5 Simple Ways to Overcome a Fear of Driving

 

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Many people who have generalized anxiety disorder, and those that experience high levels of anxiety or panic attacks on a regular basis, struggle with sustaining a productive and balanced lifestyle. Simple activities such as driving a car or going shopping can create very strong feelings of anxiety, and may even lead to a panic attack.

A fear of driving or driving phobia is a common side effect of anxiety disorders for many people, but there are some ways to overcome it so that day-to-day living doesn’t become so overwhelming.

Driving phobia is defined as an intense fear of driving a motorized vehicle. Some people develop driving phobia after they have been in an accident, but others develop this intense fear of driving a motor vehicle for no specific reason at all.

It doesn’t really matter what causes driving phobia in your particular situation. The best way to overcome it is to address that you have it, and use some specific anxiety reduction techniques that will help you reduce or eliminate your fear of the activity, naturally.

I talk more about effective anxiety reduction strategies and techniques in my book, Panic Away. You can use some of these techniques to overcome a driving phobia.

Here are some tips for overcoming driving phobia:

1. Allow yourself to feel anxious. Do not beat yourself up if you start to feel anxious. Expect it and then when it arrives do not fight against it. Allowing the anxiety to be present with you on your journey stops the internal conflict.

2. Practice deep breathing before you get in the car. Undertake some deep breathing exercises to clear your mind and increase oxygen to the brain. When you’re feeling fearful, your breathing may be shallow and this can trigger more anxiety.

3. Avoid caffeine or sugary foods before driving. Stimulants may keep you awake, but they can also trigger a panic attack and increase anxiety.

4. Practice in a comfortable and safe setting. If you’re fearful about driving on the freeway for an extended period of time, practice driving on an open stretch during non-peak driving hours like a Sunday so you become more familiar and comfortable with the territory.

5. Remember you can always pull over. If you start to feel overwhelmed, remember that you can always pull to the side of the road to take a break. This can help you overcome driving phobia and the extreme level of anxiety you feel about the situation.

For more tips to overcome a fear of driving, watch the following videos –

10 Tips For Overcoming The Fear Of Driving

how i overcame my driving anxiety and how you can too

I USED TO BE TERRIFIED OF DRIVING! 3 TIPS TO OVERCOME FEAR OF DRIVING (WORKS WHILE DRIVING!)

DRIVING PHOBIA treatment in 6 steps

HOW TO STOP BEING SCARED DRIVING (DRIVING ANXIETY)

9 Driving Tricks to Become a Better Driver

By Barry McDonagh, who is an international panic disorder coach. He created the Panic Away program to help people around the world deal with their anxiety and avoid panic attacks – a subject that he is personally attuned to because he himself found that he was prone to these issues since he was young. His hatred of his powerless lead him down the path of finding natural ways to treat himself without having to depend on expensive medications.His informative site on all issues related to panic and anxiety attacks can be found here: Natural Anxiety Remedies – How to Overcome a Fear of Driving?

How to Cure Social Anxiety When Starting a New Job?

 

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Starting a new job can be a nerve-wracking experience, and it will take a few weeks to adjust to the new environment and get acquainted with the people you work with. Many people experience a great deal of social anxiety when starting a new job, and if you’re already predisposed to anxiety or panic attacks, you may experience a higher degree of social anxiety during this stressful time.

Fortunately, there are several ways to cure social anxiety and find some relief from the extreme levels of anxiety you experience when meeting your new colleagues and associates.

I discuss some effective strategies for lowering anxiety in my book Panic Away, and you can use the following techniques and strategies to help cure social anxiety at the new job:

1. Limit caffeine intake. If you’re used to loading up on coffee and energy drinks to get through your day, you may be triggering anxiety symptoms and making it even more difficult to handle the stresses of the day. Reduce your caffeine intake so you’re less aggravated by minor stressors throughout your busy day.

2. Get a good night’s rest. Sleep deprivation can make you vulnerable to anxiety attacks and make it difficult to handle stress. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep so you’re not setting yourself up for extreme levels of social anxiety.

3. Use positive visualization techniques. Undertake some meditation exercises before the work day starts and envision a positive outcome with all your personal interactions. This can significantly reduce the amount of anxiety you experience as you start to meet new people.

4. Practice positive thinking. Avoid unhealthy thinking styles, including catastrophizing, mind reading and personalizing. Focus instead on your surroundings and really listen to what people are saying – not the negative thoughts in your head.

