Question:
I had a panic attack driving across that bridge about 25 years ago. I would think even "normies" would panic on that thing. It must have been designed by a sadist!
Actually, it was designed by an engineer who worked at a nearby amusement park. (and yes, he was a sadist…I could tell by the black leather hood and whip….and he was wearing a pair of "cruel shoes") I was afraid I might loose my mind and go crazy!". That would explain a lot! LOL — just kidding, Chip.
Sure you are! You’ve thought I am going to flip my lid for a long time now! xxoo Anne
Chip :^) — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
I thought you played the "Rocky" theme song when approaching bridges
Tony, Tony, Tony. The "Rocky" song is a regional (i.e., "Phiwwy") preference! I’m thinking more along the lines of "Take You Higher" by Sly and the Family Stone. <eek 
xo Anne boom-shaka-laka-laka — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
I had a panic attack driving across that bridge about 25 years ago.
I would think even "normies" would panic on that thing. It must have been designed by a sadist! The curve at the top of the first big slope would knock me unconscious all by itself, never mind the rest of the bridge. I was afraid I might loose my mind and go crazy!".
That would explain a lot! LOL — just kidding, Chip. xxoo Anne — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
You are indeed referring to the Richmond-San Rafael bridge. From a distance it looks like a roller coaster. It actually has a couple big humps as I recall. Yes. It’s a monster! I am absolutely amazed that you can drive over it. <applause Here it is: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/bata/richmond-sr.htm Look at it and weep!
EEEEEEK! It’s an acrophobe’s absolute nightmare! P. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -For me the Richmond-San Rafael bridge is the worst one both because of its roller coaster like profile and the fact it is the narrowest one with just two lanes on the top deck and two on the bottom Oh, lord — this is even worse! Narrow high humpy bridges are literally the stuff of my nightmares! A psychologist once hypnotized me and had me go back to the earliest terrifying experience I could remember. It turned out to be a roller coaster that my dad took me on at a fair in the midwest, when I was only 4. I "re-lived" that ride under hypnosis and, afterward, could understand more about the roots of my bridge phobia… that "up we go" out-of-control sensation, knowing the plunge downward was coming. If anyone can recommend a good CBT therapist in the bay area that they think has what it takes to deal with the problems I’ve mentioned I would like a referral. I’m sure some people will have good recommendations. Good luck, and thanks for sharing your experiences! xxoo Anne — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
– The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
I have found it most effective when working with a qualified psychotherapist (i.e., psychologist). You expose yourself gradually and systematically to feared situations, while also working on relaxation techniques. That’s way oversimplified but the gist of it.
Thanks. I have heard of that technique, just didn’t know the name. One idea I’ve had is to go out one day and repeatedly drive across the bridge until it became mundane. I think there is a place at the toll booth end of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge where one can do a U-turn before reaching the toll booths to avoid repeatedly having to pay the $2 toll if doing this. I’m afraid that might be a waste of time and fuel though and only have temporary results. I am just curious why you drive in the far-right lane? Is it so you don’t feel trapped and can pull over quickly if need be? I guess so. I don’t like having any vehicle between me and the breakdown lane and/or exit lane. I get dizzy when surrounded by vehicles on both sides. It triggers a fullblown panic attack. So I stay to the right. Occasionally I can pass if a vehicle is going *really* slow. When I do this, I have to consciously breathe in, breathe out, and sometimes sing out loud or pretend to laugh out loud — anything to keep breathing. I tend to unconsciously stop breathing, or breathe too shallowly, when I’m panicking and that just makes it worse — dizziness.
I understand. I find it amazing how the panic attack symptoms seem so universal. I never really studied panic attacks and had hardly heard of them before I started having mine yet the more I read about other people’s experiences the more I see common themes and symptoms. This seems like a taboo subject people don’t talk about in real life but I understand panic disorders are increasingly common. I tend to get a sort of agoraphobia when surrounded by the blackness of night and driving at a high speed on the highway. Then there are the red tail lights ahead of me and the white lights coming toward me… it’s very difficult for me to block all this out and try to remember that I’m on a regular old road. I feel as if I’m airborne, and I *hate* flying!
Yup, I hate flying also. See my other post from yesterday. I am glad that at least I don’t have a problem on the roads at night. You are indeed referring to the Richmond-San Rafael bridge. From a distance it looks like a roller coaster. It actually has a couple big humps as I recall. Yes. It’s a monster! I am absolutely amazed that you can drive over it. <applause Here it is: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/bata/richmond-sr.htm Look at it and weep!
Looking at that photo of it I am amazed also. I found some other really scary photos of it at that site: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/bata/images/gallery/rich01.jpg http://www.mtc.ca.gov/bata/images/gallery/rich02.jpg http://www.mtc.ca.gov/bata/images/gallery/rich03.jpg For me the Richmond-San Rafael bridge is the worst one both because of its roller coaster like profile and the fact it is the narrowest one with just two lanes on the top deck and two on the bottom Oh, lord — this is even worse! Narrow high humpy bridges are literally the stuff of my nightmares!
Same here! I have had nightmares involving this type of bridge including being trapped on them and having part of the bridge come down in an earthquake. A psychologist once hypnotized me and had me go back to the earliest terrifying experience I could remember. It turned out to be a roller coaster that my dad took me on at a fair in the midwest, when I was only 4. I "re-lived" that ride under hypnosis and, afterward, could understand more about the roots of my bridge phobia… that "up we go" out-of-control sensation, knowing the plunge downward was coming.
Interesting. When I was about 10 years old I went on a roller coaster with a friend of my dad. It was the roller coaster at the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk, an old wooden roller coaster that is nothing by today’s standards in terms of high G force drops and no upside down or other crazy stuff, just a good old conventional roller coaster. Anyways I remember it being simultaneously a terrifying and fun experience. I felt totally out of control on the twisty descents. My dad’s friend later remarked to him that he didn’t know I had such a vocabulary for 4 letter words. I guess I was just really scared and those were the words I was yelling. I think my first traumatic experience with being trapped in a seemingly out of control situation at an amusement park happened when I was more like 6 years or 7 years old. I’m not sure where it was, may have been a school field trip but I basically had run of the place and could get on any ride. I saw a big circular platform with a fence of sorts at the perimeter. Against this perimeter fence where numerous narrow booths which some people had already loaded into. So everyone on this ride was standing up at the edges of the big disc facing the middle. It looked pretty benign, I didn’t know any better and thought it might just shake around a little or something. So I got on, stood in one of the booths and someone came round and closed a cage door type thing in front of me. Stood there for a while while everone loaded in. Then the big disc we were standing on started rotating, first slowly but it gradually got faster, so fast I was getting pushed to the back of the booth by centrifugal force. Then the whole thing tilted up on its side. I’m not sure if the angle was completely vertical like a windmill or a diagonal angle but in any case it was tilted up enough that when I reached the high part of its rotation I was looking down at the people quite a ways below yet my back was pressed firmly against the fence by centrifugal force. Needless to say this was a terrifying experience and may have planted some early seeds for my issues with control, fear of being trapped and fear of heights. It was partly my fault for not first observing this ride in action but I wished someone had told me what it was going to do and how long it would last before I got on. Anxious Virgin — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
AV: I am late jumping on this thread but just want to say how much I admire your ability to continue driving over those godawful bridges in the Bay Area, despite your phobia.
Thank you for the admiration. Yes, the Bay Area if full of those horrible bridges, one of which is world famous and actually gets millions of tourists walking across it as well as over 1000 people who have committed suicide off of it (possibly adding to the fear factor on that one). I have had a debilitating bridge *and* highway phobia for more than 25 years (I’m 52 now). Occasionally, after much desensitization in therapy, plus meds like Xanax and/or an SSRI antidepressant, I’ve been able to drive over *one* high bridge… but no others. (i.e., my desensitization doesn’t generalize to more than that one bridge!)
What does desentsitization therapy consist of? Is it something you can do yourself or do you need to have sessions with a therapist to do it? Also: I always drive in the far-right lane of highways, no matter how slow the car in front of me is going. This is an improvement, however, because for years I was unable to get on a highway at all. At least now I can
Interesting as I try to be in the far-right or more often the lane next to the far-right. I find the lane next to the far-right a bit less stressful in more built up areas because I don’t have to deal with frequent traffic merging from onramps. In this second lane I feel I can still pull over in a hurry if I need to. I am just curious why you drive in the far-right lane? Is it so you don’t feel trapped and can pull over quickly if need be? navigate for about a 10 or 15-mile radius of where I live. I still get anxiety and often have to take a Xanax or two before doing the highway thang, especially at night, when the various lights disorient me and trigger panic.
