Do you hate red lights? Can't stand the feeling of cars backed up behind you? Do you dread traffic jams? Are you afraid others are judging you when you drive? Do you hate city driving but love going on road trips? It's easy to assume it's all due to driving phobia. But if you answered "yes" to more than one of these questions, it's possible the cause is actually social anxiety.Use the lists below to find out if it's really driving that's getting under your skin. You may be surprised to learn it's not driving, it's your fellow drivers.
A Few Problems with Just Assuming You Have Driving Phobia.You HATE having cars back up behind you at red lights: Having a bunch of vehicles behind you is very stressful. Who wouldn't feel stressed out? You dread traffic jams: Any normal person dislikes driving in heavy traffic. Having to deal with all those cars in close proximity makes you crazy! You think other drivers judge your driving skills: Look, we live in a very competitive society where we're judged on performance. It's natural that the skills we display behind the wheel will also be judged.
Tell yourself.I trust that life supports me. I am safe. The truth is, you are safe. Driving is an everyday activity that untold millions engage in without incident. The thing that makes you feel anxious is the belief you're in danger. You're really, really not.I am solutions oriented. Driving anxiety disorder is solvable. One of the main reasons people become more and more afraid of driving is because they see it as an intractable problem with no real solution. This is false. This disorder is very treatable - IF you're willing to change your belief that it's not. That's the starting point for all therapies: the belief that change really is possible. I take charge of my emotions, my desires and my abilities. You've gotten in the habit of letting fear take charge of you instead of the other way around. I know the fear feels big and unmanageable. That's perfectly OK. It's still just a feeling, YOUR feeling. It's a feeling that belongs to you. You don't belong to it.I'm confident. I know I will solve my problems successfully. Confidence is simply the belief you can do something. The more you believe you can do it, the more likely you are to do just that. Confidence starts with belief. Beliefs are just thoughts, and affirmations are an effective way to start changing them.
I live in the present moment and I'm confident of the future. All anxiety disorders, including fear of driving, are about what "might happen" in the future. The reality is, whatever you're afraid of ISN'T happening right now. In this moment, right now, you're OK. What you're really afraid of is that you won't be OK in the near future. Take your focus off the future and put it back in the present where it belongs. The future is just the present that hasn't happened yet, and it's going to be fine.I face difficult situations with courage and conviction. I always find a way out of such situations. There's no doubt that facing driving anxiety requires a great deal of courage. Something else that's not in doubt is that you've faced difficult situations before and gotten through them. There's lots of evidence in your life that you've somehow found your way through hard things. I mean, you've gotten this far, right? You'll work through your fear of driving too.Today, I'm willing to fail in order to succeed. This may sound strange, but failure is not something to be feared, but accepted as an inevitable part of learning new behavior. You can pretty much count on it. You're going to have to get comfortable with (or at least tolerate) failure in order to eventually succeed. You simply cannot learn to do something new and difficult without doing it wrong sometimes. Just remember that the only real failure is choosing to do nothing.
These will probably feel strange at first because you're arguing with your negative, irrational thoughts and you won't believe the new things you're telling yourself. Remember that repetition is a key part of success for affirmations.Repeating healthy, life-affirming thoughts has a hypnotic, mantra-like calming and soothing effect that will eventually change how you feel. Say these affirmations to yourself (out loud, if possible) whenever you experience driving anxiety. They have a cumulative effect which may not seem like much at first, but it will lead to surprisingly positive changes over time.You're nearing the onramp. Suddenly, you notice a constriction in your chest. Driving up the ramp, you feel a rush of fear as adrenaline surges through you. It's like being on a rollercoaster; the sweaty, dizzy feeling as the chain drags the coaster to the top of that first monster drop. Except being scared on a rollercoaster is kind of fun. Feeling scared when you're accelerating, trying to merge safely into the steel river of traffic looming in front of you...NOT fun. Not fun at all.
Driving phobia is a complicated problem and it can even limit a persons daily activities. Due to this, it is worth concentrating on dealing with your fear of driving. There are a number of ways to do this. It's probably best to start by identifying the origin of the fear as this process can then offer ideas on how to proceed with reducing your phobia. Some alternatives to overcome the fear include self help programs, some forms of therapy, driver training, hypnosis as well as medication in other cases.