5. Allow yourself to feel anxious. Acceptance changes the way you feel anxiety. It is fine to feel anxious when in a new work situation. Don’t beat yourself up for feeling anxious. The more you accept the anxiety the less frustrated you will feel.

For more ideas on how to cure social anxiety when starting a new job, watch the following 6 videos –

OVERCOMING ANXIETY : FIRST DAY NERVOUS JITTERS | Doctor Mike

How to Overcome Anxiety (at Work)

How to Be Authentic and Not Care What Other People Think – 6 Tips

How To Deal With Anxiety At Work

Nervous to start a new job

First day of your new job? 10 tips to get you started with flying colours

By Barry McDonagh, who is an international panic disorder coach. He created the Panic Away program to help people around the world deal with their anxiety and avoid panic attacks – a subject that he is personally attuned to because he himself found that he was prone to these issues since he was young. His hatred of his powerless lead him down the path of finding natural ways to treat himself without having to depend on expensive medications.

His informative site on all issues related to panic and anxiety attacks can be found here: Natural Anxiety Remedies – How to Cure Social Anxiety When Starting a New Job?

How to Lower Your Anxiety and Stop Worrying Too Much?

 

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How to Lower Your Anxiety by Raising Acceptance?

One of the most effective ways to lower your anxiety is to increase your acceptance of it.

Anxiety works like this. The more resistance you create towards it, the more anxious you feel. The friction of fighting against your anxious feelings fuels it on even further.

Each time you think ‘I can’t handle this anxiety! I can’t handle these bodily sensations’ the more fuel you toss on the fire.

There is a way to reverse this and end the anxiety. You can do it by simply
increasing your level of acceptance towards the anxiety you feel.

Imagine for a moment if you could sit in absolute and complete acceptance of all the anxious sensations you feel? First of all, the type of thoughts you think would immediately change. You would no longer be worried about your health or if you were losing your sanity. Your attention would switch over from worry to the present moment.

Within a few minutes, the bodily sensations that triggered the anxious thoughts would be much less noticeable. They may still be present but at such a low level that they would hardly register on your awareness. Over the course of a few days, as your body adjusts to this worry free state, your general anxiety level would drop right down and you would feel a deeper sense of peace and calm.

That’s the goal I am sure you want to achieve. Of course the above example is the ideal state. No one is expecting you to automatically switch into such a high level of acceptance overnight. What you want to aim for, is to achieve this gradually over a period of a few weeks starting right now today. Here is how to start.

Decide to raise your level of acceptance for a short period each day. Decide that for just 10 minutes, you are not going to get upset by any of the sensations or thoughts you are having. You are going to accept them all to the very best of your ability. It’s only for 10 minutes and after the 10 minutes are up you can go back to resisting and worrying.

You think to yourself ‘OK I feel very on edge and uncomfortable right now but instead of getting upset about this like I always do, I am going to accept the experience fully for the next 10 minutes.

Remind yourself it is only for 10 minutes and that you have the rest of the day to worry and resist all you like.

By adopting this approach even just once a day, you will increase your acceptance of how you feel and create a very strong momentum for full recovery.

Remember you are not doing this with the sole intention of eliminating anxiety. If you think in those terms you will only be half accepting and half wondering why it is not working fast enough.

Instead approach it with the sole intention of practicing acceptance. Acceptance brings a state of calm as it flows and washes away feelings of anxiety. You reach your goal of feeling like your old self again through the act of acceptance.

How to Lower Your Anxiety by Practicing the Art of Gratitude?

For many people suffering from high levels of anxiety and frequent panic attacks, enjoying a peaceful state of mind seems like an impossible task. The constant mental activity can make it very hard to focus and concentrate. The constant mental activity can also be the root cause of an imbalance that leads to stress, frequent anxious thoughts and even compulsive behavior.

I’ve found that one of the easiest ways to reduce anxiety is to deliberately shift your attention from your head, to your heart. You can do this simply by practicing the “art of gratitude” which I talk about in further detail in my book Panic Away.

Science tells us that regular mental practice of gratitude can change your body’s chemistry and makes it easier to enjoy a peaceful state. Learning how to be grateful is one thing, but making a conscious effort to be in the moment as you express gratitude is what will help to lower stress levels and help you achieve a calmer state of mind.

All it takes is a few minutes to get started. Just close your eyes and take a few deep breathes. Focus on something in your life that you feel a strong sense of appreciation for, whether it’s a person, your friends, your health or your work. Notice how simply thinking about these things or people makes you feel, and start to feel the flow of positive energy throughout your body.

