@Momofadult I completely understand! A year ago I went on a tour through some South American countries. Beautiful views! Surprise, though; I didn’t know I became extremely anxious until we were driving through the mountain side where the roads are about a car and a half wide and a foot shoulder to a drop who knows how many feet downwards! Heh. It was interesting, but dramamine helped me although drowsiness is a side effect of the medicine. I distinctly remember trying to lull myself to sleep when a large rainstorm came though and we were on the roads. I’d encourage anything that fights anxiety or motion related symptoms.
I truly hope you do end of going! For what it’s worth, at Busch Gardens they have this ride called Falcon’s Fury. It’s drop ride, which I loath, but I ended up going on it. I had somewhat of a panic when the ride started, but in the end I found enjoyment in the ride and facing my fears. It might help to focus on the enjoyment of the trip and what you’re excited to see from your travels. Your fears will be present, but something fulfilling may come from it as well…?
OP - the Grand Canyon is a canyon, not a mountain, and you do not drive down into it, though you can hIke it - the hiking trails are where the switchbacks are. You can only drive to the edge. It is not a mountainous drive to get there necessarily. The area is high desert, like utah. So it depends on what interstate route you need to drive to get there if you have to contend with mountain passes at all. There is a paved path along part of it if you go in the southern entrance with a railing, so it may be ok for you.
I did every crazy ride at Universal, Busch Gardens, etc. I went skydiving. I hiked the Kalalau Trail to the end and back. I love eating at revolving restaurants, and I always pick a window seat on an airplane. But - goodness - I get dizzy when I step too close to an open ledge, and I hate mountain driving!
@DonnaL, your 2nd paragraph describes my recurring nightmare perfectly. At least a couple times a year, whether I’ve been near a mountain or hilly road or not, I dream I am driving up a road so steep it causes my car to flip over backwards. The dream began long before I was legal driving age, as did my childhood trips to the Rockies!
Very glad to hear that the Grand Canyon area is not a mountainous drive and I will take our interstate approach carefully into account. I think I can hike major trails - or not, but at least I will be able to determine that and retrace to my comfort zone!
I was born a flatlander , and I am programmed to be a flatlander. I have never experienced car sickness , at least until a trip to Italy that included a car ride up a winding, mountain road in San Marino. I thought it was the wine from the night before that made me feel a bit nauseous. But the next day brought the same experience without any wine…then a few days later, we drove through Switzerland. It was jaw dropping in terms of beauty , but when my husband chose to take us up a very steep, very narrow road …I had a panic attack. That was another first for me…I hyperventilated , cried hysterically . The road was one lane with railings that wouldn’t have helped, had another car come from the other direction. My husband kept asking me if he should turn the car around, but that terrified me even more !
I don’t recall the highway we rode on the way to Zurich , but it was so scenic. The little houses on the sides of steep mountains made me wonder how people could possibly live there and do everyday tasks.
Right? A few friends and I spoke to one of the farmers in Peru who hikes three hours up the mountain to tend to his farm. Walking across campus is a large enough task for me!
@emeraldkity4 just watching them go down the road got my heart racing! I’m petrified of this stuff. The only ride at Disneyland I can not go on is Soaring Over California. The one where you’re just sitting there but it gives you the sense that you’re flying over landscape high in the sky. I literally had flop sweat on my hands, they were slippery and I was holding the edge of the seat handles for dear life and fearful I was going to fall. It’s a brain thing. You’re not even moving. You’re 5 feet off the ground. It was the worst experience ever.
And that video never showed how they passed another car.
There are people in my family that have 'drop off issues'. I know this sounds strange, but I found having them chew gum and look to the non drop off side helps a lot when hiking up mountains. In planes sitting not next to the window helped. On driving a mountain, I almost never put on the brakes and use instead D3,2,1 mode which helps feel in control if no stick shift is available.
I spent a long July 4th weekend in western North Carolina, combating my fear of heights. I signed the family up for rock climbing (ironically, I love climbing despite my fear), not knowing the route to the climbing place. Ugh. A good 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes, of narrow dirt switchbacks up a mountain with our guide driving his truck ahead of us (“you have a subaru, you’re good to go, just follow me”). I whimpered the entire way up and the entire way down. Down is always worse for me.