I don’t have any driving problems to speak of at night. The contrast and overstimulation problems are greatly reduced for me at night. I rather like driving late at night and choose that over daytime whenever possible. There is also generally less traffic at night. I think you’ve come up with some excellent coping techniques, considering that you have to live and navigate in a region with so many really high and (to me) terrifying bridges! I’ve been out there twice, and just the sight of some of those bridges (the San Rafael one, I think) from a distance gave me a panic attack! The Golden Gate wasn’t as bad, though… it seemed more level, not a big "hump" in the middle.
You are indeed referring to the Richmond-San Rafael bridge. From a distance it looks like a roller coaster. It actually has a couple big humps as I recall. I try not to remember what it looks like exactly as it is so scary looking. Seeing it from a distance makes me feel uneasy in the same way seeing a sky scraper or other tall man made structure like a TV transmission tower makes me feel uneasy. Just the distant sight of it doesn’t bring on a panic attack. Luckily on the approach to the Richmond-San Rafael bridge there are hills at each end so there is no way to really view it from the freeway until you are on it. You can see it quite clearly from numerous other roads around the bay though. For me the Richmond-San Rafael bridge is the worst one both because of its roller coaster like profile and the fact it is the narrowest one with just two lanes on the top deck and two on the bottom (with a shoulder to the right of the right lane on each one but this shoulder has been blocked off by temporary fences and construction equipment for the past couple years while they do siesmic retrofitting so it is effectively two narrow lanes with no shoulder right now. Also the Richmond-San Rafael bridge is where I had my first bridge panic attack in 1998 while I was a passenger in a friends car and that panic attack came out of the blue at a time when my overall anxiety level was much lower than it has been post-2000. Congrats, and keep up the good work. There’s no shame in using an anti-anxiety med, as you do in emergencies. Please don’t hesitate to see a psychiatrist *who specializes in anxiety and panic disorder* (the qualification is really important; many psychiatrists don’t know bat guano about panic) if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by your fears and anxiety. The combination of meds that helped me the most was an SSRI antidepressant (Paxil or Celexa in my case) plus a benzodiazepine anti-anxiety drug (Xanax in my case). Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) also helps *a lot*.
Thank you for the support and advice. Please see the long post I wrote just before this where I mention the psychiatrist I went to and the Celexa I took. I don’t t know if this psychiatrist was an anxiety and panic disorder specialist. I could probably contact him again to find out but would rather start off with someone new as I think I left him on bad terms by simply cancelling an appointment and leaving a message with his receptionist saying I decided to go off Celexa and no longer need his services. CBT sounds like what I’m looking for. If anyone can recommend a good CBT therapist in the bay area that they think has what it takes to deal with the problems I’ve mentioned I would like a referral. A good pschiatrist for dealing with this would also be appreciated. For now, Anxious Virgin — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
You are indeed referring to the Richmond-San Rafael bridge. From a distance it looks like a roller coaster. It actually has a couple big humps as I recall. Yes. It’s a monster! I am absolutely amazed that you can drive over it. <applause Here it is: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/bata/richmond-sr.htm Look at it and weep!
I had a panic attack driving across that bridge about 25 years ago. I was trying to desensitize myself to bridges and had a lady friend along with me. After I finished crossing the bridge, I asked her if she knew I had a PA, and she said "yes". She could see me tense up. I asked her what did she think might have happened to me because of the PA. And she said "I thought you might try to kill me". And I said "Heck no. Killing you never crossed my mind. I was afraid I might loose my mind and go crazy!". Chip — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
There are tapes that can help you do this on your own. I used to play one in my car tape deck sometimes, but it was one a psychologist made for his own private patients and I no longer have it. Someone on the old ASAP sent me a wonderful driving tape, too; it’s in my house somewhere. Gee, I should dig that out. <scratches head, wondering where I put it
I thought you played the "Rocky" theme song when approaching bridges 
D Tony ~ Avid license plate fan while driving over bridges. — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – line of sight is the greatest and there is the most contrast. I think this is why I find bridge crossings much easier at night and also easier on foggy/overcast days. I notice that when I’m crossing the Golden Gate Bridge it’s easier at night and in the fog. When you can’t see for miles and miles and miles. (just like the Who’s song!) Great, I don’t feel so alone. Someone else has the same situation of finding it easier to cross bridges at night and in the fog! I wonder how common bridge phobia is and how common it is to have less of a problem with it at night and/or in the fog. Telling them also relieves anxiety about having to tell people in the middle of an anxious spell. Yes it seems to. Now that I think back I’ve never had more than some minor hand sweating and white knuckles after previously telling a passenger about the potential problem. With the one exception of the time I didn’t tell the person first because I hadn’t had a panic attack crossing the bridge for months all my panic attacks on the bridges have been by myself. If I’m feeling especially anxious before crossing the GG Bridge I take Xanax 1 mg about 15 to 30 minutes before crossing the bridge. I am not familiar with Xanax. I just checked the pill bottle I’ve been carrying for emergency use. The prescription was given to me by a psychiatrist in 2000, I never used it much and haven’t had any since 2001. The label is faded out but from what I can make it it says "take 1 tablet as needed for anxiety up to 3 per day (valium equiv) dlazepam 2mg tablet". The tablets are white and about the size of aspirin tablets. On one side they say "barr" and on the other side it says "555" there is a line below that for splitting the tablet and below that it reads "163". I wonder if these have an expiration date, if it had one it has worn off. There is a faded sticker on the side saying it could cause drowsiness and caution when operating a car. I don’t recall it causing any significant drowsiness or other problems when I took it while driving in 2001. One idea I’ve had is to just before the bridge entrance get out and run around to work off nervous energy. I used to bicycle across the GG Bridge to desensitize myself about 15 years ago. I bicycled across the GG Bridge many times in the 1990’s in all light and weather conditions and never really had a problem though I recall sometimes getting an odd feeling from the flashing shadow pattern created by the fence when the sun was low and there weren’t any clouds. Then around 2000 I turned 30 and moved and started having increasing general anxiety problems and thoughts about death and overstimulation problems on sunny days. The anxiety problem started low grade and gradually got worse and worse. In May of 2000 while bicycling down hill fast I had a blow out and nearly crashed and that didn’t help matters. One sunny day in June I rode to the south end of the Golden Gate bridge with plans to cross it. Just before getting on the bridge I got very nervous and this was confirmed with a 130-140 bpm reading on the heart rate monitor while I waited at the bridge entrance for 10-15 minutes. I saw a bicycle mounted policeman enter the bridge and I thought about asking him for an escort but it felt too awkward to approach him for that and he was already on the bridge before I could really do anything. So I rode to the bridge office and there was a line of people waiting to talk to the officer behind the window. I let people behind me in line get ahead of me and finally when there was no one else there I walked up to the window and when the officer asked if he could help me I told him I’m trying to ride my bike across the bridge but am experiencing a bridge phobia problem and wondered if I could talk to a counselor about it. I figured they had counselors on hand to deal with all those suicide attempts. He told me to hold on a moment. A woman came out who turned out to be some sort of bridge maintenance worker. She told me she’d drive me across the bridge. We put the bike into the back of the pickup and she drove me across the bridge. I had my eyes closed just about the whole way across. I told her that I felt so odd about being driven across as I’ve cycled across many times inthe past. She told me this is very common and if I recall correctly she said that several times per day they get calls from people who are having difficulty crossing the bridge and the bridge workers drive the person’s car across the bridge for them while the person closes their eyes or looks down at the floor or whatever it takes to get across the bridge. I had to ride back to San Franscisco at the end of the day and was told to just call the bridge office on the emergency call box and they would send someone out to pick me up. This was very demoralizing. I felt like some sort of disabled person. I heard of people with bridge phobias but couldn’t believe I had become one. When I approached the north entrance of the bridge for the ride back the sun had almost set and it was extremely foggy, couldn’t see the water at all and no shadows from the fences. I felt much more at ease, none of that anxiety I had on the other side of the bridge earlier in the day. So I said to myself I’ll go for it and can always call them from an emergency call box along the way if need be. I made it across with no problems and no view of the water. Probably not more than a couple weeks after that I had a massive panic attack in a public location. It was the worst panic attack I’ve ever had and I had just about every single possible classic symptom of a panic attack. It was really bad, I felt like I was gonna die. Looking back I can say this panic attack was brought on by several things: not eating enough that morning and being low on blood sugar, just having been given a ride in an old car that had some sort of exhaust or gas leak that was making me feel light headed and fear of a crowd that I was just about to encounter at a public market. After several minutes I was able to get it together but not after making quite a scene yelling that I was dying and repeatedly yelling help and throwing myself down in some bushes by the edge of the sidewalk. Believe me I wasn’t doing this to get attention and it wasn’t pre-meditated. I honestly felt I was dying. Everything felt so unreal, I was light headed, my heart was beating fast, felt like something was constricting around my neck making breathing difficult, I was trembling, when I felt my face it felt like it was made of rubber and didn’t