"call of the void" phenomenon/sudden fear of driving over bridges - how do you talk yourself down?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are most of the posters replying in here women?

Because this happens to me too and not my DH.

I wonder if it is more common for women and why that would be?

I noticed mine when I first had kids. I truly think it’s some kind of maladaptive thing so moms can always picture worst case scenarios to protect their young.

OP again - and yes, this is one of the psychological theories! That your brain is running through scenarios of what is dangerous, so that you can avoid the danger, but then something gets a little mixed up and it turns into feeling like you are going to do the dangerous thing instead of avoiding it. It's a really messed up thing but thinking it through like that helps at least understand the terrible thoughts.

[Anonymous]

I think you can tell yourself these crazy thoughts are telling me I’m anxious and need to be alert and careful.

[Anonymous]

What's scary to me is to think psychopaths just act on these impulses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's scary to me is to think psychopaths just act on these impulses.

Do they, though? The common thread with these impulses is self-harm. It isn't that you're suddenly going to ram someone's car to push them over the bridge, or that you're going to shove someone else onto the subway tracks. It's about suddenly flinging *yourself* into the void. Psychopaths channel their impulses onto other people.

[Anonymous]

No one else had this issue on Wellbutrin? I didn't feel anxious in any other way.

[Anonymous]

FYI - there's a booth/office at the Delaware Memorial Bridge where you can get someone to drive you over. I had never heard of that before I saw it there one time.

[Anonymous]

I also suffer from this. Mine began back in 2013 or so when I was unknowingly injured by prescribed Ativan. It gravely injured my central nervous system. When I would drive my car my mental bearings would shift and I would perceive the road ahead of me as going straight down vertically. It was terrifying. I had to stop driving on the freeways. The stress of driving over 30 mph brings that type of anxiety on. Over the years that has gradually subsided and I am grateful. In 2019 I was traveling over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and that same horrifying perception was threatening me and I was struggling with everything I had not to pass out behind the wheel. I am no longer able to drive across bridges. Just yesterday I had to have my husband and his co-worker meet me on the Tacoma side of the Narrows Bridge so my husband could drive me over it into Gig Harbor to visit my daughter and grandbaby, and then his co worker followed us over and drove my husband back over the bridge to work. What a GD hassle this thing creates. My husband is a living saint. I spent the day at my daughter's house with our little grandbaby and decided to take her and the baby to do some shopping in town. I only got a couple miles down the road and had to have my daughter drive because the thoughts of driving into opposing traffic along the two-lane road was increasing in intensity. I just told her I was getting nervous driving - she is aware that I have trouble driving over the bridge but this other thing - the intrusive thoughts to drive off the edge - I didn't tell her about. I am so pissed off that I have developed this disorder. Prior to 2013 I never lived in fear of anything - certainly not driving. This threatening urge to drive off the edge or into oncoming traffic really feels like it is coming from outside of myself.

[Anonymous]

I don't have it with bridges but have it just about every time I am on my treadmill or walking downstairs... "What if I just fell, punched myself, hit my head, broke the bowl I'm carrying and it cut myself and bled to death here on the stairs" or what if I tripped on the treadmill, couldn't get up and it rubbed an inch of skin off and ripped out half my hair if it got wrapped in the tread", etc.

Not an anxious person otherwise. I mentioned it to DH and we were laughing about it- he gets the same flashes too... like when we were on ladders last week.

[Anonymous]

This happens to me at places like Niagara Falls - but what’s worse is that it happens to me on the interstate (if I’m the one driving). I honestly avoid driving on it if I can help it.

[Anonymous]

My uncle had a phobia driving over the Bay Bridge and used some kind of service that drove over it for him. This was back in the 90's.

[Anonymous]

Don’t go to Yosemite. We went there a couple of years ago and the mountain roads with sheer drop offs (no trees to break a fall even) don’t have guardrails or anything! Just lane pavement, a white line, no shoulder, and a deathly drop off. I’m still trying to recover from the experience.