No Confidence in Driving, or Lost Confidence

To have no confidence in driving is one thing, but driving phobia is something completely different. Occasionally, a phone call will be received at the Ride Drive office from someone asking to complete an advanced driving tuition and on the grounds of having no confidence in driving.

When a request for advanced driving tuition is made as a result of lost confidence in driving, that demands a more different series of questions to be asked.

People don’t just arrive at a point in life where they have gone from a confident driver to no confidence in driving. At least not without experiences some event to change their life as a driver. Don’t think there has been a road traffic collision involved, as this is seldom the case.

Dislike of Motorway Driving

When speaking to someone who says they have gone from being a confident driver to having no confidence in driving, especially when it is a case of lost confidence in driving, we need to learn if this is perhaps the beginnings of driving anxiety disorder – driving phobia.

Driving phobia is a very common psychological condition, but no one can put a figure on how many drivers this affects. However, it is responsible for a lot of people developing a fear of motorways.

People who have developed driving phobia or an anxiety disorder associated with driving will naturally be very defensive. Therefore, it is what they don’t say, more so than what they do say, that will sometimes give the clues. It depends at what stage in the development of driving phobia. At the beginning the individual may well be in denial, thinking they are only experiencing lost confidence in driving.

Asking what types of road driving environments
are involved is a good start point.

Fear of motorways can be a tell–tale signal of a condition of driving phobia, but should not to be treated as evidence of driving phobia on its own. After all, there are many people who can say they have a fear of motorways, but do not have driving phobia. Fear of motorways, in a more benign sense, if often born out of inadequate driver training and therefore a developed sense of inadequacy.

Surveys have shown that 56% of women, for example, will try to avoid driving on motorways, but what that doesn’t tell us is how many of them are motorway phobia cases? It is probable that very few of that 56% will be driving phobia cases, as those who genuine have driving phobia will not readily admit to their condition.

Inadequate training that brings about a sense of incompetence, creating a lack of confidence in driving can, if the right pressures are there, initiate driving phobia. It is therefore important for anyone who feels inadequate driving on motorways, or other roads, to seek out some advanced driver tuition. This may well prevent the onset of driving phobia.

It is normal for people who experience driving anxiety to hide it. They become quite skilful at doing so; being devious in their methods. This behaviour is largely driven by sheer embarrassment, this being one of the main obstructive issues to getting out of driving phobia.

Putting up a façade, and so appearing to the outside world that all is normal, becomes very stressful. Driving phobia feeds from stress, and indeed stress is where it begins, so hiding ends up actually feeding it.

Other Road Environments Linked to Driving Phobia

A fear of driving over bridges is another common symptom, and driving over elevated sections of road. But this complaint doesn’t necessarily have to be present to fit the profile of driving phobia. Actually, to be clear, when referring to fear, the term abject terror is probably a more accurate calibration mark. Fear of driving over bridges is a big one and driving on hills may also be involved.

If there is evidence of a fear of driving over bridges, as well as the fear of motorways, it is highly likely the person is a driving anxiety or driving phobia case. This will not just be a nervous driver, or someone who has developed into a situation where they have no confidence in driving. This is a very different situation to that of poor training causing lost confidence in driving.

For someone to have abject fear of driving on motorways, as well as driving over bridges and elevated section of road, and if there are other linked factors involved, we will be dealing with driving phobia.

Traffic Phobia

Driving phobia isn’t peculiar to the UK. No indeed, driving anxiety and motorway phobia affects people the world over. In the US it is referred to as traffic phobia, but it means much the same thing. However, traffic phobia suggests you could have a problem whilst walking the street. Traffic phobia, however, doesn’t exactly imply driving a car is involved.

If the Americans want to call it, traffic phobia, who has the right to say it should be anything else. As long as all those involved understand what is being talked about that is fine. There may well be people who have traffic phobia, in that they can’t walk the street as they have a fear of moving vehicles, but that is not what we deal with.

Overcome Driving Phobia – We Don’t Have All The Answers

Being scared of driving, whether that be driving over bridges or a fear of driving on motorways, driving anxiety in any road environment is a serious issue. Whilst we at Ride Drive do not pretend to have all the answers to your driving phobia, we do understand it. Every case we deal with we learn that little bit more, but no one can ever know everything.

Anyone who pronounces they know all there is to know about driving phobia, or about the behaviour of the anxious driver, is someone who probably knows very little. If you know anything at all about driving anxiety cases you will know that whilst there are many basic similarities, person to person, everyone is actually different in their own way.

From a confident go anywhere and so anything driver to no confidence in driving, something else is going on. That something, 99% of the time, will be driving phobia.

(Please note that people who develop driving phobia do not have to develop a fear of driving on motorways. There are many variations in the way driving phobia reveals itself, but fear of driving on motorways is by far the most common.)

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This page was last updated
Saturday, 29-Jan-2011

Driving Phobia – No Confidence In Driving