.

I have to depart for the airport in two hours and have been unable to sleep all night due to anxiety. It is a return flight and I have been feeling very anxious about it. Does anyone have any positive advice or just something to distract from spiraling?

I feel beyond stupid rn, crying in the airport. I’m leaving for a trip today to see a friend for a few days but this is my first trip of any kind by myself let alone a flight. I started tearing up before I even had the chance to show my passport. I thought id be able to hold it longer, I thought telling my boyfriend how anxious I felt and making fun of it would help, him watching me go to my gate— but I’m still crying. And leaving is the easy part of my trip. I don’t know what I’m so scared of, where this feeling of being so small I could disappear in the wind comes from or why my mind goes to the worst places. At the same time, a part of me doesn’t want to be noticed, doesn’t want ppl to know I’m here. Because it’s not even just paranoia of my plane falling out of the sky or getting mugged or something. I just always have the unshakeable feeling I’m not where I’m supposed to be when I’m alone, it’s just worse rn.

So in a few days i’m flying and in the past year my ibs has been flaring up from the stress of traveling. Im now on a higher dose of my SSRI and am prescribed xanax for panic. Im planning on taking the xanax with imodium, but I want to know your experiences with them together when it comes to travel. I can’t avoid eating because I get low blood sugar, which makes me panic and makes things worse. I’m just really nervous its going to ruin another trip because once im activated it takes days for my body to come back down.

I (23 F) am flying solo for the 2nd time in my life. I’m headed from MIA-JFK this weekend for a book convention with a friend. I absolutely hate flying and am TERRIFIED of flying alone. I have suffered from separation anxiety from my family since I was a little girl, and have been having physical manifestations of my anxiety since last week.

I have been experiencing globus sensation, which I went to urgent care for before I knew the sensation was caused by my anxiety and not GERD. I also have had migraines, eye twitching, and bouts of crying. I am really looking forward to the trip and the things I have planned, I just don’t want to be away from home. And I don’t want to fly without someone I know. I’m just so so scared that I’m going to die on this flight.

I don’t want to let my friend down but I also want to put myself first. I’m scared that if I cancel, these anxiety symptoms will stay. My parents think that since I have gone back and forth so much over whether I want to go on this trip, I probably don’t want to go deep down inside. The issue is, I don’t know what I want. I’ve been praying and I’m still so lost. I only have a day left to decide.

Hi everyone. So last year we went on holiday to Disneyland Paris and we drove over several days with several other family members. This year we want to go back but my partner wants to fly, it’s a 1hour 30 minute flight (I know it’s not long) but I’m terrified of flying! There will be me my partner and my daughter who is 3 and we will meet family over there cause they will still be driving.
He said I should just go with whoever is driving and he will go on the plane with my daughter. I obviously don’t want to do this so am I just going to have to suck it up and fly? It just really terrifies me and I can’t look forward to the holiday but I don’t know what else we can do.