Erica Your story inspired me so much now. I discovered this website last week and feel so blessed to be incontact with so many people who are going through the same thing as me. I developed a fear of highway driving about a year ago and often get panic attacks on the highway. My latest setback has caused me to take a break from trying to recover. However, your determination and courage has inspired me to give it another shot. Congratulations with your progress. Bianca :)

Hi Lucy (and Trish), Sounds like u are a determined lady I also had an intense fear of bridges and our town is surrounded by 4 bridges over motorways. So as a result I had to get over a bridge to get to work. I have been really reliant on my partner. I was really scared that I would have a panic attack whilst driving over the bridge and come off. My partner drove over the bridges until I had an anxiety level of about 3. Then I drove over the bridges until the same happened. Sounds like you are doing ok because you are at stage 2 already. When the anxiety went down he got out on one side of the bridge until I had driven over and back myself. That was sooo hard, but kept telling myself it will never be this bad again! Then I was on my way with the safety of my mobile phone. My advice is stay at the same stage until it gets boring and then you are ready to move on. As for the walking - I know it is time consuming but keep going a bit further every day. Use what even you can to help at the beginning i.e walkmans. The walking helps because the exercise gets rid of some of the adrenalin. I was off work for 2 months and in the end had a daily schedule of going for a walk, doing something physical, doing something creative and eventually driving over all 4 bridges every night. I know that it is time consuming but it was really worth it. It took weeks to leave my mobile phone behind - but I did it. I was desperate to get back to work in the end!. You just have to get a balance of not pushing yourself too hard , because it keeps your anxiety high and you end up exhausted and getting enough rest.Also make sure that you reward yourself and enjoy the achievements that you have done. I wrote down my achievements however small every day for 8 weeks. It was difficult on my partner and I felt guilty depending on him a lot. I hated being dependent, but the way we decided to see it in the end is that it is only temporary and by helping me I would be less reliant on him in the end. I help him with other things i.e spiders, cooked his dinner every night etc.....It's helped and I am more independent now- bridges are ok. Motorways next...... As for the embarrassing bit - people get out of the car on the street every day. It did cross my mind

This is a good idea. My boyfriend doesn't drive, but I think the general idea of including some gradual exposure work by myself after I've done things with my boyfriend is a good one. I guess I feel a bit stupid sometimes saying 'can you get out of the car while I drive along the street' - it's embarrassing. He knows all about my problem but I still find it embarrassing asking him to do too much.

What I did on my exposure to driving, which I too had to cross a bridge, I was ok, as long as he was driving me, or accompying me, but once I got used to that, we tried him following behind me in his car, then I knew I still had my safety person if needed. Once I got over the bridge, I felt better and would get a thumbs up that I was ok.

Hi - I have a dilemma I was wondering whether anyone could help me with. I am agoraphobic and especially afraid of bridges. I have to cross a 2 km bridge to get into town to my work. I am off work at the moment but want to get back. With my boyfriend I can almost cross the bridge, but by myself I can only go to the end of the street. Should I do exposure work with my boyfriend first on crossing the bridge, or should I work at being able to get out by myself? I've been doing the exposure work with my boyfriend but it's been taking ages and deep down I think that part of the reason is that always having him around sort of allows me to cling to my fears. I have to make a choice between whether to deal with my fears of not having my boyfriend around, and work on that, or just try to get into town with him, so I can go back to work faster. He doesn't mind coming on my trip into town every day if I need him to. It's too time consuming to work on both fears at once. I can't decide what to do.