THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 12, 1995 TAG: 9507120487
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Summer conjures up images of picnics, the beach and car trip vacations.
For millions of Americans, however, it elicits panic.
Travel industry experts predict a record-breaking vacation season with Americans taking 230 million trips of 100 miles or more, but people with panic disorder will have a hard time going even a few miles from home this summer.
``For people with panic disorder, it's common to develop problems with travel,'' said Dr. Bruce Colburn, a Newport News clinical psychologist who specializes in stress, panic and sleep disorders at Riverside Regional Medical Center.
Thirty percent to 40 percent of all Americans sometimes suffer panic attacks, but only 4 percent experience panic disorder, Colburn said. People with panic disorder not only undergo the attacks, but live in constant fear of them.
Symptoms of a panic attack include a pounding heart, chest pains, breathing difficulty, dizziness or lightheadedness, fear of losing control or of dying, nausea, tingling or numbness and overwhelming terror.
``Whether it's going on a plane trip across country or just down the road to a friend's barbecue, people with panic disorder can have great difficulty traveling because they're afraid they will have a panic attack,'' said Dr. Una McCann, chief of the Unit on Anxiety and Affective Disorders at the National Institute of Mental Health.
Many people suffer panic attacks while driving and then subsequently associate that panic with being in a car, Colburn said.
Many of the patients that he has treated through PanicMasters, his 10-week program, have been afraid of bridges and tunnels, a serious problem in this area, he said.
``If anyone has driving problems, it's usually with bridges and tunnels,'' because they can't pull over and, thus, feel trapped, Colburn said.
Two bridges cited specifically by his patients as sources of consternation have been the Coleman and James River spans.
How does this affect the local tourism industry, which brings in about $2 billion annually?
It's hard to say, said Pat Saylor, a spokesman for Colonial Williamsburg. The majority of the attraction's visitors drive, even if it means just renting a car to drive to Williamsburg from the airport, he said.
``If it keeps them from making the initial call, it would be hard to measure whether it's keeping them away,'' Saylor said. ``I would wonder if someone afraid of traveling would bother to pick up the phone in the first place.
``We try to offer a lot of accommodations to people with disabilities.'' ILLUSTRATION: JOHN EARLE/Staff
Graphic
PANIC ATTACK SYMPTOMS
pounding heart
chest pains
breathing difficulty
dizziness or lightheadedness
fear of losing control or dying
nausea, tingling or numbness
overwhelming terror.
by CNB