I am scared of sitting at traffic lights in my car!

[C.F.]

This recently started with me within the past two years. When I am sitting in my car at a very busy intersection I feel trapped and scared. As I watch all the busy cars speeding by, I am afraid I will lose control and go out into the intersection. It is just the claustrophobic thought of sitting there, knowing that if I choose not to sit there and be claustrophobic, I die. Does anyone else suffer from this?

[Guest]

I have had this same situation come up several times over the last few years. I have even done some stupid things like panicing and pulling my car into another lane to get away and nearly getting hit by a big truck. I have had feelings of wanting to jump out of my car and run to somewhere 'safe'. I have never done that, but have a friend that did do just that and left her car sitting in the intersection. She later came back to it and drove on.

The way I began to deal with it was to start with small intersections at times when traffic was nearly 0. Then I would get to a lane where I felt like I could escape if the feelings got to much. Next, I would distract myself by calling someone on the phone or finding something to look at to distract myself. One other thing that helped me was quoting bible verses.

Occassionally it still bothers me, but I use the skills that helped me get past it before and keep working at it.