have nerves like I was feeling some rubber object not my own face and as I walked it felt like my feet weren’t touching the ground, like I was floating a ways above the ground. I felt like I was in the process of losing consciousness and was about ready to rise up and leave my body at any moment. After some talking though I came to my senses and calmed down, had something to eat and felt much better. The feeling of relief and relaxiation that followed this panic attack was amazing. Basically it was the same sort of thing that happens to me on bridges but on a much larger scale. After that experience I had difficulty going outside. I became pretty non-functional, indoors most of the time. I could only really go out at night and on cloudy days when the contrast was lower. I couldn’t stray too far from home. Several times I tried to go further places and suddenly had to turn back. One big fear was having another public panic attack. I was also pre-occupied with death. Spent lots of time on the internet looking at websites about death, autopsy photos, accident photos, doing research on embalming and how crematoriums work and all sorts of other morbid stuff. That wasn’t helping anything. I was often thinking about when I would die and how I would die. I felt trapped in life because the only way out was death (well still feel that way but am not dwelling on it so much). It is not so much death I fear but the infinite nothingness. The concept of something with no beginning and no end just blows my mind and I can’t think about it for more than a minute before a panic attack starts to come on, sometimes less. Just thinking that I had no idea what was going on 5 billion years ago and won’t know what is going on 5 billion years from now just blows me away. Knowing that there is something really powerful out there with no limits, no beginning and no end is something my stupid human brain just can’t comprehend. I mean really when did the universe start and when does it stop. That is an unanswerable question that haunts me. It is in the same family as my good ole favourite what happens after death question. I try to tell myself it is just like what happened before I was born, no concern to me, simply wasn’t around then. I don’t fear the pre-birth days I can’t remember so why should I fear death? When I get off track on these rapidly escalating postive feedback loops involving death and infinity the only way I can bring myself down and prevent from going crazy and totally flipping out is by thinking about mundane things, like really superficial day to day things, what I want to do the next day and crap like that. When I had my massive panic attack in June of 2000 I was thinking about death in a pretty big way and being low on food caused the adrenalin to start running a bit, combine that with the fumes from the car and some anxiety about the
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Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Pilots landing into the sun with propeller driven aircraft face this problem of flicker. They call it vertigo and it can be very disabling and dangerous for obvious reasons. Pilots get around it by not looking directly into the flicker but to the side of the propeller arc or increasing the rpm of the engine. If the problem isn’t solved by this they do an overshoot and ask for a different runway for landing. Former pilot Ron Interesting. Although beyond the scope of this thread I also have a severe airplane phobia. My last time on a plane was an international flight in 1999 and that was a really stressful experience. I didn’t used to have a fear of flying but started getting one in the late 1980’s and it has gradually gotten worse and worse each time I’ve flown. After the flight in 1999 I decided I didn’t want to fly for a long time. In 2000 there were a couple horrific passenger get crashes which further cemented this and the final blow was on 9-11-2001. I don’t ever want to go on an airplane again. They combine all my worst fears: heights, falling into water and drowning, being trapped, being in an environment I am not in control of, claustrophobia, germs circulated by the air conditioning and radiation exposure by having less atmosphere to filter out the cosmic rays. I also think flying at high altitude and high speed like commercial aircraft do is unnatural and unhealthy for the planet. It burns enormous amounts of fuel, puts pullution into the upper atmosphere and it just seems wrong to be going that fast that high above earth.
I had two experiences while learning to fly that really shook me up for a while though they never turned me off of flying. The first was nearly being hit by a T-33 while in the landing pattern. This came about because a rookie air traffic controller cleared the T-33 for take-off when the take-off path was right across my flight path. Luckily, the military pilot saw me just in time. The second incident was the crash of a DC8 on at the airport where I was training. I was in the air at the time, practicing landings, when the DC8 went down. I can however relate to your fear of flying to some degree. No matter what the vehicle, if I am just a passenger, I am very uncomfortable to say the least. The only commercial aircraft that I have ridden in was a small propeller driven one, the name of which I have forgotten. It was a most uncomfortable experience, especially the return trip at night. I was far more comfortable while learning how to recover from stalls and spins in my flight training. The day that I will have to take a commercial jet will not be a banner one I’m totally convinced. I have been in one on the ground and the feeling was that I was the stuffing of a rather large sausage and nothing more. I would still like to own my own plane but unless I win the lottery, that will never happen. The human emu Ron — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
What does desentsitization therapy consist of? Is it something you can do yourself or do you need to have sessions with a therapist to do it?
I have found it most effective when working with a qualified psychotherapist (i.e., psychologist). You expose yourself gradually and systematically to feared situations, while also working on relaxation techniques. That’s way oversimplified but the gist of it. There are tapes that can help you do this on your own. I used to play one in my car tape deck sometimes, but it was one a psychologist made for his own private patients and I no longer have it. Someone on the old ASAP sent me a wonderful driving tape, too; it’s in my house somewhere. Gee, I should dig that out. <scratches head, wondering where I put it I am just curious why you drive in the far-right lane? Is it so you don’t feel trapped and can pull over quickly if need be?
I guess so. I don’t like having any vehicle between me and the breakdown lane and/or exit lane. I get dizzy when surrounded by vehicles on both sides. It triggers a fullblown panic attack. So I stay to the right. Occasionally I can pass if a vehicle is going *really* slow. When I do this, I have to consciously breathe in, breathe out, and sometimes sing out loud or pretend to laugh out loud — anything to keep breathing. I tend to unconsciously stop breathing, or breathe too shallowly, when I’m panicking and that just makes it worse — dizziness. The contrast and overstimulation problems are greatly reduced for me at night.
I tend to get a sort of agoraphobia when surrounded by the blackness of night and driving at a high speed on the highway. Then there are the red tail lights ahead of me and the white lights coming toward me… it’s very difficult for me to block all this out and try to remember that I’m on a regular old road. I feel as if I’m airborne, and I *hate* flying! You are indeed referring to the Richmond-San Rafael bridge. From a distance it looks like a roller coaster. It actually has a couple big humps as I recall.
Yes. It’s a monster! I am absolutely amazed that you can drive over it. <applause Here it is: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/bata/richmond-sr.htm Look at it and weep! For me the Richmond-San Rafael bridge is the worst one both because of its roller coaster like profile and the fact it is the narrowest one with just two lanes on the top deck and two on the bottom
Oh, lord — this is even worse! Narrow high humpy bridges are literally the stuff of my nightmares! A psychologist once hypnotized me and had me go back to the earliest terrifying experience I could remember. It turned out to be a roller coaster that my dad took me on at a fair in the midwest, when I was only 4. I "re-lived" that ride under hypnosis and, afterward, could understand more about the roots of my bridge phobia… that "up we go" out-of-control sensation, knowing the plunge downward was coming. If anyone can recommend a good CBT therapist in the bay area that they think has what it takes to deal with the problems I’ve mentioned I would like a referral.
I’m sure some people will have good recommendations. Good luck, and thanks for sharing your experiences! xxoo Anne — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
AV: I am late jumping on this thread but just want to say how much I admire your ability to continue driving over those godawful bridges in the Bay Area, despite your phobia. I have had a debilitating bridge *and* highway phobia for more than 25 years (I’m 52 now). Occasionally, after much desensitization in therapy, plus meds like Xanax and/or an SSRI antidepressant, I’ve been able to drive over *one* high bridge… but no others. (i.e., my desensitization doesn’t generalize to more than that one bridge!) Also: I always drive in the far-right lane of highways, no matter how slow the car in front of me is going. This is an improvement, however, because for years I was unable to get on a highway at all. At least now I can navigate for about a 10 or 15-mile radius of where I live. I still get anxiety and often have to take a Xanax or two before doing the highway thang, especially at night, when the various lights disorient me and trigger panic. I think you’ve come up with some excellent coping techniques, considering that you have to live and navigate in a region with so many really high and (to me) terrifying bridges! I’ve been out there twice, and just the sight of some of those bridges (the San Rafael one, I think) from a distance gave me a panic attack! The Golden Gate wasn’t as bad, though… it seemed more level, not a big "hump" in the middle. Congrats, and keep up the good work. There’s no shame in using an anti-anxiety med, as you do in emergencies. Please don’t hesitate to see a psychiatrist *who specializes in anxiety and panic disorder* (the qualification is really important; many psychiatrists don’t know bat guano about panic) if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by your fears and anxiety. The combination of meds that helped me the most was an SSRI antidepressant (Paxil or Celexa in my case) plus a benzodiazepine anti-anxiety drug (Xanax in my case). Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) also helps *a lot*. xxoo Anne — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
line of sight is the greatest and there is the most contrast. I think this is why I find bridge crossings much easier at night and also easier on foggy/overcast days. I notice that when I’m crossing the Golden Gate Bridge it’s easier at night and in the fog. When you can’t see for miles and miles and miles. (just like the Who’s song!)
