How To Relieve Driving Anxiety

What Is Causing Your Phobia

The fear of driving can have multiple causes, such as having been involved in an accident, dealing with panic attacks and fearing you can have one in traffic, or performance anxiety . Some drivers fear or have been yelled at or provoked while they were learning to driveby unprofessional and uncaring driving instructors. Whether you are afraid you could cause or be involved in an accident or you dread the idea of someone honking their horn at you, there is a solution for any anxious driver.

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Why Is It Important To Reduce Driving Stress

Lowering your stress levels while driving is vital to your health and the health of others.

If you feel stressed every time you get behind the wheel, it can put you at a higher risk for mental health issues like depression and anxiety.

Constant stress raises your cortisol levels, which can have a massively negative impact on your physical well-being.

In addition to harming your mental health, driving stress puts everyone on the road at a higher risk of accident and injury.

A 2020 study looked at stress and its impact on driving performance. Researchers found several significant connections:

• Prior tiredness and sadness strongly impact levels of driving stress
• Stressed drivers, whether the stress comes from an outside element or driving itself, increases the risk of traffic accidents
• Adverse emotions generated dangerous driving behaviors
• Stressed drivers brake and accelerate six times more frequently than non-stressed drivers
• Stressed drivers felt 20% more tired after driving
• Stressed drivers are more likely to speed, cut other drivers off, and fail to stop at crosswalks than non-stressed drivers

Also Check: How Do You Know If You Have An Anxiety Disorder

How To Overcome Panic Attacks Caused By Driving

If you experience panic attacks related to driving, its important to do something to stop them from worsening and having such a big impact on your life.

There are things that you can do – with the right support – to get them under control. Many people find it useful to work through a therapy programme to learn ways to manage their anxiety and panic attacks.

Advice and information often given to people during a therapy programme includes the following:

Keep Driving If You Can Safely Continue

Pushing through the fear that accompanies a panic attack can help you overcome it. Treating panic often involves the realization that however scary they seem, panic attacks dont actually hurt you.

Driving through your panic attack can help you realize it doesnt control you and reassure you that you can manage it without anything bad happening. This may help you feel more able to address a panic attack if you have another one.

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What Can You Do If You Feel Nervous About Driving

When getting back to driving, its important to take it easy and go at your own pace.

The aim is to feel calm about getting into the car in the first place, says Joanne. If you get into the car as a calm person then you have a much greater chance of staying that way than you would if you were getting into the car already feeling stressed and anxious.

Here are some tips to help you remain calm and make your journey run smoothly:

1. Take care of yourself before you even get in the car. Whatever keeps you calm, do more of it, whether that’s yoga, running, meditation or listening to music. Creating a calmer environment will help reduce your stress levels in general. It can also be sensible to avoid caffeine before you drive, as it can trigger anxiety in some people.

To help you relax, try listening to the following session of calm with hypnotherapist Natasha Crowe.

2. Plan ahead. Driving in unfamiliar surroundings can trigger nerves or feelings of anxiety. Try to familiarise yourself with where youre going by using Google Maps to check out the different routes you can take. If you can, try doing a test run with a supportive loved one or at a time when the roads are quieter and you wont feel rushed.

3. Stay local. Make a few local journeys on routes you know well. We feel most at ease when were in familiar surroundings and have previous experience driving there.

Tips For Coping With Panic Attacks

Panic attacks can cause fear and physical symptoms. Its not uncommon to feel like you could die, along with other unpleasant sensations.

You might have a hard time staying calm when you feel dizzy, lightheaded, or cant catch your breath. You may need to pull over and get out of your car right away.

If youre in a safe place, getting out of the car may help you feel less panicked in the moment, but it wont help you address whats causing your panic.

But what do you do if its not safe or possible to pull over and get out of your car? Here are several tips to help you cope with panic attacks while driving:

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Panic Attacks While Driving

Panic attacks are short periods of intense fear that happen unexpectedly. If you have a driving phobia, you are highly likely to have these attacks that may lead to a panic disorder.

Medical professionals can diagnose panic attacks. You will be asked to describe your experiencewhen and where it happened, and what you were doing at that moment. The good news is that panic attacks are treatable.

How To Spot A Nervous Driver

According to Anxiety UK, there are varying degrees of driving phobias. Some people can’t drive on motorways, but are able to cope on A and B roads. Other people fear roundabouts, parallel parking, or being caught in traffic and not being able to ‘escape’.

It’s often the idea of facing an issue like this that fuels driving anxiety.

An anxious driver may display the following behaviours:

Read Also: What Are The Physical Symptoms Of Anxiety

Take A Drivers Training Course

One of the main reasons why people are afraid to drive is because they are new drivers, and they are unsure of their driving skills. This is a really good reason to take a drivers training course.

These courses teach people most of the things they need to know to be good drivers, and students get actual driving time, so they can get some experience being behind the wheel, while backed up by a professional instructor sitting beside them.

Once you have had drivers training, you will find that you do not have the same fears that you once did, because you know how to be prepared for every situation that can pop up when you are on the roads.

How To Treat Driving Anxiety

How to Treat Driving Anxiety

Driving anxiety is an isolating experience that may cause you to feel trapped, helpless and disconnected. It affects a wide range of people, and it is often triggered by a traumatic experience. If you suffer from driving anxiety, know that you are not alone. There are solutions available for you so you can overcome your fear of driving. Read on to learn how to treat driving anxiety.

