An Introduction to Road Fear, Anxiety & Phobia

To announce at any gathering of people that you are terrified of spiders or snakes always seems somehow socially acceptable. At most social meetings there is a fair bet there will be at least one other person present who will share that same fear. However, to announce a terror of driving on a motorway; well that is certainly a conversation stopper.

When you were first aware things were
not right you probably tried to ignore it

Initially, you might have thought you had simply lost confidence in driving, but then you might have found you became scared of driving on motorways and so stopped using them. In acute cases, and after a pattern of progression, you may have developed to a point where you have became scared of driving altogether.

Perhaps you didn’t get the opportunity of a gradual decline, but experienced a sudden and world–crushing panic attack on the motorway, driving on bridges, or some other road environment. Whatever the case, you not only have become scared of driving, but scared of a panic attack whilst driving, and this has damaged your ability to cope.

Having a Panic Attack When Driving

If you experience intense anxiety when driving, particularly if it is a fear of driving over bridges, driving on hills, or you experience a motorway panic attack, it is most likely that your fear has escalated to a state of driving phobia. This is a situation you cannot readily shake off, and the harder you try to do so the more scared of driving you become.

Driving Phobia is not an official term

The term Driving Phobia is not an official name, but one that is used when referring to a condition whereby people become scared of driving. Sometimes referred to as Road Fear, driving phobia is a totally irrational fear. But for those who experience acute anxiety when driving, especially the panic attack, it is very real — and very frightening.

Is Being Scared of Driving a Sign of Madness?

When people become scared of driving that often wonder if it is a sign of the onset of madness. That is because they feel they are the only one who has a panic attack when driving. Knowing of no one else who experiences anxiety when driving, the behaviour of the phobic driver is to try conceal the problem.

Acute anxiety when driving to the point of phobia is a genuine psychological disorder, but this doesn’t stop the condition being often so badly treated.

Anxiety when driving is not the same
as being scared of mice or spiders

Being scared of driving isn’t the same as a fear of spiders, snakes, mice, rats, being in a lift or being within large groups of people. Therapists often try to deal with being scared of driving in the same way as they would these other examples of phobia, but for the phobic driver that is very wrong.

Think about it. If you had the worst phobia possible concerning rats, for example, and you were locked in a room with some people and a rat, if you completely lost your head in there, how many people with you are likely to die? Put you in charge of a one–tonne steel box travelling at 70mph in a public place, and then you lost your head, would that not have the potential for very different consequences?

The Fear of Losing the Ability to be in Control

A main source of anxiety when driving, for the phobic driver, is the fear of losing control. To be more specific, it is the fear more so of not being in control of the ability to be in control the car. The fear of losing control when at the wheel of a moving car is what makes the phobic driver so scared of driving.

Urges to swerve across the road into the path
of oncoming traffic

This will often be fuelled by urges to swerve across the road into the path of an oncoming vehicle. Although their head will be screaming it is dangerous to do this, the fear is their body will actually disobey them.

As you journey through this website you will find information that will help you to understand why you have developed acute anxiety when driving, and perhaps prone to a panic attack on the motorway. You will also learn what Ride Drive can do to help you get back into your car without being scared of driving it. Perhaps we can help you to move towards a better future with your car.

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This page was last updated
Sunday, 07-Feb-2010

A Panic Attack Driving on a Motorway is a Living Hell