Merging. Merging into traffic at freeway speed is very stressful. Even "normal" (aka non-phobic) drivers find their hearts pounding a little. Merging can feel exposed and overwhelming. It feels unsafe because there's too much happening too fast. Lane changes. The combination of speed and traffic makes changing lanes difficult. Also, pushy drivers sometimes monopolize every extra inch of space, making lane changes even harder for less confrontational types. Lateral movement across lanes takes skill and a certain amount of aggression. This is tough with driving phobia.Passing or overtaking. Going around other vehicles at high speed is nerve-racking because you're so close to other large, moving objects. It's especially bad passing trucks or other big vehicles. Passing feels exposed and claustrophobic too.Feeling trapped. Driving phobia is a manifestation of agoraphobia, which "clusters" around social interactions where exit or escape is difficult. Like sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, or driving over a bridge where pulling over isn't possible. Any experience of close quarters with other people and no "fast out" can trigger panic. Crowded freeways are a prime candidate.
One option, of course, is to just avoid freeways altogether. But what if you live in a densely populated area? Many people live in places where freeway driving is a fact of life. Some have reported driving an extra 2 hours a day to avoid them, but this is not a viable solution for most people.So what can you do to overcome or reduce your fear of driving on freeways? Are there viable options out there? 5 Effective Treatment Options Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Generally considered the most effective for phobia, CBT helps you identify factors which contribute to your anxiety. It shows how your thoughts contribute to the problem, and how to change destructive thinking. It also helps reduce or stop unwanted, anxious behavior patterns.
A very effective way of approaching driving anxiety is to examine your mindset going into your "trigger" situations. A trigger situation may be a certain street, bridge, highway, etc. where you tend to feel most anxious. Going into these trigger situations, anxious and panicked drivers often convince themselves they will have a panic attack.These types of thoughts tend to defeat any attempted efforts being made to help yourself with driving anxiety. Someone who has a strong desire to be able to drive comfortably will never achieve that state of mind when they are preparing to panic in certain situations.
Self-Help. Many, MANY resources are available. Evaluate your options carefully here, and proceed with caution. If you're brand-new to this world, you may want to start with professional therapy. It takes familiarity with effective treatment to accurately evaluate the quality of self-help resources. Not all are created equal, and not all have your best interests in mind.Medication. Sometimes anxiety is so intense it must be chemically reduced before other options can be explored. Medication is not an effective long-term strategy for driving phobia. It should be combined with other methods for more successful recovery. Always seek medical advice from a qualified professional like a doctor or psychiatrist. NEVER buy anti-anxiety medication from potentially dangerous sources like so-called "generic drug" websites.You don't have to live like this. And you don't have to continue avoiding freeways either. Your condition is highly treatable - it's just a matter of finding the options that work best for you.Next time your heart starts pounding as you approach an onramp, make a vow to get help for this crippling problem. When the day comes where you're driving easily down a freeway, WITHOUT fear, you'll be really glad you did.
[Driving Anxiety]
A Few Problems with Just Assuming You Have Driving Phobia.You HATE having cars back up behind you at red lights: Having a bunch of vehicles behind you is very stressful. Who wouldn't feel stressed out? You dread traffic jams: Any normal person dislikes driving in heavy traffic. Having to deal with all those cars in close proximity makes you crazy! You think other drivers judge your driving skills: Look, we live in a very competitive society where we're judged on performance. It's natural that the skills we display behind the wheel will also be judged.
Tell yourself.I trust that life supports me. I am safe. The truth is, you are safe. Driving is an everyday activity that untold millions engage in without incident. The thing that makes you feel anxious is the belief you're in danger. You're really, really not.I am solutions oriented. Driving anxiety disorder is solvable. One of the main reasons people become more and more afraid of driving is because they see it as an intractable problem with no real solution. This is false. This disorder is very treatable - IF you're willing to change your belief that it's not. That's the starting point for all therapies: the belief that change really is possible. I take charge of my emotions, my desires and my abilities. You've gotten in the habit of letting fear take charge of you instead of the other way around. I know the fear feels big and unmanageable. That's perfectly OK. It's still just a feeling, YOUR feeling. It's a feeling that belongs to you. You don't belong to it.I'm confident. I know I will solve my problems successfully. Confidence is simply the belief you can do something. The more you believe you can do it, the more likely you are to do just that. Confidence starts with belief. Beliefs are just thoughts, and affirmations are an effective way to start changing them.
I live in the present moment and I'm confident of the future. All anxiety disorders, including fear of driving, are about what "might happen" in the future. The reality is, whatever you're afraid of ISN'T happening right now. In this moment, right now, you're OK. What you're really afraid of is that you won't be OK in the near future. Take your focus off the future and put it back in the present where it belongs. The future is just the present that hasn't happened yet, and it's going to be fine.I face difficult situations with courage and conviction. I always find a way out of such situations. There's no doubt that facing driving anxiety requires a great deal of courage. Something else that's not in doubt is that you've faced difficult situations before and gotten through them. There's lots of evidence in your life that you've somehow found your way through hard things. I mean, you've gotten this far, right? You'll work through your fear of driving too.Today, I'm willing to fail in order to succeed. This may sound strange, but failure is not something to be feared, but accepted as an inevitable part of learning new behavior. You can pretty much count on it. You're going to have to get comfortable with (or at least tolerate) failure in order to eventually succeed. You simply cannot learn to do something new and difficult without doing it wrong sometimes. Just remember that the only real failure is choosing to do nothing.
