Fear of Driving - Page 2

[Lauren82]

I've had a driving phobia since I first got behind the wheel at 15. It's taken me a lot of baby steps to be able to drive and I still don't do highways or go downtown.

What helps me:

If there is a grocery store that you already drive to comfortably, find another business that is in close proximity and make it your goal to drive there too.

Make sure you know where you are going ahead of time. For me, this means I look stuff up on Google Maps and if I'm particularly nervous, I'll ask DH to show me the easiest way to drive there and we do a test run.

Get a GPS! I don't use mine all of the time but it's nice to know it's there so I can't really get lost.

Keep at it. Keep trying to add new places or areas to drive to. It's taken me almost 5 years to be able to drive to the dang mall but I finally did it.

Know thy back roads and pick times of the day to drive when traffic isn't so heavy.

[AtYourCervices]

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Edited by AtYourCervices - 7/17/11 at 6:54pm

[sapphire_chan]

Go you!!! That's a wonderful start.

I'm sorry you had a panic attack, but I think it's reasonable not to drive at night when you are affected by glare and are nervous.

I don't have a driving phobia, but every time I go a longish period without driving (like 2 weeks) I get nervous and anxious about getting behind the wheel. I used to get nervous getting on the freeway after a while only driving on city streets, but a 50minute one way commute got me past that. So definitely get driving in regularly.

[AutumnAir]

I used to be a confident driver, but then lived abroad for 6 years without driving.  Since moving back and starting to drive again (with kids in the back now!) I'm a lot more nervous.  A lot of what contributed to my nervousness was not being confident about where I was going.  I'd sit at home and try to memorise a map route for ages before driving somewhere because I'm not familiar with the city we're living in.  What helped me immensely was getting a sat-nav system.  It makes me feel much more confident that I can just focus on the road and driving and not always be looking out for my turning or trying to remember the next junction.  And if I happen to go wrong it can put me back on track easily enough.  Might be worth trying.  (((hugs)))