JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – NOTE: Joy Purdy opened up last May about her debilitating fear of crossing bridges, and a local psychologist with Baptist Health helped give her the tools she needed to overcome her “High Anxiety.” In the article below she shares her experience in the year since and how the solution worked not only for her but for viewers looking for relief from their own fears.
It was a debilitating and embarrassing fear -- crossing bridges.
In May of 2022, I recorded a video of myself driving over the Mathews Bridge near Downtown Jacksonville.
The experience was so frightening for me, it made me shake and cry. I was convinced I would fall off the bridge at any second.
RELATED: High Anxiety: Joy Purdy overcomes bridge fears
My shallow breathing turned into full-fledged panic, and my heart rate went through the roof as the heart monitor I was wearing showed.
Dr. Janice Pimentel, a local psychologist with Baptist Health, told me about a solution: “Relaxed breathing,” or “diaphragmatic breathing,” which she said can help combat all kinds of stress and anxieties -- from public speaking to PTSD.
She said after a month of practicing, this technique can become your body’s “go-to” fix when anxiety strikes.
I couldn’t believe it worked!
And not just for me, but it has become an answer for so many viewers looking for relief from their own fear of bridges.
People from across the country who have found this story on News4Jax.com have responded through calls to the newsroom, emails and social media messages, sharing how this story has inspired them.
Joe Costello from West Chester, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia wrote:
“Of everything I Googled to help, your story did the most... your piece really makes it clear that there is an effective solution that is consistent, reliable and quite frankly fairly easy to tap into!”
I spoke with him via Zoom to talk about his bridge phobia.
He described his newly found confidence as he continues to practice the relaxed breathing technique. He is now eager to try it over his next trip across some of his area’s largest bridges, like the Commodore Barry Bridge that crosses the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
“I’ll be going over a bridge soon, and I think it’s gonna go fine,” Costello said. “But now I know, ‘hey -- I’ve got something here,’ that if I need to do it to help, I have something.”
To learn how to practice “relaxed” or “diaphragmatic” breathing, Click Here or press play below to take a look at my original story as Pimentel walks me through the exercise both in her office and out on a bridge.