Great, I don’t feel so alone. Someone else has the same situation of finding it easier to cross bridges at night and in the fog! I wonder how common bridge phobia is and how common it is to have less of a problem with it at night and/or in the fog. Telling them also relieves anxiety about having to tell people in the middle of an anxious spell.
Yes it seems to. Now that I think back I’ve never had more than some minor hand sweating and white knuckles after previously telling a passenger about the potential problem. With the one exception of the time I didn’t tell the person first because I hadn’t had a panic attack crossing the bridge for months all my panic attacks on the bridges have been by myself. If I’m feeling especially anxious before crossing the GG Bridge I take Xanax 1 mg about 15 to 30 minutes before crossing the bridge.
I am not familiar with Xanax. I just checked the pill bottle I’ve been carrying for emergency use. The prescription was given to me by a psychiatrist in 2000, I never used it much and haven’t had any since 2001. The label is faded out but from what I can make it it says "take 1 tablet as needed for anxiety up to 3 per day (valium equiv) dlazepam 2mg tablet". The tablets are white and about the size of aspirin tablets. On one side they say "barr" and on the other side it says "555" there is a line below that for splitting the tablet and below that it reads "163". I wonder if these have an expiration date, if it had one it has worn off. There is a faded sticker on the side saying it could cause drowsiness and caution when operating a car. I don’t recall it causing any significant drowsiness or other problems when I took it while driving in 2001. One idea I’ve had is to just before the bridge entrance get out and run around to work off nervous energy. I used to bicycle across the GG Bridge to desensitize myself about 15 years ago.
I bicycled across the GG Bridge many times in the 1990’s in all light and weather conditions and never really had a problem though I recall sometimes getting an odd feeling from the flashing shadow pattern created by the fence when the sun was low and there weren’t any clouds. Then around 2000 I turned 30 and moved and started having increasing general anxiety problems and thoughts about death and overstimulation problems on sunny days. The anxiety problem started low grade and gradually got worse and worse. In May of 2000 while bicycling down hill fast I had a blow out and nearly crashed and that didn’t help matters. One sunny day in June I rode to the south end of the Golden Gate bridge with plans to cross it. Just before getting on the bridge I got very nervous and this was confirmed with a 130-140 bpm reading on the heart rate monitor while I waited at the bridge entrance for 10-15 minutes. I saw a bicycle mounted policeman enter the bridge and I thought about asking him for an escort but it felt too awkward to approach him for that and he was already on the bridge before I could really do anything. So I rode to the bridge office and there was a line of people waiting to talk to the officer behind the window. I let people behind me in line get ahead of me and finally when there was no one else there I walked up to the window and when the officer asked if he could help me I told him I’m trying to ride my bike across the bridge but am experiencing a bridge phobia problem and wondered if I could talk to a counselor about it. I figured they had counselors on hand to deal with all those suicide attempts. He told me to hold on a moment. A woman came out who turned out to be some sort of bridge maintenance worker. She told me she’d drive me across the bridge. We put the bike into the back of the pickup and she drove me across the bridge. I had my eyes closed just about the whole way across. I told her that I felt so odd about being driven across as I’ve cycled across many times inthe past. She told me this is very common and if I recall correctly she said that several times per day they get calls from people who are having difficulty crossing the bridge and the bridge workers drive the person’s car across the bridge for them while the person closes their eyes or looks down at the floor or whatever it takes to get across the bridge. I had to ride back to San Franscisco at the end of the day and was told to just call the bridge office on the emergency call box and they would send someone out to pick me up. This was very demoralizing. I felt like some sort of disabled person. I heard of people with bridge phobias but couldn’t believe I had become one. When I approached the north entrance of the bridge for the ride back the sun had almost set and it was extremely foggy, couldn’t see the water at all and no shadows from the fences. I felt much more at ease, none of that anxiety I had on the other side of the bridge earlier in the day. So I said to myself I’ll go for it and can always call them from an emergency call box along the way if need be. I made it across with no problems and no view of the water. Probably not more than a couple weeks after that I had a massive panic attack in a public location. It was the worst panic attack I’ve ever had and I had just about every single possible classic symptom of a panic attack. It was really bad, I felt like I was gonna die. Looking back I can say this panic attack was brought on by several things: not eating enough that morning and being low on blood sugar, just having been given a ride in an old car that had some sort of exhaust or gas leak that was making me feel light headed and fear of a crowd that I was just about to encounter at a public market. After several minutes I was able to get it together but not after making quite a scene yelling that I was dying and repeatedly yelling help and throwing myself down in some bushes by the edge of the sidewalk. Believe me I wasn’t doing this to get attention and it wasn’t pre-meditated. I honestly felt I was dying. Everything felt so unreal, I was light headed, my heart was beating fast, felt like something was constricting around my neck making breathing difficult, I was trembling, when I felt my face it felt like it was made of rubber and didn’t have nerves like I was feeling some rubber object not my own face and as I walked it felt like my feet weren’t touching the ground, like I was floating a ways above the ground. I felt like I was in the process of losing consciousness and was about ready to rise up and leave my body at any moment. After some talking though I came to my senses and calmed down, had something to eat and felt much better. The feeling of relief and relaxiation that followed this panic attack was amazing. Basically it was the same sort of thing that happens to me on bridges but on a much larger scale. After that experience I had difficulty going outside. I became pretty non-functional, indoors most of the time. I could only really go out at night and on cloudy days when the contrast was lower. I couldn’t stray too far from home. Several times I tried to go further places and suddenly had to turn back. One big fear was having another public panic attack. I was also pre-occupied with death. Spent lots of time on the internet looking at websites about death, autopsy photos, accident photos, doing research on embalming and how crematoriums work and all sorts of other morbid stuff. That wasn’t helping anything. I was often thinking about when I would die and how I would die. I felt trapped in life because the only way out was death (well still feel that way but am not dwelling on it so much). It is not so much death I fear but the infinite nothingness. The concept of something with no beginning and no end just blows my mind and I can’t think about it for more than a minute before a panic attack starts to come on, sometimes less. Just thinking that I had no idea what was going on 5 billion years ago and won’t know what is going on 5 billion years from now just blows me away. Knowing that there is something really powerful out there with no limits, no beginning and no end is something my stupid human brain just can’t comprehend. I mean really when did the universe start and when does it stop. That is an unanswerable question that haunts me. It is in the same family as my good ole favourite what happens after death question. I try to tell myself it is just like what happened before I was born, no concern to me, simply wasn’t around then. I don’t fear the pre-birth days I can’t remember so why should I fear death? When I get off track on these rapidly escalating postive feedback loops involving death and infinity the only way I can bring myself down and prevent from going crazy and totally flipping out is by thinking about mundane things, like really superficial day to day things, what I want to do the next day and crap like that. When I had my massive panic attack in June of 2000 I was thinking about death in a pretty big way and being low on food caused the adrenalin to start running a bit, combine that with the fumes from the car and some anxiety about the crowd (was told I have social anxiety disorder) and you have the makings of a massive panic attack. The panic attacks I have on bridges are also probably not due to simply one factor but a combination of factors including: being high above the water with the possibility of plunging into the water reminds me of my own mortality, tall man made structure feels artificial like it could just fail like other man made things and … read more »
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line of sight is the greatest and there is the most contrast. I think this is why I find bridge crossings much easier at night and also easier on foggy/overcast days.
I notice that when I’m crossing the Golden Gate Bridge it’s easier at night and in the fog. When you can’t see for miles and miles and miles. (just like the Who’s song!) of course I had the music on.
Familiar music on the car CD player or radio helps to relax me when on the freeway or crossing a bridge. Yes, it was very embarrassing. This was someone who didn’t know about my bridge phobia so I quickly had to do a lot of explaining. He seemed to understand it and I don’t think he thinks any less of me for having that incident.
Everyone has their own problems. As a result of that I now tell passengers in advance, generally about 15 minutes before reaching the bridge when I turn the music on that I need to turn the music on to cross the bridge because I have a bridge phobia. I always feel awkward about telling them that but I figure it is better to tell them and have nothing happen than to suddenly catch them by surprise if it happens.
Telling them also relieves anxiety about having to tell people in the middle of an anxious spell. Another thing I’ll sometimes do when crossing a bridge is to telephone a friend. The conversation with them helps take my mind off the bridge and I try to make a visual image of them and what they are saying while taking in just enough visual traffic information to stay in the lane with adequate following distance.
