Hypnosis for driving phobia and PTSD
Interestingly, your brain has an emotional alarm system that keeps you safe. But when you experience a panic attack, phobia, or post-traumatic stress, that alarm system goes into overdrive. In the following sections, we’ll explain this concept in a more detailed approach.
What Happens During a Panic Attack?
The amygdala is a small structure in your brain. It’s involved in your emotional memories and learned responses. Essentially, the amygdala’s job involves matching new circumstances to what you already know. Thus, it is able to alert you about anything that has previously been recognised as a threat. In other words, it draws on past information to assess potential threats in the present.
In the past, this may have been a specific movement or a quick flash of colour signifying an approaching predator. Based on previous experiences, the amygdala would trigger changes throughout your body. It would get you ready to fight or flee by raising your heart rate and breathing rate.
For example, imagine a woman who is driving home from work. She’s had a very stressful day. And now, she’s running late and worrying about whether she’ll be on time to collect her little girl from school.
It’s one pressure too many.
Her amygdala responds as if she is under threat. Her heart begins pounding. Her breathing becomes quick and shallow.
She becomes panicked. She thinks she’s having a heart attack and that makes her symptoms escalate even farther. Her palms become sweaty. Her chest feels like it’s about to burst. She struggles to breathe.
She begins to feel overwhelmed - as if she may feint and crash the car.
The amygdala registers this fear and threat. It notes the bright lights, the car behind her and the type of road she is on. It remembers it.
The next day, the same woman is driving on a different road. There are bright lights. There is a few cars behind her. This - alone - may be sufficient enough for the amygdala. And it could potentially trigger another panic attack. The amygdala perceives these factors as at threat.
What Leads to a Phobia?
Phobias start in a similar way to panic attacks. The amygdala associates certain factors with a perceived threat.
For example, you may have experienced a minor car crash or had a close call. Thus, this develops into a fear of driving. The amygdala, again, remembers.
You may also develop a fear of driving due to a previous situation where you experienced a panic attack. You may have been in a car crash as a passenger or had a panic attack in a car in the past. Therefore, every time you think of driving, your heart rate quickens. You can feel the perceived threat. This may eventually lead to avoiding driving entirely. A phobia develops when you’re scared a panic attack may happen so you don’t want to be anywhere near the inside of a moving car.
What About Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD) ?
Post-traumatic stress often arises after a particularly frightening event. For example, if you were in the backseat of a car during a collision, you may have difficulty traveling in the backseat again. Yet, there may be other unconscious connections to the accident as well. For instance, you may feel inexplicable panic when filling up your own car with petrol. The smell of petrol takes you back to the accident. Again, the amygdala part of your brain is alerting you of a potential threat.
Hypnosis Treatment for driving phobia and Post-Traumatic Stress
Fortunately, hypnosis is a simple and effective way to deal with all these circumstances. If a traumatic memory or several memories is causing you to have panic attacks, phobias, or post-traumatic stress, a powerful and painless visualisation procedure, known as the rewind technique, may be used to take the emotion out of the memories. This enables the memories of the events to be stored away as history - instead of memories that continue to intrude on the present.
The memories remain, and always will remain, deeply unpleasant one but no longer are they emotionally arousing causing you distress. This method can work swiftly and reliably even in the most extreme of cases. That way, you can go about your life without the fear of driving or a previous event in your life impacting your present or future moments.