Car phobia

What in the world is wrong with me? I have passenger anxiety and TERRIFIED of driving/riding down steep hills. It’s crazy. I love looking at mountains and want to go up them, but fear is keeping me on the ground. This phobia is ruining my life and has been the cause of some relationships not surviving. I need help. Not to mention I don’t like people speeding with me in the car. I can’t get on amusement park rides either. I tried them when I was younger and the drop never sat well with me no matter how much I did it. Like I’m too grown to be going through this. I want to travel more on my own, but fear has ruined my adventure bone and I tend to wait on other people schedules just so they can come along. Ugh! I don’t know what to do. I’ve been to therapy and they advise me to watch videos of people diving down hills, then I gradually start doing it. The problem is I’ll just go over hills I’m comfortable with and avoid the scarier ones. 😭😭

Kim27

Date posted: 18h

You probably need to find out if it's an ocd theme or a phobia. If it's an ocd theme, ERP therapy is really helpful. I'm not sure about treatment for a phobia. Do you have doubts or fears about things other than riding down hill? Have you been diagnosed with ocd?

gg2030

Date posted: 18h

@Kim27 Hey, the only thing I’ve been diagnosed with is general anxiety. But I know this is far beyond just “anxiety”. I don’t think the professionals I come across are at the level of credentials that I need. Me simply going to an office and sitting on a couch for one hour to talk about these things isn’t helping me. I’ve been talking for years and it’s still the same.

Kim27

Date posted: 18h

@gg2030 Ocd often gets misdiagnosed as general anxiety disorder

gg2030

Date posted: 17h

@Kim27 Hmmm… sometimes I think I’m a case that doesn’t have a name nor has been studied yet. Lol

Kim27

Date posted: 17h

@gg2030 Lol looking back over my life I see how a lot of the bad times were ocd. I was once hospitalized. Misdiagnosed as psychotic and put on antipsychotic drugs. Ocd attacks your values and can be around different themes. For about 10 months I was constantly afraid of dying from the time I woke up in the morning. Last June I went to 2 memorial services that triggered it. I'm a Christian so it attacked my faith making me feel like I don't believe. I can ruminate for hours trying to figure things out like what to do with my time or analyzing relationships but it isn't problem solving. Ocd is the doubting disease. It makes you doubt everything even simple decisions. It wants 100 percent certainty about everything. The more you try to reassure yourself or get reassurance from someone else it gets worse. It keeps you living in your mind in the future or the past and steals your being present in your life and steals your joy

Kim27

Date posted: 17h

@gg2030 It can even cause you to doubt if you have ocd even after being diagnosed

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