Stress Center Peer Support

I finished the program a year ago and it worked so well for me that I was able to travel 14 hours in a car to Virginia. The trip there was wonderful but the last 4 hours of the trip home was full of obsessive scarey thoughts and the last hour I was in full blown panic. My boyfriend said he would never travel with me again. Everyone is expecting me to make the trip again the end of October and I'm scared. I consider the trip last year a huge sucess but I haven't traveled since. I do want to go - so I began the program again and am on session 2 but I don't feel the same sense of hope / accomplishment / confidence that I did the first time around. Please, any help, advice or coments appreciated.

When you had this major panic attack...where you driving? I hate being in the car when my husband is driving..he is a very good driver, but he drives a bit to fast for me. I take along a portable DVD player and I watch a movie or I sit in the back seat.

First of all, your boyfriend can take a leap. Compassionate type of guy, huh? Hmmmm, you deserve better and he needs a course in human compassion.

So, good for you that the trip there was wonderful! Now stop with the BUTS.
You managed a long trip extremely well and had a growth spurt on the way back. So what? Lots of us have had those growth spurts and every time we learn something from them. First, we're human and second, we're human. Just kidding. We also learn that we survived it and didn't croak from the panic and made it home safe anyway.

Hey, bring the program with you and listen to it on the way and the way back . Maybe headphones and maybe not. I've done that a few times on really long trips. What the heck.

It's recommended to do the program twice though anyway. We took a long time to build up the old habits and it takes a while to break them.

You WILL benefit from the second time around. Just don't expect the light, euphoric feeling you did the first time through when all this was so new to you. I doesn't mean that it isn't helping, it IS. This time around will reinforce what you already know and make your confidence even stronger. It's just that the "wow factor" of self discovery isn't quite as strong. Believe it or not, towards the middle and end of the second time through, you will have a few "oh now I get that" moments that are awesome.

Enjoy your trip. Don't miss out on the fun!!!