Reply To: Fear of cramp and panic attacks whilst driving
Peter BunyanHi Stevie
As a runner myself, also a UKA running coach and POSE Method running coach and having some personal experience with cramps and numbness you have my full support. Not just to get past the fears but get you back to running fully again.
Still more questions before I feel confident of my advice.
How have you used PSTEC so far?
Can you bring on cramps just by thinking of the fear and mentally building it up?
Are the cramps always in the same place or do they move? Where do they occur?
Do you also have “restless leg”syndrome stopping you sleeping?
One thing: Do not stretch! By that I mean static yoga type extended stretching to improve range of movement. What you need is elasticity not flexibility.
Two: If you get cramp then contracting the opposing muscle will relax the cramped one. This is a reflex action outside conscious control. However the cramps quite often come back again so you have to really focus on working the opposing muscle.
You have mentioned several related issues that might need to be worked on.
Fear of loss of control
Anxiety bringing on symptoms
Anxiety that your problems will create a worse situation in the future
Those past experiences.
There seems to be a mix of fear and “fear of fear” which form a positive feedback situation which escalates past a threshold and triggering an incident.
Does any of this sound about right?