…to think a multivitamin may have cured my crippling driving anxiety?

[ReallyAVitamin]

Okay, the backstory is (and I’ve posted about this issue a couple of times previous under different UNs because it’s honestly been so debilitating)

I am late 30s, have loved cars and been driving since I was 17. Have driven the length and breadth of the country, would just leave the house, with no destination, on my days off and see where the road took me…. Basically I loved driving and I loved cars.

About 2.5 years ago I developed totally unexpected, sudden and crippling driving anxiety. Disaster, I’m a single Mum working in sales.

Have been trying to medicate with propranolol which helps a bit, but not enough for the level of anxiety I had. Have looked into hypnotism, taken online CBT, listened to driving anxiety specific hypnotism audio going to bed. Nothing has helped, and my world has gotten smaller.

But… I started taking a cheap multivitamin from Lidl about 3 weeks ago, and for the last week, I’m actually looking forward to getting in the car because the anxiety is 90% reduced. I’m actually going out of my way a little to test the specific anxieties I’ve had.

I’ve have a pretty good diet, breakfast, lunch and dinner all homemade. I think it’s pretty balanced. But the only thing I’ve changed in the last couple of weeks is this cheap multivitamin. Could it actually be possible my anxiety was down to a vitamin deficiency? It’s probably mad 😅

This is interesting, I’d put my peri meno anxiety down to hormones, but I had almost no vitamin d.

I’m so sorry to hear your daughter is going through this as well, Ireally sympathise, it’s horribly debilitating 😕 The drives you’re doing are a great idea, immersion therapy. And she really should try to drive as much as possible, it’s so uncomfortable but avoiding driving, or just driving a couple of familiar routes just made my anxiety worse.

Was hers a sudden onset kind of thing or has she always had driving anxiety?

Definitely get her to take a multivitamin, it can literally do no harm and I really hope it helps her. Could she maybe think about doing some more hypnosis? A couple of refresher lessons?

Hope she finds something that helps x

This is an eye opener for me, I experience driving anxiety too. Put it down to menopause and just losing confidence. I am going to start taking the multi vitamins (which are sitting in the bathroom unopened).
Thank you @ReallyAVitamin and everyone else!

Could also be hormone deficiency due to anxiety. A few of my girlfriends started to get anxiety about driving, I thought at the time how ridiculous!! Hit peri and I too started to feel the same about driving! Got on HRT and it went away .

A friend went in a gluten free diet after a blood test - recommended by her doctor. Her anxiety reduced to the extent she stopped taking herb anti depressants. So yes diet can have a huge effect in certain mental health issues.

I wonder how much the NHS would save in prescription costs and time and appointments if they recommended vitamins and blood tests? Maybe an at cost paid for service via a pharmacy?

And instead of accepting crazily low levels people were encouraged to do them annually to find out what is normal for them.

Not a free service for anyone but an optional service at cost.

This country seems to struggle to give us (accurate) tools to take responsibility for our own health. Vitamin d suggestions are far too low for example. The suggestion we choose aspartame products as the ‘healthy choice’. Or margarine over butter. Little mention of creating good gut biome.

Lockdown - get fit for the NHS may have been a better slogan. Rather than that eat out and pan banging nonsense.

I am glad the vitamins are still working for you. Vitamin d and k2 really made a huge difference to me.

Vegetarian and vegan diets can lack vit d, vit B and essential fats that help brain hormones - leading to feelings of anxiety. So yes if daughters or anyone with anxiety should use supplements.

im not anti veggie by the way - I am one - it’s just that teens aren’t great at eating all the variety they need hence deficiencies

Propranolol really helped me, and I got to the point where I didn't need to take it, just having it available in the car was all I needed. My brain began to realise it was wasting its time producing anxiety symptoms, as they were no match for the propanolol, and the symptoms gradually faded away.

I do find that if I'm ill (any sort of illness) the symptoms try to come back, but the propanolol always does the trick.

The brain is a very weird thing.

I put my driving phobia down to the contraceptive pill. On the pill, my anxiety about driving controlled my life. I came off the pill, and within a few months it disappeared. I didn't make the connection until I went back on hormonal contraception and it came back.

I found a study, linking menopause and changes in spacial awareness. I believe rather than anxiety I had an entirely rational reaction to driving with impaired spacial awareness.

So, vitamins can absolutely impact hormone levels, and I 100% believe this is all linked.