Anxiety Disorder And Trucking

I have same issue. Been driving since 2006. I take a generic Prozac. Go to your dr. You will be ok

 

Oh boy, am I ever stressed atm so bear with me as I ramble a tad. Don't ask what made me choose this career because I couldn't tell you. All I know is somehow I went through the training at a technical college, that should of had me driving in july. I ran into my first obstacle which was the health exam... I'm 5'6" and my weight varies between 210-230lbs. I've got a "short" and stocky frame, so they mandated I get a sleep apnea test which of course I failed. Wouldn't of been much of an issue except initially they only gave me a 90 day health card.

It took almost two months to get insurance to clear the test which left less than two weeks to complete a 30 day proof of usage. Keep in mind I still had my CDL test coming up so my stress levels were already crititical and now this!? I had to plonk out another $125 for yet another test that now they decided my eyes weren't good enough. Went to lensecrafters, took their test and I passed just fine, mind you I also passed my vision test at the license place just fine too. Ok fine I pay those fees, pass the compliance test, also eventually get to test day and pass with reasonable scores. Something like 80-89 pretrip, 1st time straight, 1st time offset and 4 points on the 90 and 15 points on drive test. I ended up deciding to wait till I'd completed a full 30 days before I began putting serious effort and had a health card on file.

Fast forward to today where I await word for the travel plans to my orientation at CRST. I don't know why I'm so ###### scared but I am. I can't help but feel shamed for having been so lazy throughout life and I'm transitioning from a lazy do nothing to on the road for 28 days and home 3-4. I want to cut and run so badly but I know that If I do I'll never get over this anxiety. I'm tempted to just wipe this post but part of me believes it might help someone else in my situation.

 

From you story I can tell you this. Your mind is getting the best of you. Once you can stop that you will be just fine.

 

I know how you feel brother. Being gone from home for that long probably won't be easy for you and statistics are not on your side. But if you can pull it off and last even six months in the OTR game you'll do better than most fresh drivers entering trucking. Good news is with the trainer it's pretty easy as you have a pro with you to help in tough situations. The real test starts when you go solo.

 

You need to STOP stressing. You are going to apply a whole new set of stress and demand on your body and mind out there. It's going to get you killed if you cannot destress. Im serious here. Or perhaps a family of someones. Winter is coming. For me winter means intermountain west rockies doing battle on ice. It's my joy and my opus as it were.

 

Keeping a mind busy on other things helps deny the anxiety a space to operate.

 

In the old days you retreated to your Den for a quiet evening of contemplation, quality music and bottle of something nice. You destressed that way, come morning whatever the problem was is solved usually.

Today they want to give you medicines, called Xanax and similar. I was one of those people unable to destress physically and they issued muscle relaxers and Xanax for a while in my later years. The problem with Xanax is the dose gets bigger every few weeks or months. Eventually you are on a max dose so big that if you miss it, the next dose that is.. for longer than say 7 hours; your heart will simply stop once your withdrawl time kicks in. And that's all she wrote.

I had Xanax twice in my time, I broke both of them off cold turkey, the first time took 8 months for the body and brain to stop seeking the drug internally and the second time was worst, that took 18 months plus three years of physical therapy for a period of 3 months at a time before I regain control of my muscles and heart.

You sure you want medicines? There is a reason doctors do not prescribe the stuff. Just being on it causes you to make small errors while driving a car big enough to be under influence and thus subject to arrest.

 

There are those that believe that those that have an anxiety disorder should not be even driving a truck. I'm glad to see that there are indeed people who have this annoying disorder but that still can safely operate a tractor trailer despite that. Now, if I could master it myself

 

Trucking is a generator of stress via Anxiety.

Frankly it's not suitable to have Anxiety and be a Trucker. It's just going to kill you very early in life or get someone killed. Same with Piloting, I don't need a shaky in the left seat. I got enough to do as it is working the radio stack and maps.