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[Fear of Driving]

Fear of Driving

To suddenly find you can no longer perform what always used to be a simple task, and which you could always do with ease, is at best bewildering. At worst, it is terrifying.

If a fear of driving comes about as result of a sudden episode, e.g. anxiety attack when driving, this is what we call a one-shot learning experience. The motorway panic attack, for example, will teach you to be scared of motorways. Thereafter, every time you try and drive on a motorway, again you have a motorway panic attack. This is what the first anxiety attack when driving on that type of road has taught you.


Motorway Anxiety

To be scared of driving on motorways is the most common form of driving anxiety disorder we see. The fact these roads are big and wide is not insignificant, as it is the open space that is part of the equation. There are animal instincts at work in us all and if we are feeling slightly vulnerable, which how a lot of people can feel driving on a motorway, we will not want o be in an open space. We will want to be near the cover of trees or buildings, for example.

There is also the issue with this type of road that you cannot get off it without reaching an exit first. And everything on there just seems so fast!

Motorway panic attacks are a symptom of the inability to cope with a situation at that time it happens. It represents a moment of despair. It is the sense of not being in control and of more than just the car. It is to feel like you are about to fall off a cliff to your doom and frantically then try to stop that from happening. We hear from many who tell of how they had to dive for the hard shoulder, swerving across three lanes to get there in blind terror. This is the will to survive at its most intense.


No Confidence or Scared of Driving on Motorways?

Motorway anxiety is something that many drivers are dealing with on a regular basis, but this may never become as severe as panic attacks when driving. A survey conducted in 2009 revealed that only just over half of women drivers questioned said they were confidant driving on motorways. Motorway anxiety, it could almost be said, is normal, but anything more severe, such as panic attacks when driving, is something to take more seriously.

This forum has a large number of members who are now scared of driving on motorways, usually due to suffering motorway panic attacks. To learn you are not alone in your fear of driving, whatever the type of road, can be a comfort.

Why not join our driving phobia forum now and make this your first step to overcoming anxiety attacks when driving.

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[Overcome Anxiety When Driving]

Overcome Anxiety When Driving

Driving Anxiety Disorder, or DAD for short, is a label that seems to have been created to put upon the group of people who are quite literally scared of driving. If someone is scared of driving, why do they do it? You might well ask the question, but actually the people who we deal with, and who have a deep fear of driving, are not learners frightened of the test. No, they are fully qualified drivers and most will have been extremely confident drivers - before they developed the fear of driving a car.

For someone to have descended from very confident and capable behind the wheel, to a point whereby they have developed driving phobia, it is easy for the not so well informed to assume there the individual has been involved in a terrifying road collision. This is actually rarely the case, a fact that often leaves those on the outside completely baffled if not slightly frightened to discuss it.


Motorway Fear

Motorway fear is a common form of Driver Anxiety Disorder (DAD), and most will experience their first panic attack on a motorway. Once that first panic attack has happened, thereafter the individual will be scared of driving on a motorway. Those who do try to defy the driving phobia by returning to the motorway do so at their peril.  It is usual to quickly experience another panic attack, further reinforcing the motorway fear.


How to Stop Panic Attacks When Driving

Firstly, understand that every time you have a panic attack when driving, and you will know when it is a real panic attack, you are rooting the phobia even deeper. Therefore, the advice is that whatever road you drive that induces the panic attack, stop driving it.  Stay away and find another route, or you will continue to do yourself more harm.

So, how to stop panic attacks when driving, as a first action, is to stop driving on roads that trigger the driving anxiety disorder. That is not to say you will never drive on those roads again, because you will, but only after you have sought the right help.  Forcing yourself to overcome anxiety when driving, as a method to curing driving phobia, is not a good idea.          


Please join the forum to read more information.  

Jules

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