Wearing Seatbelts, Essay Example

In the new millennium, driving a car is a part of everyday life while seatbelts should be used for safety. It has been a bad habit for the last 2 years not wearing a seatbelt when driving a car. A few years ago while riding with a friend an accident occurred between two other vehicles. At that time, no serious injury but the car was pinned against the rail with other cars coming very fast. My friend was not able to unfasten the seatbelt after the car was jammed into the rail. She amazingly received minor bruises and injuries but the seatbelt caused most of the damaged. The accident has caused a personal fear to be caught in the vehicle with my seatbelts on but unable to get out of the car.  In the last 2 year, it’s hard not to get nervous or uncomfortable when driving on the highway because the fear of the seatbelt can be overwhelming for the entire trip.

Target Behavior

The behavior that needs to change is not wearing a seatbelt at all times. It is important because highway statistics have shown that wearing a seatbelt saves lives and it’s the law in many states making it mandatory to wear your seatbelt on the highway. It is my goal to change this behavior while consciously putting on the seatbelt everyone time I drive or ride in a vehicle. The behavior is worst when riding with another person because the fear of crashing or riding too fast or riding too slow makes it impossible for others to enjoy the ride because of my fear.

The behavior has to be changed because all my activities outside the home is attached to my ability to drive. The target behavior is to wear my seat belt without getting nervous or worried while driving in traffic. This continue behavior of not wearing a seatbelt can only end with bad circumstances while driving in the city or highway. My goal is to slowly learn new techniques that will keep calm and deal with the trauma from the accident with my friend on the highway. The negative behavior is impacting all phases of my life making me agitated with my friends and family. In addition, my fear level has caused my blood pressure to get higher.

Implications

The seatbelt issue has implications in my daily life because my fear has led to not wanting to do anything that involves driving the car and becoming an introvert that wants to stay in the house. The long-term outlook is not good because I depend on my car to complete simple everyday task such as grocery shopping or just attending church. The bottom line is the driving of the car is about independence not having to depend on anyone to take me anywhere. The inability to wear a seatbelt has other implications such as being ticketed for not wearing anautomobile seatbelt or becoming too paranoid driving with the seatbelt. The distractions may be too much because it requires steady concentration when driving a vehicle. There are other negative implications such as possible putting others at danger because of my fear of hitting them and getting trapped in the seatbelt.  The police department may get involved and the Department of Motor Vehicles because of my condition has gotten worse that the decision might be made to take my driver’s license.

Quality of Life

The quality life has not been good over the last two years while I am searching for avenues to help my phobia since the accident. My friends have become distant because when they want to ride to a function they have to deal with my paranoia about the seatbelts. The simplest task such as riding to the post office can be come nerve racking spoiling my day or just riding to the store for groceries can be an unnerving event. There are people that are afraid to come outside their boundaries of home and they dread going out of the home for anything. My life has change after the accident for the worse because I am no longer out going and ambitious. The quality life is different because the seatbelt issue dominates every waking moment. In life the simple things we do such as freely riding to the local market has been a distant memory of happiness.

Dimensions of Wellness

The first problem with my health was blood pressure rising causing major headaches and chest pains. The anxiety of the phobia of an accident with seatbelts that do not allow me to get out of the car in time before the car is hit.  The fear of driving while wearing a seat belt was already a little annoying before the accident. However, after the accident the drive to the store can turn into a full blown panic attack causing nausea, headaches, and hard to breath. This phobia is destroying my health because now its severe shakes for a few days to claim down from the last driving trip. The phobia makes me a nervous wreck just thinking about driving or a potential trip that must be done to take care of personal things. The last few months my hands have developed a serious sweat and shake when driving or thinking about driving. The family physician indicated that my health is going down and it’s necessary to make a decision to get help quickly or think about not driving anymore.

One of the most important lessons learned is your health and well-being cannot be ignored. The seatbelt phobia can consume your life while worrying about driving or losing license or hiding the illness or planning your next trip without pressure. The distractions allow your health to get worse because your mind is occupied with the disease every day. However, the phobia was a blessing because underlying issues surfaced such as high blood pressure. In my journey, the thought of high blood pressure was never an issues. The doctor indicated it was a blessing in disguise because there was a need to change my eating habits. The seatbelt phobia made me take a second look at my other habits such as overeating, too much sweets and lots of hamburgers and fast food. The best thing that happen was the phobia because my health is improving for the better.

Influencing behavior

The phobia of wearing seatbelts influencing your moods and behaviors every day. The erratic behavior is hard to control because of the stress and the constant thinking about an accident. In the grocery store is does not take much for my behavior to go bad after a nervous drive. I have found under normal circumstances simple situations in the store such as water on the floor or cans falling on the floor never bothered me in the past. However, after the accident any little thing in the store either gets on my nerves or the mood is hostile to the cashier. This phobia has a different range of emotions from sad, happy to nervous to angry because the drive anywhere is a challenge. The most obvious change to my behavior is my attitude towards others when driving because the nervousness makes me a front seat or back seat driver. My friends do not like to ride with me nor let me ride with them because they get flustered with my bad driving behavior.

Changes

The first primary change was finding a way to travel to different destinations without driving or planning the trip with friends to ensure the nervous levels were in check before riding with friends. The best way to get calm before driving was listening to soft music before driving and soft music playing in the vehicle. A friend of mine shared how music can help a person relaxed before doing anything strenuous such as driving with a phobia. In the beginning, the music was just something that made me think about other things. However, after a few days my pressure began to get lower and my ability to wear a seatbelt for a few minutes got better. The next step was learning about positive thinking tapes that help people keep their attitude positive. One the best invest that work for me was the Tony Robbins positive thinking tapes which are packed with positive messages, positive affirmations and positive tips on about keeping your life stress free. The Tony Robbins positive attitudes tapes was the best change in my life and driving with a seatbelt is getting better every day.

Barriers

The barriers to the seatbelt phobia isstressful situation while driving which trigger my stressful problems. The positive thinking works as long as the driving is without any stressful moments such as avoiding a braking vehicle in front of me. The solution of positive attitude tapes help me get in the car and drive without anxiety however, a new problem surfaced when faced with a stressful driving moment.  The second barrier to the seatbelt phobia is my stress is causing my blood pressure to fluctuate depending on the situation while driving.

Resources

The resources being used concerning my phobia is positive attitude tapes and family support. In the begging of this journey my family was not included because of the embarrassment of seatbelt phobia. The success of my overcoming the phobia was based on finally reaching out to my family and friends for help. In addition, using the positive attitude tapes and listening to them in the car and at home.

Conclusion

The final moment that was important for me was driving in traffic during a serious accident without hyperventilating or getting nervous. The family, friends and positive attitude tapes help me overcome a very serious phobia. The one thing that can be learned from this life altering experience is everyone needs help whether it be the family, counselor, friend or positive tapes. The worst thing that people can do is hide the problem while allowing that phobia or problem to consume their lives. We cannot never underestimated the support from a family member that can help build your confidence. A lesson learned never be too proud to reach out or help because a phobia is not a sign of weakness but reaching out to others is an act of courage.