# Anxiety Disorders > Social Anxiety Disorder >  >  Public transportation?

## Yellow

Not sure if this is the right board for it, but i'm guessing a lot of people on this site have trouble taking public transportation much like I do. I don't drive so the few times i do have to go out i'm forced to take the bus and it can be very stressful. I went out to vote today but since no one was around to take it i had to take the bus and nearly had a panic attack due to all the people onboard. I felt sick during the entire journey and refused to take the bus back afterwards so I phoned someone to take me home. Voting itself was already making me anxious and this certainly didn't help my mood at all. :/

How do people with mental illness cope with public transit?

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## Nelly

I hear ya! I'm not terribly fond of public transit as well, especially the crowded subways. I don't like driving either, so I usually have someone chauffeur me around the few times I do go out. It's hard to feel comfortable when surrounded by so many people who are complete strangers.

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## L

This is why I drive

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## Yellow

I'm too anxious to learn how to drive  ::

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## Koalafan

I hate driving just slightly more then taking public transport...me and driving do not get along =/

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## Bear

Walking for me is the better option.

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## Sagan

I totaled my car a couple of years back and now must rely solely on the public bus for transport. It's a heart pounding, fear inducing experience every time.  I always wear headphones so no one tries to talk to me. But there was one occasion where Someone tapped me on the shoulder to ask if they could sit next to me (full bus) I think I jumped put of my seat. Oh and riding at night is really bad because the lights inside the bus reflect on the windows so you can't avoid looking at people by looking out the windows because it's a freakin' mirror

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## CaduceusGUILT

I used to dislike public transit but now I've gotten used to it since it's the easiest way to commute in a big city such as Toronto. I've even gotten to riding on coach alone across the border from Toronto to Detroit. I used to hate buses, but they've become a necessary evil so I've learned to put up with it. 

Driving, on the other hand, is something I still need to get used to. Don't have a license yet. xD

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## billius

I used to be at least somewhat OK with buses, but then circumstance forced me to confront my past and I could force myself to do it no longer. Once I get on the bus i'm fine it's the waiting that does my head in. I'll be buying a motorcycle hopefully within the month

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## brighter

I actually like mass transit as long as it's not crazy busy--the obsessive part of my brain enjoys things like buses and trains and routes and such. I'd say taking transit irritates me more than it makes me anxious.

When I am anxious on transit (it usually happens if I'm stuck on a train or subway and can't get off), I distract myself with calming music of some kind. Aphex Twin has brought me back from the brink of a panic attack more than once.

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## Koalafan

> I actually like mass transit as long as it's not crazy busy--the obsessive part of my brain enjoys things like buses and trains and routes and such. I'd say taking transit irritates me more than it makes me anxious.
> 
> When I am anxious on transit (it usually happens if I'm stuck on a train or subway and can't get off), I distract myself with calming music of some kind. Aphex Twin has brought me back from the brink of a panic attack more than once.



Another Aphex fan!  :Celebrate: 

Being on public transit can be okay if its not crowded. I hate it when the bus is packed and I have to grab on to a railing...that is a situation I really dont like being in =/

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## Member11

> How do people with mental illness cope with public transit?



I quite like taking public transport, I find it relaxing. In fact, riding the train was a very fun time when I was younger.

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## Total Eclipse

Buses = no,no. I feel dizzy and nauseous on them.

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## Otherside

Get on, plug in my IPod headphones, turn them right up to drown everyone out.

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## metamorphosis

Depends on where you live. I catch the 0 down from my house. I can guarantee you at least four of these things will happen on the bus. This is during the day.
a.) Usually there are about three to four homeless drunks and tweakers on the bus.
b.) Some drunk prick will start a verbal argument with anyone who is close to him. Usually threats of getting of at the next stop to go blows.
c.) A teenage mother with two, maybe three kids, usually one on a stroller will have to practically push past the people in front to find a proper place to sit and make room for the stroller
d.) Usually the bus teams with the smell of alcohol and of people who stink from the streets and no shower or bath.
e.) Often it becomes standing room only because the bus has no more seats.
f.) The back of the bus is usually where people talk about buying and selling various drugs.
 And this is midday not midnight. Let me tell you it's a wonderful ride. A middle aged lady cannot even sit on the bus and read a book without some sort of commotion around.
Thats the 0 line that takes me into the heart of Denver. So, yeah there are pockets in areas, where the ride is pretty chill. But if you want to get across town going west to east or south to north. It just gets worse at each stop.

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## IllusionOfHappiness

I ride the bus a lot, but I'm never going to be comfortable on it. The best thing I can do is find a seat closer to the back where I'm not facing anybody. I don't know where to look and it feels unnatural to sit sideways in a moving vehicle.  ::\: 
And music of course helps. I'm SOL if my battery dies, but I'll still keep the noise cancelling earphones in!

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## Lost Control Again

I love trains, given the the chance, i would live on one!  



On the other hand, buses, i fkn hate them!!!

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## minted

I've just started reading a book on the bus/train. If its a good book, it'll keep me distracted and make the ride seem a lot shorter.

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## Misssy

The thing I don't like about the bus is after I just put on a new clean outfit I have to sit on seats that have NEVER been cleaned.