You can do this first thing in the morning to start your day off on the right track, practice gratitude when you’re stuck in traffic, or right before you drop off to sleep at night.

The goal is to keep practicing until you get used to feeling gratitude for a positive force in your life.

Practicing the art of gratitude can help to lift that mental fog of anxiety and improve your overall well-being.

Try it!

For more tips on how to lower your anxiety, watch this video – 6 Simple Ways To Reduce Anxiety

By Barry McDonagh, who is an international panic disorder coach. He created the Panic Away program to help people around the world deal with their anxiety and avoid panic attacks – a subject that he is personally attuned to because he himself found that he was prone to these issues since he was young. His hatred of his powerless lead him down the path of finding natural ways to treat himself without having to depend on expensive medications.

His informative site on all issues related to panic and anxiety attacks can be found here: Natural Anxiety Remedies – How to Lower Your Anxiety?

Natural Anxiety Remedies – How to Naturally Reduce Anxiety?

 

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I get several requests from people asking for my recommendation on natural anxiety remedies. Well to begin with, it goes without saying that it is important to get the right balance of vitamins and minerals in order to treat anxiety naturally.

All the vitamins and minerals we need are usually found naturally in the food that we eat. However, the vitamin and mineral content in our food has diminished over the years therefore, it may be necessary to take supplements.

To help reduce feelings of anxiety I suggest you take a good B complex vitamin along with Magnesium Citrate 3 times a day in powder form. You should also take omega-3 oils. Omega-3 is not only good for helping ease anxiety, but also has many other reported health benefits, such as lowering blood pressure and possibly reducing the risk of coronary heart disease. These are good anxiety natural remedies.

When it comes to herbal supplements to help ease anxiety naturally there are several options available and it can often be quite confusing when trying to decide which ones to try. To add to the confusion several herbal supplements come combined in one remedy and are sold as all-in-one ‘natural cures for anxiety’.

After several years of communicating with people who have used various different supplements, I can recommend two herbal supplements that appear to be effective natural anxiety remedies. Passiflora and Valerian.

Passiflora (Passiflora incarnata) has traditionally been used as a folk remedy for anxiety and insomnia. It contains many active ingredients. The most widely studied of these constituents, maltol and ethymaltol, seem to be responsible for much of the anti-anxiety effects.

It works on the physical body, relaxing muscles to reduce tension, which can be particularly effective for people who feel physically tense e.g. tight shoulders or the sensation of a knotted stomach. People also report good results using this herb to aid sleep. It should not be taken with sedatives unless under medical supervision.

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) is believed to have used for its calming and soothing effects since at least the time of Hippocrates (460-377 BC). Right up until the introduction of prescription sleep medications is was used as a natural anxiety remedy for a variety of conditions such as insomnia, nervousness and headaches.

The primary use for valerian today is to treat insomnia but it is reported to reduce feelings of general anxiety. The active constituents in Valerian appear to be valerenic acid and valerenal. These compounds have a calming effect because they interact with the neurotransmitter GABA.

As with most herbal supplements it generally takes a few weeks of use to feel the full benefit. Valerian may cause sleepiness or daytime drowsiness and should not be used with other medications for insomnia or anxiety.

It is important to be aware that herbal supplements are not a magic pill. In most instances people report only mild improvement from anxiety natural remedies and it is not uncommon for no benefits to be felt at all. Again you should discuss these or any other supplements with your doctor, especially if you are pregnant or taking any kind of medication.

Finding Natural Anxiety Relief

Even when you’ve made significant changes to your lifestyle and have accepted the fact that you experience panic and anxiety attacks, a panic attack can happen at any time and throw you for a loop.

Many people that experience panic attacks on a regular basis find it difficult to undertake new activities, maintain a healthy social life, and participate in activities that will improve their lifestyle because they are afraid of having another panic attack and being unable to cope with its effects.

The good news is, there are several ways to re-balance or “ground” yourself after a panic attack naturally, and you can practice these strategies so that having a panic attack is no longer something you fear – this is natural anxiety relief at its best.

One of the best ways to cope after a panic attack is to allow yourself to feel anxious. Do not beat yourself up for having a panic attack. Tell yourself that you are perfectly safe and that it is normal to feel anxious for a few hours after an attack. We want to stimulate natural anxiety relief and to achieve that you need to process the anxiety by moving with it, not against it.

Take several deep breathes and find yourself a quiet and calm place to sit down and relax for a few minutes. After a panic attack you must not focus on the feelings of fear but move your attention to the present moment. Focusing on the fear only makes you feel anxious longer so try your best to move your awareness elsewhere.