I agree with @rockymtnhigh, I do much better when I look at the NON-drop off side of the mountain switchback.
I am not acrophobic and I drive everywhere, including numerous 2,000 mile drives to our vacation home. However, when I drove our rental car down the famous coast road at Amalfi Coast, I was quite scared. That was not just the driving and the height - the local drivers are quite reckless and you never know what to expect from them. If you want to experience Amalfi Coast, I would travel by boats. Better yet, visit the the Cinque Terre - same beautiful scenery and nature, but much less crowded and overdeveloped.
I love that soaring over California ride! I went on it over and over. I guess I was okay because I knew it was total fiction. And when they spray the orange scent at you while you are cruising over the orange grove, total heaven.
Yeah, I invented the gum thing when we were climbing Huayna Piccu in Peru and all of sudden it hit him. I used the gum as a distraction, he faced the inside of the mountain and went on- we have used this same thing when on a plane and on another hike- I think it is a physical distraction that makes you concentrate on something else and calming- I now carry gum with me for this reason and it is sugarless.
I have a reoccurring dream about driving over a very long , very high bridge , totally by accident. It is too steep and like Donna said, it seems like the car is just going to flip over backwards. The road in Switzerland gave me anxiety because I felt so uncomfortable and vulnerable. The further we climbed the worse it was. Even when we got back to the bottom ( after turning around in a carved out piece of rock ) I still felt anxious seeing a bus do the same thing. We drove earlier through a very long tunnel and I know that can also bother some people…not me, I was on the ground
You have an incredible poker face, then based on our lovely tour of Mt. Rainier!
We have a trip planned to Vancouver/Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula planned for late August. I am absolutely TORN about a road (Deer Park Road) on the Olympic Peninsula that I desperately want to take because the view is supposed to be unsurpassed. Here’s one description from Trip Advisor:
Every time I read this description, I ask myself if I can really do this, but then I read how incredible the view is, and all I can think is, “I really, really want to experience this.” I have a feeling we’ll be making a decision on whether or not to do this drive once we get there and I decide how brave I can be. I really, really want to do it, but I just might get sick getting up there. All I can think of is, there are views there that I won’t be able to see from anywhere else.
Lol, Teri! As long as I’m not the one driving, and there is a good company to distract me, I can keep that poker face! Remember the rocky canyon with the little stream on the bottom? Looking down that crevasse is the ultimate torture.
OP, I felt that same way on a road in Kings Canyon Park in California a few years ago. I’m not normally afraid of heights and probably haven’t driven in such extreme mountain situations before, even did okay on the Going to the Sun Rd in Glacier Park Montana (though didn’t love it). The drop and the huge granite walls rising straight up on the other side made me feel almost sick. We turned back after about 15 miles. Just FYI, I hear hypnotherapy is helpful with airplane phobia and maybe this would be similar - but I’d probably just opt for avoidance, myself.
Ruthie - Kings Canyon Park was actually the place I realized the extent of my aversion. Years ago before Hubby, I vacationed with a couple girlfriends. They didn’t get nervous at all, but I was having panic attacks. No more limiting the phobia to childhood family vacations in Colorado and hoping I’d grow out of it! That’s also when I figured out that I can manage better if I am driving. My girlfriends were quite supportive - unlike my birth family who undoubtedly didn’t believe my feelings were real!
I hated mountain driving – not only the drop offs freaked me out, but just going up a very steep hill. I was convinced the car would just roll backwards.
Driving in parts of San Francisco was agony. I once caused a bit of a traffic back up when I panicked on top of a particularly steep hill with a stop sign at the very top. I couldn’t even see over the hood of the car! I turned the engine off, put on the emergency break and refused to budge, despite the angry honks by drivers behind me. My passenger took over.
I now live in Colorado and… can attest that practice makes, if not perfect, at least tolerable. Which won’t help anyone who doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to practice, but it shows that “the condition” isn’t hopeless.
BTW, I was a passenger on the Amalfi drive. I puked up and down the entire coast. Never again.
Remember the rocky canyon with the little stream on the bottom? Looking down that crevasse is the ultimate torture.