That sounds like a good idea. Sometimes I daydream about something and cross the bridge without even knowing I’m on it. That would be a miracle drug. Something like that would be perfect for me. I do carry in an unused ashtray a container of some valium like pills which were prescribed to me in 2000 when I was having the major anxiety problems. They are a very low dose and are to be taken only as needed. They take a few minutes to kick in, probably too short to be worth anything if taken on the bridge itself but could be taken 10 minutes or so before getting on the bridge. I’ve only taken these twice while driving and haven’t taken any since 2001.
If I’m feeling especially anxious before crossing the GG Bridge I take Xanax 1 mg about 15 to 30 minutes before crossing the bridge. One idea I’ve had is to just before the bridge entrance get out and run around to work off nervous energy.
I used to bicycle across the GG Bridge to desensitize myself about 15 years ago. AV
Good luck, AV. Chip — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
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Pilots landing into the sun with propeller driven aircraft face this problem of flicker. They call it vertigo and it can be very disabling and dangerous for obvious reasons. Pilots get around it by not looking directly into the flicker but to the side of the propeller arc or increasing the rpm of the engine. If the problem isn’t solved by this they do an overshoot and ask for a different runway for landing. Former pilot Ron
Interesting. Although beyond the scope of this thread I also have a severe airplane phobia. My last time on a plane was an international flight in 1999 and that was a really stressful experience. I didn’t used to have a fear of flying but started getting one in the late 1980’s and it has gradually gotten worse and worse each time I’ve flown. After the flight in 1999 I decided I didn’t want to fly for a long time. In 2000 there were a couple horrific passenger get crashes which further cemented this and the final blow was on 9-11-2001. I don’t ever want to go on an airplane again. They combine all my worst fears: heights, falling into water and drowning, being trapped, being in an environment I am not in control of, claustrophobia, germs circulated by the air conditioning and radiation exposure by having less atmosphere to filter out the cosmic rays. I also think flying at high altitude and high speed like commercial aircraft do is unnatural and unhealthy for the planet. It burns enormous amounts of fuel, puts pullution into the upper atmosphere and it just seems wrong to be going that fast that high above earth. I do have a lot of respect for pilots though because they have to be so skilled, have such good judgement and be responsible for the lives of so many people. Really anyone who can competently operate complex, heavy, high speed machinery has my respect. I know commercial flying is safer per distance travelled than driving but aside from bridges I feel much more comfortable driving. Car crashes are something I can relate to. Although they are much more frequent than airplane crashes there is a good chance of surviving. As long as the speeds are kept reasonable there is a good chance the car’s structure will remain basically intact and the driver can climb out unlike an airplane falling from great heights where there ends up being nothing but little pieces scattered over a large area. Also at least with a car crash you can see it coming and try to avoid it and make plans for making the impact less severe. With an airplane crash there would be that relatively long period of time when you are sitting there as a passenger knowing the plane is going down but there is nothing you can do about it. I have a pretty active imagination and have visualized various situations of airplanes going down. What happened in NYC on 9-11 was my worst nightmare as it combined my fears of tall man made structures and jet airplanes. In fact about a week before 9-11 I had a nightmare involving an airplane trying to land on top of a tall building. AV — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
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or the mechanics of the bridge so I focus on the traffic lanes but sometimes just can’t avoid getting a glance at the water way down below and immediately start thinking about my mortality. I have noticed I hardly ever have any nervousness on the bridge at night, probably because I can’t see the water or the bridge so it feels more like driving on a normal road on land. I’ve also noticed during the day the problem is much less accute if it is very overcast or foggy. Bright sunny days are the worst as the water all around is most visible then and also there is more contrast and the flashing pattern of shadows from bridge supports can set off a reaction.
Pilots landing into the sun with propeller driven aircraft face this problem of flicker. They call it vertigo and it can be very disabling and dangerous for obvious reasons. Pilots get around it by not looking directly into the flicker but to the side of the propeller arc or increasing the rpm of the engine. If the problem isn’t solved by this they do an overshoot and ask for a different runway for landing. Former pilot Ron — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
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I know what you are saying! It’s pretty hard to ignore the water, isn’t it? It’s EVERYWHERE!
Yes, it sure is hard to ignore! Especially on a sunny day when the line of sight is the greatest and there is the most contrast. I think this is why I find bridge crossings much easier at night and also easier on foggy/overcast days. Speaking of things being different at night, there is one situation on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge I am very proud of. In the summer they were doing some construction (seismic retrofitting) late at night and the entire upper deck of the bridge was closed so they had both directions of traffic sharing the two lanes of the lower deck with nothing but the lane line between them. As it is there aren’t any shoulders and the lanes are relatively narrow. I had to cross the bridge one of those nights and was surprised to find both directions of traffic diverted to one deck. I was in a long stream of traffic on this one lane following a pilot car at 35 mph and there was oncoming traffic! I knew there would be no quick way off, no option of speeding to get off quickly as I was locked in behind the slow moving pilot car and there was oncoming traffic. However it was at night so I couldn’t see the water and I was tired also which probably helped calm me down and of course I had the music on. Amazingly it was no big deal, one of my least stressful bridge crossings in recent years. I think the novelty of driving the wrong way on the lower deck of the bridge helped keep my mind off the normal phobias I have with regards to this bridge. attack came on and I was having to fumble with the CD player while suddenly accelerating to try to get things under control. I understand that it’s embarrassing! My friend was with me when I freaked on the bridge. :-(
Yes, it was very embarrassing. This was someone who didn’t know about my bridge phobia so I quickly had to do a lot of explaining. He seemed to understand it and I don’t think he thinks any less of me for having that incident. As a result of that I now tell passengers in advance, generally about 15 minutes before reaching the bridge when I turn the music on that I need to turn the music on to cross the bridge because I have a bridge phobia. I always feel awkward about telling them that but I figure it is better to tell them and have nothing happen than to suddenly catch them by surprise if it happens. I try not to take passengers across bridges though as I feel I can be more myself if I’m alone and work though it by yelling stuff about it just being a stupid bridge and sometimes yelling about other things I’m mildly upset with just to take my mind off the bridge. Another thing I’ll sometimes do when crossing a bridge is to telephone a friend. The conversation with them helps take my mind off the bridge and I try to make a visual image of them and what they are saying while taking in just enough visual traffic information to stay in the lane with adequate following distance. My concern is for the times I’m not able to get it together and end up having to speed to get off the bridge sooner. They should make something we INHALE for emergency purposes! Anxiety nose spray?
That would be a miracle drug. Something like that would be perfect for me. I do carry in an unused ashtray a container of some valium like pills which were prescribed to me in 2000 when I was having the major anxiety problems. They are a very low dose and are to be taken only as needed. They take a few minutes to kick in, probably too short to be worth anything if taken on the bridge itself but could be taken 10 minutes or so before getting on the bridge. I’ve only taken these twice while driving and haven’t taken any since 2001. Both times while driving I took them when I was stuck in massive traffic in the 2nd from the left lane on the freeway and felt trapped like I couldn’t quickly pull over to the side if I wanted to. I normally like to stick to the right or second to the right lane so there is always an easy way off. A couple times in 2000 I had to pull over onto the right shoulder and calm down for a moment. There is a certain bridge I haven’t driven across for about 6 weeks, the one I’ve had my worst problems with and I have to drive across it tomorrow afternoon. I just woke up in the middle of the night nervous thinking about it. If I have to I can do a long detour to avoid it or put off the crossing until dusk. AV I’m sorry for you 
I hope things went well, and you made it across by the time you see this. Hang in there, OK?
Thanks. Well I ended up not having to cross the bridge Saturday. The friend I was going to meet with happens to be coming to my area today so will come here instead of me having to go there. Now it looks like I won’t have to cross the bridge for about another week. Hopefully I can come up with a better plan of attack by then. One idea I’ve had is to just before the bridge entrance get out and run around to work off nervous energy. AV — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
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Look at anything but the water and the mechanics of the bridge! I focused straight ahead (on cars or people IN the cars). Start making up names from license plates…anything! I went through this while out there, and really struggled!! It’s all about focus. The radio was also a great distraction…or a good CD if you have a player in your car! Sing LOUDLY (even if…like with me…people give you funny looks!!) hehehe Good luck!
