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Travel Phobia and Fear Of Driving
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By Steve Hill
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Travel phobia is a particular form of anxiety that may occurafter a person has been involved in some kind of accident, maybea road or rail crash. They may have escaped physically unscathedfrom the incident, however they might well have perceived it asa potential threat to their well being, physical health orindeed life.
Anyone suffering from travel phobia is likely to avoidtravelling as much as is possible. If forced to travel by car,they are likely to prefer to be in control of the car, ratherthan be a passenger. During the journey they will be perpetuallyalert, scanning the road for potential accident causingsituations. By the time they arrive at their destination, theyare often irritable, tense and exhausted. This only serves toreinforce the phobic response.
Some individuals will refuse to even travel by car, bus or raildespite the drastic upheaval this will cause in their day-to-daylives. This avoidance is one of the reasons phobias aremaintained as the sufferer is not exposed to the situations theyfear and therefore cannot come to terms with their phobia.
Fear of driving or Hodophobia can be triggered by a variety ofdifferent factors and can manifest itself as anything from mildnervousness to an incapacitating full-blown panic attack. Theseresponses are learned behaviours and they are all highlytreatable.
Some people are simply terrified of even being in a car, whetherdriving themselves or being driven by others. Perhaps they oncehad a panic or anxiety attack while driving and suffer under theperpetual fear that it will happen again. On the other hand,they may fear that other drivers are going to lose control.
Many drivers feel comfortable driving on familiar roads, closeto where they live for example, but grow scared that they mightlose control in unfamiliar territory. Others may be happy todrive on ordinary roads but have a fear of driving on motorwaysor dual carriageways.
There are also those who are afraid of getting caught in heavytraffic, or driving at night or in difficult weather (sleet,snow or fog) or of driving down narrow lanes.
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