These will probably feel strange at first because you're arguing with your negative, irrational thoughts and you won't believe the new things you're telling yourself. Remember that repetition is a key part of success for affirmations.Repeating healthy, life-affirming thoughts has a hypnotic, mantra-like calming and soothing effect that will eventually change how you feel. Say these affirmations to yourself (out loud, if possible) whenever you experience driving anxiety. They have a cumulative effect which may not seem like much at first, but it will lead to surprisingly positive changes over time.You're nearing the onramp. Suddenly, you notice a constriction in your chest. Driving up the ramp, you feel a rush of fear as adrenaline surges through you. It's like being on a rollercoaster; the sweaty, dizzy feeling as the chain drags the coaster to the top of that first monster drop. Except being scared on a rollercoaster is kind of fun. Feeling scared when you're accelerating, trying to merge safely into the steel river of traffic looming in front of you...NOT fun. Not fun at all.
Driving phobia is a complicated problem and it can even limit a persons daily activities. Due to this, it is worth concentrating on dealing with your fear of driving. There are a number of ways to do this. It's probably best to start by identifying the origin of the fear as this process can then offer ideas on how to proceed with reducing your phobia. Some alternatives to overcome the fear include self help programs, some forms of therapy, driver training, hypnosis as well as medication in other cases.
Merging. Merging into traffic at freeway speed is very stressful. Even "normal" (aka non-phobic) drivers find their hearts pounding a little. Merging can feel exposed and overwhelming. It feels unsafe because there's too much happening too fast. Lane changes. The combination of speed and traffic makes changing lanes difficult. Also, pushy drivers sometimes monopolize every extra inch of space, making lane changes even harder for less confrontational types. Lateral movement across lanes takes skill and a certain amount of aggression. This is tough with driving phobia.Passing or overtaking. Going around other vehicles at high speed is nerve-racking because you're so close to other large, moving objects. It's especially bad passing trucks or other big vehicles. Passing feels exposed and claustrophobic too.Feeling trapped. Driving phobia is a manifestation of agoraphobia, which "clusters" around social interactions where exit or escape is difficult. Like sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, or driving over a bridge where pulling over isn't possible. Any experience of close quarters with other people and no "fast out" can trigger panic. Crowded freeways are a prime candidate.
One option, of course, is to just avoid freeways altogether. But what if you live in a densely populated area? Many people live in places where freeway driving is a fact of life. Some have reported driving an extra 2 hours a day to avoid them, but this is not a viable solution for most people.So what can you do to overcome or reduce your fear of driving on freeways? Are there viable options out there? 5 Effective Treatment Options Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Generally considered the most effective for phobia, CBT helps you identify factors which contribute to your anxiety. It shows how your thoughts contribute to the problem, and how to change destructive thinking. It also helps reduce or stop unwanted, anxious behavior patterns.
A very effective way of approaching driving anxiety is to examine your mindset going into your "trigger" situations. A trigger situation may be a certain street, bridge, highway, etc. where you tend to feel most anxious. Going into these trigger situations, anxious and panicked drivers often convince themselves they will have a panic attack.These types of thoughts tend to defeat any attempted efforts being made to help yourself with driving anxiety. Someone who has a strong desire to be able to drive comfortably will never achieve that state of mind when they are preparing to panic in certain situations.
Self-Help. Many, MANY resources are available. Evaluate your options carefully here, and proceed with caution. If you're brand-new to this world, you may want to start with professional therapy. It takes familiarity with effective treatment to accurately evaluate the quality of self-help resources. Not all are created equal, and not all have your best interests in mind.Medication. Sometimes anxiety is so intense it must be chemically reduced before other options can be explored. Medication is not an effective long-term strategy for driving phobia. It should be combined with other methods for more successful recovery. Always seek medical advice from a qualified professional like a doctor or psychiatrist. NEVER buy anti-anxiety medication from potentially dangerous sources like so-called "generic drug" websites.You don't have to live like this. And you don't have to continue avoiding freeways either. Your condition is highly treatable - it's just a matter of finding the options that work best for you.Next time your heart starts pounding as you approach an onramp, make a vow to get help for this crippling problem. When the day comes where you're driving easily down a freeway, WITHOUT fear, you'll be really glad you did.
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