Thanks for the advice. I already figured out that it is best not to look at the water or the mechanics of the bridge so I focus on the traffic lanes but sometimes just can’t avoid getting a glance at the water way down below and immediately start thinking about my mortality. I have noticed I hardly ever have any nervousness on the bridge at night, probably because I can’t see the water or the bridge so it feels more like driving on a normal road on land. I’ve also noticed during the day the problem is much less accute if it is very overcast or foggy. Bright sunny days are the worst as the water all around is most visible then and also there is more contrast and the flashing pattern of shadows from bridge supports can set off a reaction. I also figured out a while back that music helps greatly so there is a certain CD I start to listen to about 15 minutes before getting on to the bridge to help relax. Occassionally I have had a passenger and have told them I’ve got to turn this certain music on here because I have a bridge phobia and the music helps. I hate having to tell people this but one time after going months with no problems on the bridge I had a passenger and suddenly midway across the span a panic attack came on and I was having to fumble with the CD player while suddenly accelerating to try to get things under control. Sometimes when I am by myself if it starts coming on midway across the bridge I start yelling to myself "it is just a stupid bridge!". My concern is for the times I’m not able to get it together and end up having to speed to get off the bridge sooner. There is a certain bridge I haven’t driven across for about 6 weeks, the one I’ve had my worst problems with and I have to drive across it tomorrow afternoon. I just woke up in the middle of the night nervous thinking about it. If I have to I can do a long detour to avoid it or put off the crossing until dusk. AV — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
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" I also figured out a while back that music helps greatly so there is a certain CD I start to listen to about 15 minutes before getting on to the bridge to help relax.
this is wonderful use it and build on it Occassionally I have had a passenger and have told them I’ve got to turn this certain music on here because I have a bridge phobia and the music helps. I hate having to tell people this but one time after going months with no problems on the bridge I had a passenger and suddenly midway across the span a panic attack came on and I was having to fumble with the CD player while suddenly accelerating to try to get things under control.
I almost never had a panic attack with someone in the car for the simple reason I car pooled for many years and it wasn’t until I lost the passengers that I noticed the panic atttacks building up as I approached the bridge, so after suffering the panic attacks alone and then not having them when a passenger was in the car I associated the panic with being alone in the car going over the bridge, but eventually there was some times when the panic built when someone was in the car, I automatically would start a conversation and my mind not being able to occupy two thoughts at once would ease the panic Sometimes when I am by myself if it starts coming on midway across the bridge I start yelling to myself "it is just a stupid bridge!".
I know what you mean there I came up with "I’m tired of this stupid game" and it help me focus in some ways to feel better sometimes My concern is for the times I’m not able to get it together and end up having to speed to get off the bridge sooner.
It right that you have some concern about this because it can be dangerous to drive to fast, my concern was for loss of control as my mind would be all over the place and my body was shaking and I didn’t feel I had control of my actions but your thoughts should be centered around the time you where OK, you need to heighten those feelings in you and diminish the times when you where less successfull crossing the bridge There is a certain bridge I haven’t driven across for about 6 weeks, the one I’ve had my worst problems with and I have to drive across it tomorrow afternoon. I just woke up in the middle of the night nervous thinking about it. If I have to I can do a long detour to avoid it or put off the crossing until dusk.
night time anxiety I think is caused by the continuation of the daytime worry we have about something we have a hard time deciding what to do, if that helps any, I know it became a bigger problem for me until I accepted it for what it is instead of making it out to be more than just that, so when you decide what you are going to do or decide that you will be able to make a decision on what to do, it can go away there are times and ways I can cross the bridge that causes me problem I do it twice a day for work a doctor could prescibe you a benzodrine like xanax on a as needed basis but I think you should use it as little as possible, but just to know something is as effective is at you disposal can help, and it has helped me alot over the years when you feel ready just to do it and know you will be OK is all it will take to overcome this panic and there is no timetable, or failures there is just a steady movement forward Jim AV — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
– The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I live in the San Francisco Bay Area which has many tall highway bridges over bodies of water. Most of these bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Richmond-San Rafael Bridge have 45 mph speed limits. The normal flow of traffic on these bridges seems to be 50-60 mph. Signs are posted at the entrances to these bridges stating that they are double fine zones so a speeding ticket received on one of these bridges would presumably have a fine twice as high as for breaking the speed limit by the same amount on a conventional highway. I never used to have any problem with bridges but in 1998 while sitting in the front passenger seat of a friend’s car on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge I had a panic attack. Everything was going normally and then suddenly I had this extreme fear. Being way up high in this bridge, mid-span with no quick way off I had this trapped feeling as I saw the bridge girders rapidly go by creating a flashing shadow effect. I started thinking about death, wondering what would happen if there was an earthquake and the bridge fell down or my friend’s car went out of control and went off the bridge. Being on this tall structure high over the water made me feel so small, reminded me of my own mortality. I just had this horrible helpless feeling. My adrenalin kicked in and my heart rate went up and I started breathing heavily and sweating. I think I yelled out "help!" to my friend and he helped me calm down. Ever since then I get anywhere from mildly to severely nervous when crossing high bridges, generally thinking about the possibility of death. Sometimes the low grade feeling of nervousness develops into a panic attack generally about half way across the bridge when I feel totally trapped on the bridge. I get the increased heart rate, sweaty hands and a fight or flight feeling as the adrenalin kicks in. Normally I obey all traffic laws and always stick to the posted speed limits to save fuel. After accelerating from the toll both at one of these bridges I set the cruise control to the posted speed limit of 45 mph. However if I have a panic attack about half way across the bridge I find myself suddenly flooring the accelerator pedal as the extreme feeling of fear and adrenalin kicks in. Once it hits about 70 mph I’ll back off but sometimes I will then floor it again, bring it back up to 60 or 70 and then back off again as I try to overcome the panic attack. On one occassion I kept it at 65-70 mph until I was almost off the bridge just to get off the bridge as soon as possible. There is no shoulder to pull over on should one be stopped for speeding on one of these bridges so one would have to drive to the end of the bridge and then pull over. My question to highway patrol officers is if you found someone driving 65 or 70 mph in a 45 mph zone on one of these bridges and activated your flashing lights to pull them over and when they were able to pull over at the other end of the bridge would you write them a speeding ticket if they were obviously very shaken up and told you they were having a panic attack and had to get off the bridge as soon as possible? Or would you let them off with a warning realising they were not deliberately breaking the speed limit but were just trying to get off the bridge as soon as possible because they were having a medical emergency and where afraid they might pass out or go out of control and cause a crash if they stayed on the bridge for as long as they would have had to if doing the 45 mph speed limit? My other question is if the officer activates the lights while the car they are pulling over is doing 65-70 mph in the 45 zone should the driver immediately reduce their speed to 45 mph for the rest of the drive across the bridge to where they can pull over or since they have already been clocked doing 65-70 mph would it not make the ticket fine any higher or upset the officer any more if the driver continued at 65-70 mph until they could pull over at the end of the bridge. Any tips on dealing with bridge phobia would also be appreciated as I’d much rather not experience stress crossing bridges and keep the speed to 45 mph to save fuel. I don’t like being in an out of control situation which forces me to speed. As it is I try to avoid crossing these bridges as little as possible for obvious reasons. I’m thinking a good compromise for now might be to go 55 mph on the bridge right from the start as that is within the normal flow of traffic speed and would get me off the bridge sooner than going 45 mph and thus I might be able to keep a full blown panic attack from occuring and wouldn’t have to exceed 55 mph so would be unlikely to get cited. Thanks in advance, AV — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
I can deal with them just fine, if I feel they are constructed well. I am an engineer, so when I see big honkin’ structures, I am comfortable, whatever the height. I cross over to Canada from time to time in I-81. The bridge scares the crap out of me. On the down side the "guard rails" look to be 1 1/4" handrails. Oh my god! I have to use all of my concentration power to focus straight ahead and ignore the sides. Funny, when I am on the top of the bridge, the side rails are beefy and I can admire the 1000 Islands. gt — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Look at anything but the water and the mechanics of the bridge! I focused straight ahead (on cars or people IN the cars). Start making up names from license plates…anything! I went through this while out there, and really struggled!! It’s all about focus. The radio was also a great distraction…or a good CD if you have a player in your car! Sing LOUDLY (even if…like with me…people give you funny looks!!) hehehe Good luck! Thanks for the advice. I already figured out that it is best not to look at the water or the mechanics of the bridge so I focus on the traffic lanes but sometimes just can’t avoid getting a glance at the water way down below and immediately start thinking about my mortality. I have noticed I hardly ever have any nervousness on the bridge at night, probably because I can’t see the water or the bridge so it feels more like driving on a normal road on land. I’ve also noticed during the day the problem is much less accute if it is very overcast or foggy. Bright sunny days are the worst as the water all around is most visible then and also there is more contrast and the flashing pattern of shadows from bridge supports can set off a reaction.