Tell yourself that your body is perfectly capable of handling this anxiety and that you have nothing to fear. The next time it happens you are going to move with the experience by not resisting it. Moving with the fear dramatically reduces its impact and is the most effective way to end anxiety naturally.

You want to do everything possible to calm your nervous system and stimulate natural anxiety relief. Pay attention to what you are eating for the rest of the day, so that you can ward off high levels of anxiety. It is important to avoid consuming alcohol, coffee, or sugary foods and drinks after a panic attack.

For more tips on natural anxiety remedies, watch these 2 videos –

Natural Supplements and Treatments for Anxiety- What the research says about Supplements for Anxiety

10 natural remedies for helping anxiety and stress

By Barry McDonagh, who is an international panic disorder coach. He created the Panic Away program to help people around the world deal with their anxiety and avoid panic attacks – a subject that he is personally attuned to because he himself found that he was prone to these issues since he was young. His hatred of his powerless lead him down the path of finding natural ways to treat himself without having to depend on expensive medications.

His informative site on all issues related to panic and anxiety attacks can be found here: Natural Anxiety Remedies – How to Naturally Reduce Anxiety?

What is the Trick for Ending All Social Anxiety Disorder Symptoms?

 

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Social interaction can cause many people to experience bodily reactions that make them feel highly uncomfortable around others. Common social anxiety disorder symptoms are blushing in public, sweating, and trembling hands. None of these are harmful in any way, but if people become overly conscious of these symptoms, it can lead to shying away from social contact, sometimes to the point of leaving their jobs.

I’ll describe the approach I teach people to help them end this problem. I’ll use the example of a trembling hand, but the approach is the same for both blushing and sweating as well.

I’ve communicated with many people—from dental hygienists to professional athletes—who are desperately seeking a way to stop their hands from shaking when they’re anxious or under pressure. In such situations, their careers were directly impacted. Other people may experience trembling hands with less frequency, such as situations in which they have to sign their names in front of others.

The trick to ending this social anxiety disorder symptom is using the opposite approach from what they’re already been trying. Take, for example, the dental hygienist who immediately starts to shake as soon as the patient sits in the chair. It only takes the memory of previous shakes to start her hand trembling. She gets upset by the shakes, and she desperately tries with all her will to make it stop by tensing her hand and arm muscles. All the effort and stress only causes her hand to shake further.

To end the problem, she should reverse her approach. Instead of forcing her hand to be still with all her mental power, she should allow it to shake. In fact, she should encourage it to shake even more. If she can fully accept the shakes and encourage more of them, she ends the pressure she puts herself under, and with that, the shakes begin to fade away. The effort used in trying to stop the anxiety actually caused more of it. The answer is found in moving with the experience not against it.

This same approach works for nervous sweating and blushing as well as other social anxiety disorder symptoms.

Note: if the hygienist didn’t care what others thought of her shaking, then the problem would disappear overnight. None of these problems (blushing, sweating, trembling) are ever a problem if people are alone. The problem is directly related to how people feel they’re being perceived in the eyes of others.

To ensure a complete recovery, you can train yourself to be less worried about the opinions of others. Tackling the social element of this problem is best done through visualizations. Each night, before going to bed, imagine yourself in a situation that would normally produce the reaction you’re trying to stop. This time, however, see yourself responding in the new manner:

My hand is shaking, but I’m not getting upset or embarrassed.
My face is red, but I’m completely composed.
My brow might be wet from sweat, but it doesn’t faze me.

You fully accept whatever way your body behaves, and you don’t get upset. You might even make light of it to those around you. The whole situation passes without any embarrassment.

This takes practice, but the goal is to override the idea of social embarrassment and replace it with acceptance and grace under pressure. Generally, people with social anxieties are too hard on themselves. In most cases, other people are never aware that there’s a problem in the first place. The real issue is in your mind because you distort the reality of the situation.

For more help on ending all social anxiety disorder symptoms, watch this video – 7 Signs And Symptoms Of Social Anxiety Disorder AND Training To Help

By Barry McDonagh, who is an international panic disorder coach. He created the Panic Away program to help people around the world deal with their anxiety and avoid panic attacks – a subject that he is personally attuned to because he himself found that he was prone to these issues since he was young. His hatred of his powerless lead him down the path of finding natural ways to treat himself without having to depend on expensive medications.

His informative site on all issues related to panic and anxiety attacks can be found here: Ending All Social Anxiety Disorder Symptoms