If this has happened to you, you know how terrifying this experience truly is. However, there are 3 facts you need to know.

When you think of driving and having a panic attack is that you will be involved in a collision or hurt someone on the road or you will harm yourself. Oddly enough, people that have had panic attacks while driving have not had mishaps. Maybe it is due to the fact that the high anxiety person is hyper vigilant or because the rush of adrenaline in their system improves their reaction time. Regardless of why, having a panic attack while driving has not been shown to be a cause of an accident. This singular fact should make you feel better immediately.

Consider your driving record. If you don't have a history of having accidents or a bunch of citations, you are a conscientious driver. Why would that change during a panic episode? It won't. You will still be the careful driver that you are.

Point number 2. Some people fear being stuck in traffic, cars hopelessly gridlocked with no escape. Although this condition is not the ideal model, it happens. However, the situation clears and life goes on. You know it as a fact that a traffic jam only lasts for a short time. Even if traffic stops on a bridge or a narrow roadway, it will not last very long. Actually it is rare for traffic to be completely stopped at all. This might happen with a traffic accident up ahead when the authorities close the road until tow trucks can get to the site to assist, but, again, this is always a temporary situation.

The third important fact about a panic attack while driving is that no matter how horrible you have felt during an episode, the panic attack will not harm you in any way. You may feel like there is not enough air or that you are having a heart attack, but the worst that will happen is that you may pass out momentarily from getting too much oxygen into your system. As soon as you do, your breathing will return to normal and your heart will quit pounding.

Are you interpreting that the whole panic attack disorder problem is manufactured in your brain? No. That's not what it means at all. There are physical changes in your body that are triggered by fear. We need to control the fear. Understanding that having a panic attack while driving is not going to result in a traffic accident to you or others and that the anxiety attack symptoms are not going to harm you, what is left to be afraid of? Not much. Learning to not fear the panic attack is the cure. With the correct training, this is easy to accomplish. You are stronger than you think you ever could be.