Highways and panic: when my anxiety has a very specific address

I don't drive on highways. I haven't for years.

It started gradually — a growing discomfort, a tightening feeling, a desperate need to find an exit. And then it became something I couldn't push through. My body would override my rational brain completely: heart racing, breathing wrong, the absolute certainty that I needed to get off the road immediately.

Panic attacks are anxiety's more dramatic expressions, and they are, I've learned, surprisingly common in adults with ADHD. The nervous system that spends all day managing stimulation, regulating attention, and keeping the background hum contained can, in certain situations, simply exceed its capacity.

For me, the highway represents something specific: no control, no escape route, high speed, no margin for error. My brain treats it as a threat even when — especially when — logic insists it isn't.

What I've noticed about my ADHD-linked anxiety in high-pressure situations:

•        It's strongly tied to situations involving loss of control or unpredictability

•        My threat-detection system runs hot even on good days — it doesn't take much to tip into panic

•        The logical part of me knows the situation is fine; the nervous system simply hasn't received the memo

•        Avoidance becomes its own coping strategy, which quietly shrinks the world over time

I used to be ashamed of the highway thing. It seemed like such a specific, irrational fear. But I understand it differently now — it's not irrational. It's a nervous system that has been working very hard for a very long time, and certain situations push it past what it can quietly absorb.

Understanding the source — really understanding it — is the beginning of being able to work with it rather than just around it.

I'm working on the highway. Slowly. In my own time.

The exit ramp will still be there.