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## Member11

I love trains, riding them when I was younger was so much fun. Thomas, toy trains, the rail museum, model trains... jeez I was really into them. :Ninja:  Either my family nor I drove when I was growing up, so I'm quite relaxed and happy with using public transport. I get very anxious in cars, which is why I haven't bothered to get my license.

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## James

For me driving is the lesser of two evils...I hate public transportation.  I took the bus for a while, years ago, and I'll never do it again.  Something about being crammed into a small space with that many total strangers almost gives me a heart attack.

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## GunnyHighway

> I ride the bus a lot, but I'm never going to be comfortable on it. The best thing I can do is find a seat closer to the back where I'm not facing anybody. I don't know where to look and it feels unnatural to sit sideways in a moving vehicle. 
> And music of course helps. I'm SOL if my battery dies, but I'll still keep the noise cancelling earphones in!



Basically this for me. Without music, transit is living hell. The other thing is that being so ridiculously sick as of late I've been having trouble staying awake on the bus, and I end up drooling or having snot drip from my nose. I feel so embarrassed and just hang my head in shame.  ::(:

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## IllusionOfHappiness

> Basically this for me. Without music, transit is living hell. The other thing is that being so ridiculously sick as of late I've been having trouble staying awake on the bus, and I end up drooling or having snot drip from my nose. I feel so embarrassed and just hang my head in shame.



Oh god the runny-nose-on-bus predicament. D:
I had a ridiculously unhealthy routine where I'd sleep like 3-4hrs and then go to work medicated on top of that. I was basically a zombie, so riding the bus back home I'd nod off a lot. Luckily there weren't many people on it with me in the middle of the day when my shift ended. 

Ps - feel better soon!  :Hug:

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## SyncSolo

I have taken the bus alone a few times, but I had a panic attack when I tried to take a train. I can't do it, maybe I have Siderodromophobia, but it's my social phobia I'm sure. I did somehow manage to pass my driving test a few years ago after a few tries, not that I go very far.

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## pljunkie

I am really nervous about using public transport and I have only used a bus once in my life and hated it.
I usually walk everywhere or get someone I know to drive me.
I am also too nervous to learn how to drive.

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## Keddy

Since I've had access to the car, I haven't needed to use public transportation much. But I really can't stand it. I always feel like people are staring at me, and let me tell you, Boston isn't the friendliest place in the world to be riding public transit in the first place. But when Mom has the car, I do get stuck taking the Red Line (that's our subway system here). Usually I listen to music or read a book to avoid unnecessary social interactions.

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## enfield

i rode the bus today. on the way to school it was uneventful. i took one of the higher up seats and immediately regretted it and continued to regret it at different points in the bus ride. it put me uncomfortably high up, and also made me the most visible person to anyone entering the bus. you'd step in, pay your fare or swipe your card as most people do these days, then look down the bus aisle and see my head sticking up above everyone elses. ugh.

on the way back it was more eventful. an older russian lady got on the bus with three (disabled) people she seemed to be looking after. they were going to the beach as i found out when i got off behind the quartet of them. i wasn't going to beach, i was going to the store, so we went in different directions. but that was the first time i noticed the third invalid she was leading around. i didn't get a look at his face (his hair was long and obscured it) but she helped him off the bus with her hand, so i knew he was with her. on the bus he was silent and i wasn't looking around. the other two i was aware of by the sounds they emitted.  one was an adolescent looking asian girl, i saw the most of her of any of them because she came over and sat next to me to be closer to the russian lady. she kept wailing "mommy' on the bus in distress to her, not really in a loud or hysterical way but it was clearly a call of distress. the russiain lady just said "shh shh" reassuringly but it kept going on, so then finally she moved over next to me. then it became less frequent. 

the last guy i didn't see much of but i heard him. he made these sounds alien sounds from his throat that made me jump a little every time he made one (he made them almost as frequently as the girl wailed "mommy". and oh and i forgot to mention but in addition to the wailing she would occasionally emit bursts of ringing laughter from nowhere, like pure joyous laughter, really some of the most genuine and pure sounding laughter i think i've ever heard, which i thought served as an odd juxtaposition to her distressed wailing). his sounds were very discomforting, louder and much like that you could expect a wild animal to make that was scared or injured, or what a bleating goat might sound like. that's really what it sounded like actually. like the way some of those goats sound in the videos where they make those strange sounds. suffice to say i didn't really get much reading done on the way home.

and also i was thinking a lot about how compassionate the older lady was while i was on the bus, and how noble it is what she does. but of course she's not really wanting recognition for the selfless devotion of her life to take care of these people. she just took that on as her purpose i think. i don't really think she really doubts the meaning of life too much which is good. i want to have a role that can give me peace of mind. i said she took it on as her purpose but i think the purpose is more in the role it gives one than it being for anything larger. so she took it on as her role but her role is her purpose. i want a role that can be my purpose (not an overly complicated role, not anymore complicated than hers), but for that it needs to grant some kind of peace of mind and comfort as well, and any old role ain't going to cut it. i can think of some that would, but they're not nearly as selfless as the one she assumed, but she also didn't really get so much room to pick probably, she just had to do this, so then made it her purpose / role thing to adapt to that obligation, and if im not mistaken the acclimation worked, but who knows, like many other older people, she could be very lonely and i wouldn't know it.

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## Captain Lawrence Oates

I wear sunnies usually because I think everyone is looking at me when they go to sit down, or those guys in the front in the sideways seats may make me uncomfortable.

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