Anxiety Tunnel

Roughly once a week I need to drive out to our Dandenong "satellite" office to see clients, which means driving out through the CityLink roads, and through the tunnels.

Now, in the week I started work, the fatal accident in the Burnley Tunnel happened, and looking back I think I had only ever traveled in one of the Melbourne tunnels once, late at night where there was no other traffic.

So now, I am driving out there, through the scary tunnels with all the trucks and merging, and changing traffic conditions. Now, when I am not driving very much at all, with no car, totally reliant on public transport, and have driven maybe a handful of days over the last two and a half years. Needless to say, not as good and as confident as I used to be!

It's bad enough that the air quality down there is deathly. But does the CityLink control dude need to interrupt radio transmission to announce current conditions, current speed limits, and current lane closures - out of the blue mind you, scared me to swerve the first time!!??

The intimidating trucks, the speed in such a closed environment, and the general darkness down there brings to mind rollarcoaster type experiences, in terms of the anxiety symptoms felt. You are just in for the ride once you have entered, not sure you'll make it through to the end, but you have pretty much committed, so there is no turning back now. You just have to go with it, and hang on tight, heart racing, sweating, and scared, till the light at the end of the tunnel finally arrives, and you are blinded by re-entering the sunshine at the other end.