I know what you are saying! It’s pretty hard to ignore the water, isn’t it? It’s EVERYWHERE! I also figured out a while back that music helps greatly so there is a certain CD I start to listen to about 15 minutes before getting on to the bridge to help relax. Occassionally I have had a passenger and have told them I’ve got to turn this certain music on here because I have a bridge phobia and the music helps. I hate having to tell people this but one time after going months with no problems on the bridge I had a passenger and suddenly midway across the span a panic attack came on and I was having to fumble with the CD player while suddenly accelerating to try to get things under control.
I understand that it’s embarrassing! My friend was with me when I freaked on the bridge. :-( Sometimes when I am by myself if it starts coming on midway across the bridge I start yelling to myself "it is just a stupid bridge!".
Good for you! My concern is for the times I’m not able to get it together and end up having to speed to get off the bridge sooner.
They should make something we INHALE for emergency purposes! Anxiety nose spray? There is a certain bridge I haven’t driven across for about 6 weeks, the one I’ve had my worst problems with and I have to drive across it tomorrow afternoon. I just woke up in the middle of the night nervous thinking about it. If I have to I can do a long detour to avoid it or put off the crossing until dusk. AV
I’m sorry for you I hope things went well, and you made it across by the time you see this. Hang in there, OK? Hugs, Gigglz — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area which has many tall highway bridges over bodies of water. Most of these bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Richmond-San Rafael Bridge have 45 mph speed limits. The normal flow of traffic on these bridges seems to be 50-60 mph. Signs are posted at the entrances to these bridges stating that they are double fine zones so a speeding ticket received on one of these bridges would presumably have a fine twice as high as for breaking the speed limit by the same amount on a conventional highway. I never used to have any problem with bridges but in 1998 while sitting in the front passenger seat of a friend’s car on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge I had a panic attack. Everything was going normally and then suddenly I had this extreme fear. Being way up high in this bridge, mid-span with no quick way off I had this trapped feeling as I saw the bridge girders rapidly go by creating a flashing shadow effect. I started thinking about death, wondering what would happen if there was an earthquake and the bridge fell down or my friend’s car went out of control and went off the bridge. Being on this tall structure high over the water made me feel so small, reminded me of my own mortality. I just had this horrible helpless feeling. My adrenalin kicked in and my heart rate went up and I started breathing heavily and sweating. I think I yelled out "help!" to my friend and he helped me calm down. Ever since then I get anywhere from mildly to severely nervous when crossing high bridges, generally thinking about the possibility of death. Sometimes the low grade feeling of nervousness develops into a panic attack generally about half way across the bridge when I feel totally trapped on the bridge. I get the increased heart rate, sweaty hands and a fight or flight feeling as the adrenalin kicks in. Normally I obey all traffic laws and always stick to the posted speed limits to save fuel. After accelerating from the toll both at one of these bridges I set the cruise control to the posted speed limit of 45 mph. However if I have a panic attack about half way across the bridge I find myself suddenly flooring the accelerator pedal as the extreme feeling of fear and adrenalin kicks in. Once it hits about 70 mph I’ll back off but sometimes I will then floor it again, bring it back up to 60 or 70 and then back off again as I try to overcome the panic attack. On one occassion I kept it at 65-70 mph until I was almost off the bridge just to get off the bridge as soon as possible. There is no shoulder to pull over on should one be stopped for speeding on one of these bridges so one would have to drive to the end of the bridge and then pull over. My question to highway patrol officers is if you found someone driving 65 or 70 mph in a 45 mph zone on one of these bridges and activated your flashing lights to pull them over and when they were able to pull over at the other end of the bridge would you write them a speeding ticket if they were obviously very shaken up and told you they were having a panic attack and had to get off the bridge as soon as possible? Or would you let them off with a warning realising they were not deliberately breaking the speed limit but were just trying to get off the bridge as soon as possible because they were having a medical emergency and where afraid they might pass out or go out of control and cause a crash if they stayed on the bridge for as long as they would have had to if doing the 45 mph speed limit? My other question is if the officer activates the lights while the car they are pulling over is doing 65-70 mph in the 45 zone should the driver immediately reduce their speed to 45 mph for the rest of the drive across the bridge to where they can pull over or since they have already been clocked doing 65-70 mph would it not make the ticket fine any higher or upset the officer any more if the driver continued at 65-70 mph until they could pull over at the end of the bridge. Any tips on dealing with bridge phobia would also be appreciated as I’d much rather not experience stress crossing bridges and keep the speed to 45 mph to save fuel. I don’t like being in an out of control situation which forces me to speed. As it is I try to avoid crossing these bridges as little as possible for obvious reasons. I’m thinking a good compromise for now might be to go 55 mph on the bridge right from the start as that is within the normal flow of traffic speed and would get me off the bridge sooner than going 45 mph and thus I might be able to keep a full blown panic attack from occuring and wouldn’t have to exceed 55 mph so would be unlikely to get cited. Thanks in advance, AV — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
Look at anything but the water and the mechanics of the bridge! I focused straight ahead (on cars or people IN the cars). Start making up names from license plates…anything! I went through this while out there, and really struggled!! It’s all about focus. The radio was also a great distraction…or a good CD if you have a player in your car! Sing LOUDLY (even if…like with me…people give you funny looks!!) hehehe Good luck! Hugs, Gigglz
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I live in the San Francisco Bay Area which has many tall highway bridges over bodies of water. Most of these bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Richmond-San Rafael Bridge have 45 mph speed limits. The normal flow of traffic on these bridges seems to be 50-60 mph. Signs are posted at the entrances to these bridges stating that they are double fine zones so a speeding ticket received on one of these bridges would presumably have a fine twice as high as for breaking the speed limit by the same amount on a conventional highway. I never used to have any problem with bridges but in 1998 while sitting in the front passenger seat of a friend’s car on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge I had a panic attack. Everything was going normally and then suddenly I had this extreme fear. Being way up high in this bridge, mid-span with no quick way off I had this trapped feeling as I saw the bridge girders rapidly go by creating a flashing shadow effect. I started thinking about death, wondering what would happen if there was an earthquake and the bridge fell down or my friend’s car went out of control and went off the bridge. Being on this tall structure high over the water made me feel so small, reminded me of my own mortality. I just had this horrible helpless feeling. My adrenalin kicked in and my heart rate went up and I started breathing heavily and sweating. I think I yelled out "help!" to my friend and he helped me calm down. Ever since then I get anywhere from mildly to severely nervous when crossing high bridges, generally thinking about the possibility of death. Sometimes the low grade feeling of nervousness develops into a panic attack generally about half way across the bridge when I feel totally trapped on the bridge. I get the increased heart rate, sweaty hands and a fight or flight feeling as the adrenalin kicks in. Normally I obey all traffic laws and always stick to the posted speed limits to save fuel. After accelerating from the toll both at one of these bridges I set the cruise control to the posted speed limit of 45 mph. However if I have a panic attack about half way across the bridge I find myself suddenly flooring the accelerator pedal as the extreme feeling of fear and adrenalin kicks in. Once it hits about 70 mph I’ll back off but sometimes I will then floor it again, bring it back up to 60 or 70 and then back off again as I try to overcome the panic attack. On one occassion I kept it at 65-70 mph until I was almost off the bridge just to get off the bridge as soon as possible. There is no shoulder to pull over on should one be stopped for speeding on one of these bridges so one would have to drive to the end of the bridge and then pull over. My question to highway patrol officers is if you found someone driving 65 or 70 mph in a 45 mph zone on one of these bridges and activated your flashing lights to pull them over and when they were able to pull over at the other end of the bridge would you write them a speeding ticket if they were obviously very shaken up and told you they were having a panic attack and had to get off the bridge as soon as possible? Or would you let them off with a warning realising they were not deliberately breaking the speed limit but were just trying to get off the bridge as soon as possible because they were having a medical emergency and where afraid they might pass out or go out of control and cause a crash if they stayed on the bridge for as long as they would have had to if doing the 45 mph speed limit? My other question is if the officer activates the lights while the car they are pulling over is doing 65-70 mph in the 45 zone should the driver immediately reduce their speed to 45 mph for the rest of the drive across the bridge to where they can pull over or since they have already been clocked doing 65-70 mph would it not make the ticket fine any higher or upset the officer any more if the driver continued at 65-70 mph until they could pull over at the end of the bridge. Any tips on dealing with bridge phobia would also be appreciated as I’d much rather not experience stress crossing bridges and keep the speed to 45 mph to save fuel. I don’t like being in an out of control situation which forces me to speed. As it is I try to avoid crossing these bridges as little as possible for obvious reasons. I’m thinking a good compromise for now might be to go 55 mph on the bridge right from the start as that is within the normal flow of traffic speed and would get me off the bridge sooner than going 45 mph and thus I might be able to keep a full blown panic attack from occuring and wouldn’t have to exceed 55 mph so would be unlikely to get cited. Thanks in advance, AV — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
