re: Getting vertigo when driving over big bridges?

My wife swears that when they replaced the guardrails on the 210 bridge in LCH they shortened them in height by a foot or so.

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It is getting worse with age.

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I think this is a big part of it.

It never bothered me when I was younger to drive over the MS River Bridge, but in the last few years I have noticed that I get the willies when doing so. I prefer to stay in the inside lanes.

I've been dealing with this on the causeway for a few years. It's gotten so bad (at times) and unexpected that I feel safer going through Slidell to get to Metairie.

Wouldn't say it's vertigo and would imagine it's some sort of irrational anxiety driven issue but it feels like the bridge is 6' wide and and any turn of my head, lane change, speed over 45/50mph and I feel like the truck is just going to flip over. When it hits, no way I can do the Miss River Bridge but then at times I have no issues. Anytime I am by myself I go through Slidell, if the wife is with me she often just drives now but we have definitely stopped at a crossover or two in our time.

Just read the previous link and yep...this is me, 100%

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Their hearts race and palms sweat, and they may also have trouble breathing and feel light-headed.

If driving, their hands death-grip the steering wheel. They worry about losing control of the car and veering off the bridge, or of becoming so freaked out that they stop traffic with no shoulder of the road to pull into.

Gephyrophobes are "not worried about the bridge collapsing, they're worried about themselves collapsing," says Jean Ratner, a social worker who directs the Center for Travel Anxiety in Bethesda, Md. She says a bridge phobia may stem from a fear of heights, and what's at the root of the problem is being scared of having a panic attack and not being able to manage it.

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I really identified with the link too. It was sudden onset for me and I literally feel like I’m going to pass out.

My blood pressure was through the roof so they gave me propanalol for driving. It helps some.

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It started happening to me a several years ago going over a bridge in Jacksonville. You're having a panic attack. I went to my doctor who prescribed my Xanax. Now it's a none issue.

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So do you take it daily, only when you know you're driving the bridge? How does that work for you?

This happens to me. It's like a mild buzzed dizzy feeling. I even went to an ENT to get my inner ear checked out. Nothing was wrong. My anxiety has gotten bad lately (last 2 years) and I have experiences like this especially in traffic. Its fricking annoying.

Not dizzy but definitely anxiety. Last month I was driving and had to cross the Mississippi river and 3 miles after that the Ohio river. I wasn't familiar with the area but it was where the two rivers join. It's a good thing I didn't know that was coming. Their two lane bridges makes Baton Rouge's old bridge look new. Holy hell .

If first noticed it on this beauty.


I used to love driving over it to.

I am not sure if it is anxiety. Maybe in part. I have noticed some actual real anxiety because my car is so small the wind gusts are Rocking the car around and I have a hard time driving normally through that. I don’t know if that’s real or imagined but that is bad.


But the feeling I’m talking about is almost an out of body experience and it’s not exactly alarming. If feels like the sky is about to fall and flatten me and I’m going sink through the bridge of as mentioned, float on up.

I do think it’s either the horizon issue mentioned or an ear canal thing

I get anxious every time I drive over the old bridge (west bound) in Port Arthur. I stopped driving over the I-10 bridge in Lake Charles about 8 years ago.

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So do you take it daily, only when you know you're driving the bridge? How does that work for you?

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I take the extended release daily. I had other life issues (family, work, etc.) that began to really hit hard when I started having panic attacks.

I don’t notice the medicine it unless I miss a dose.

I still get nervous before I’m about go over a bridge because I remember how it used to make me feel, but it’s not an issue when I go over. Kind of like n a Beautiful Mind when he could still see his imaginary friends, but he knew they weren’t real so he just moved on.

Edit: I used to pride myself that I didn’t take any medications, but this has been a life changer.