– The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
First you should feel good about yourself that you continue to cross those bridges it what you need to do evetually get over the panic of the panic attack and it might help to know that the bridge isn’t as much a problems as the fear of having another attack you just associate the bridge to the attack . I will start adding up the numbers in the license plates of vehicles around me before I get to bridges and it occupies and distracts my thoughts yet keeps me aware of the traffic try to slow down little bit at a time finding a way to distract your thoughts from panicing Jim
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Go with the flow. If you are concentrating very hard on the car in front of you and not actually looking to the sides it will be over real quick. Secondly, if you keep the speed up once they put on the lights, well then that will piss them off. merge right and keep a normal speed and pull over. if you pulled over on the bridge they will tell you over the speaker to either go forward or pull over in a non active lane. Find something to distract you but not your driving and you will feel fine. If you think about it long and hard before or during then it will set off your trigger. brian s. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area which has many tall highway bridges over bodies of water. Most of these bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Richmond-San Rafael Bridge have 45 mph speed limits. The normal flow of traffic on these bridges seems to be 50-60 mph. Signs are posted at the entrances to these bridges stating that they are double fine zones so a speeding ticket received on one of these bridges would presumably have a fine twice as high as for breaking the speed limit by the same amount on a conventional highway. I never used to have any problem with bridges but in 1998 while sitting in the front passenger seat of a friend’s car on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge I had a panic attack. Everything was going normally and then suddenly I had this extreme fear. Being way up high in this bridge, mid-span with no quick way off I had this trapped feeling as I saw the bridge girders rapidly go by creating a flashing shadow effect. I started thinking about death, wondering what would happen if there was an earthquake and the bridge fell down or my friend’s car went out of control and went off the bridge. Being on this tall structure high over the water made me feel so small, reminded me of my own mortality. I just had this horrible helpless feeling. My adrenalin kicked in and my heart rate went up and I started breathing heavily and sweating. I think I yelled out "help!" to my friend and he helped me calm down. Ever since then I get anywhere from mildly to severely nervous when crossing high bridges, generally thinking about the possibility of death. Sometimes the low grade feeling of nervousness develops into a panic attack generally about half way across the bridge when I feel totally trapped on the bridge. I get the increased heart rate, sweaty hands and a fight or flight feeling as the adrenalin kicks in. Normally I obey all traffic laws and always stick to the posted speed limits to save fuel. After accelerating from the toll both at one of these bridges I set the cruise control to the posted speed limit of 45 mph. However if I have a panic attack about half way across the bridge I find myself suddenly flooring the accelerator pedal as the extreme feeling of fear and adrenalin kicks in. Once it hits about 70 mph I’ll back off but sometimes I will then floor it again, bring it back up to 60 or 70 and then back off again as I try to overcome the panic attack. On one occassion I kept it at 65-70 mph until I was almost off the bridge just to get off the bridge as soon as possible. There is no shoulder to pull over on should one be stopped for speeding on one of these bridges so one would have to drive to the end of the bridge and then pull over. My question to highway patrol officers is if you found someone driving 65 or 70 mph in a 45 mph zone on one of these bridges and activated your flashing lights to pull them over and when they were able to pull over at the other end of the bridge would you write them a speeding ticket if they were obviously very shaken up and told you they were having a panic attack and had to get off the bridge as soon as possible? Or would you let them off with a warning realising they were not deliberately breaking the speed limit but were just trying to get off the bridge as soon as possible because they were having a medical emergency and where afraid they might pass out or go out of control and cause a crash if they stayed on the bridge for as long as they would have had to if doing the 45 mph speed limit? My other question is if the officer activates the lights while the car they are pulling over is doing 65-70 mph in the 45 zone should the driver immediately reduce their speed to 45 mph for the rest of the drive across the bridge to where they can pull over or since they have already been clocked doing 65-70 mph would it not make the ticket fine any higher or upset the officer any more if the driver continued at 65-70 mph until they could pull over at the end of the bridge. Any tips on dealing with bridge phobia would also be appreciated as I’d much rather not experience stress crossing bridges and keep the speed to 45 mph to save fuel. I don’t like being in an out of control situation which forces me to speed. As it is I try to avoid crossing these bridges as little as possible for obvious reasons. I’m thinking a good compromise for now might be to go 55 mph on the bridge right from the start as that is within the normal flow of traffic speed and would get me off the bridge sooner than going 45 mph and thus I might be able to keep a full blown panic attack from occuring and wouldn’t have to exceed 55 mph so would be unlikely to get cited. Thanks in advance, AV — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
– The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
Go with the flow. If you are concentrating very hard on the car in front of you and not actually looking to the sides it will be over real quick. Secondly, if you keep the speed up once they put on the lights, well then that will piss them off. merge right and keep a normal speed and pull over. if you pulled over on the bridge they will tell you over the speaker to either go forward or pull over in a non active lane. Find something to distract you but not your driving and you will feel fine. If you think about it long and hard before or during then it will set off your trigger. brian s.
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I live in the San Francisco Bay Area which has many tall highway bridges over bodies of water. Most of these bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Richmond-San Rafael Bridge have 45 mph speed limits. The normal flow of traffic on these bridges seems to be 50-60 mph. Signs are posted at the entrances to these bridges stating that they are double fine zones so a speeding ticket received on one of these bridges would presumably have a fine twice as high as for breaking the speed limit by the same amount on a conventional highway. I never used to have any problem with bridges but in 1998 while sitting in the front passenger seat of a friend’s car on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge I had a panic attack. Everything was going normally and then suddenly I had this extreme fear. Being way up high in this bridge, mid-span with no quick way off I had this trapped feeling as I saw the bridge girders rapidly go by creating a flashing shadow effect. I started thinking about death, wondering what would happen if there was an earthquake and the bridge fell down or my friend’s car went out of control and went off the bridge. Being on this tall structure high over the water made me feel so small, reminded me of my own mortality. I just had this horrible helpless feeling. My adrenalin kicked in and my heart rate went up and I started breathing heavily and sweating. I think I yelled out "help!" to my friend and he helped me calm down. Ever since then I get anywhere from mildly to severely nervous when crossing high bridges, generally thinking about the possibility of death. Sometimes the low grade feeling of nervousness develops into a panic attack generally about half way across the bridge when I feel totally trapped on the bridge. I get the increased heart rate, sweaty hands and a fight or flight feeling as the adrenalin kicks in. Normally I obey all traffic laws and always stick to the posted speed limits to save fuel. After accelerating from the toll both at one of these bridges I set the cruise control to the posted speed limit of 45 mph. However if I have a panic attack about half way across the bridge I find myself suddenly flooring the accelerator pedal as the extreme feeling of fear and adrenalin kicks in. Once it hits about 70 mph I’ll back off but sometimes I will then floor it again, bring it back up to 60 or 70 and then back off again as I try to overcome the panic attack. On one occassion I kept it at 65-70 mph until I was almost off the bridge just to get off the bridge as soon as possible. There is no shoulder to pull over on should one be stopped for speeding on one of these bridges so one would have to drive to the end of the bridge and then pull over. My question to highway patrol officers is if you found someone driving 65 or 70 mph in a 45 mph zone on one of these bridges and activated your flashing lights to pull them over and when they were able to pull over at the other end of the bridge would you write them a speeding ticket if they were obviously very shaken up and told you they were having a panic attack and had to get off the bridge as soon as possible? Or would you let them off with a warning realising they were not deliberately breaking the speed limit but were just trying to get off the bridge as soon as possible because they were having a medical emergency and where afraid they might pass out or go out of control and cause a crash if they stayed on the bridge for as long as they would have had to if doing the 45 mph speed limit? My other question is if the officer activates the lights while the car they are pulling over is doing 65-70 mph in the 45 zone should the driver immediately reduce their speed to 45 mph for the rest of the drive across the bridge to where they can pull over or since they have already been clocked doing 65-70 mph would it not make the ticket fine any higher or upset the officer any more if the driver continued at 65-70 mph until they could pull over at the end of the bridge. Any tips on dealing with bridge phobia would also be appreciated as I’d much rather not experience stress crossing bridges and keep the speed to 45 mph to save fuel. I don’t like being in an out of control situation which forces me to speed. As it is I try to avoid crossing these bridges as little as possible for obvious reasons. I’m thinking a good compromise for now might be to go 55 mph on the bridge right from the start as that is within the normal flow of traffic speed and would get me off the bridge sooner than going 45 mph and thus I might be able to keep a full blown panic attack from occuring and wouldn’t have to exceed 55 mph so would be unlikely to get cited. Thanks in advance, AV — The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
– The charter is available at: http://readystump.algebra.com/~asapm
Response:
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