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Use Your Mind To Overcome Itself

Your mind is more powerful than you may have imagined. Motorphobia is developed in the mind, but you can use the same mind to overcome this fear. While it may sound complex at first, getting inside your mind is not that challenging.

As mentioned above, a significant amount of the fear you feel results from assumptions created in your mind.

Tell Teens That Safe Driving Can Save Money Down The Road

While your teen drivers safety is always your top concern, lets be honest. Youre also worried about finding cheap car insurance for teens. Adding an inexperienced teen driver to your policy can increase your rates anywhere from 20% to 180% depending on your state, according to Trusted Choice, a group of independent insurance agents.

Okay, now that youve recovered from the sticker shock, heres the good news: There are ways you can save.

Over time, as your teen driver gains experience and avoids car accidents and traffic violations, your car insurance rates will go down. It doesnt happen overnight, but rates generally start to go down at age 25. Keeping auto accidents off the teens record will also give you a considerable savings advantage. It pays off to preach safe driving habits.

In the immediate future, there may be other ways you can save. One of the best ways is by asking your auto insurance agent about car insurance discounts. Your teen might qualify for a good student discount or a driver training discount.

Also Check: How To Help With Panic Attacks Anxiety

Better Understand Your Anxiety

Understanding the root causes associated with your driving related anxiety can help you develop the appropriate coping skills to minimize symptoms. Take a moment to retrace your experiences with driving related anxiety by investigating when it began, when it worsened, and what people, places, and things are involved in the process.

Did your parents exhibit signs of driving related anxiety, or did a recent accident trigger these symptoms? Does the anxiety strike all of the time or only when you drive alone?

Perhaps the most important aspect of this is to understand if driving related anxiety is the main problem or a symptom of a larger problem. If the driving issues are linked to PTSD, obsessive-compulsive disorder , or another serious anxiety disorder, professional treatment will be needed to target these larger issues.

Unmanageable Stress And Life Changes

Stress can lead to a number of conditions and ailments when not adequately managed. Stress affects your ability to perform most tasks and generally lowers your confidence in various aspects.

When youre stressed or going through a significant change in life, you could find driving harder and lose faith in your driving skills.

Also Check: How Do Doctors Test For Depression And Anxiety

Situations That Cause Driving Stress

Many situations can cause you to feel stress while driving. Some of the most common stress-inducing circumstances include:

• Another driving cutting you off
• Being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic
• An aggressive driver riding your bumper or starting or stopping in front of you
• A slow driver that wont allow you to pass
• Other cars failure to signal
• Seeing other drivers practicing distracted driving
• Drivers who are speeding or changing lanes erratically
• Feeling pressured to maneuver in unsafe ways by other vehicles
• Feeling lost or being forced to take an unfamiliar detour
• Unexpected stops that result in hard braking
• Parking lot/spot confrontations

Depending on how often you drive, the distance you drive, and the areas you operate in, you may encounter more stressful driving situations than others.

Brutal Truth Method: Name Your Fears

The Brutal Truth Method is basically sharing your fears with someone you trust. In return, they give you a positive perspective when facing your fears. For example, if you are afraid of chickens, a trusted friend points out that its a harmless chicken.

If you are uncomfortable sharing it with someone, you can either write it down in a phobia workbook or make a voice recording. You should be honest with yourself in naming your fear. This is the only way you can step forward from your driving fear.

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Do You Experience Anxiety While Driving

Many people have anxiety when it comes to driving. Some people are afraid of being a passenger in a vehicle. Some people experience anxiety while driving while others may have a panic attack while in a car. Although these situations are all different, there are some commonalities when it comes to driving with anxiety.

1. A Panic Attack While Driving.

One of the most common causes of driver anxiety occurs when a driver has a panic attack while driving a vehicle. Panic attacks can take over your entire mind, making it had to concentrate. If a driver is in a vehicle, their anxiety may be further amplified by the confined quarters of a vehicle. Many drivers who experience anxiety feel that there is no escape once they are in a vehicle.

2. A Dangerous Situation

Driver anxiety can occur as a result of a response to a near miss or bad experience. Further fear in anxious drivers can be exasperated when they see a collision or hear about a bad crash.

Driver anxiety can also build up over time. Continued stress while driving, inclusive of sitting in traffic, seeing crashes and possible near misses and can increase the symptoms of an anxious driver.

Drivers should have a small amount of anxiety when it comes to driving to ensure that they are following the rules of the road. Where fear becomes, a problem is when the stress becomes overwhelming or debilitating. Here are some tips when it comes to reducing and eliminating driver anxiety.

Try To Identify Your Triggers

When something frightens us, its easy to dismiss the parts for the whole. You may find it useful to make a list of what parts of driving are the most frightening to you, in order from most intense to neutral .

Some examples might be:

• steering the car vs. being a passenger
• traveling with others

Once you understand what causes your symptoms, you may be one step closer to managing them.

Recommended Reading: How To Calm Down From An Anxiety Attack

When To Get Professional Help

If your anxiety is severe to the point that it is often stopping you from driving, you may benefit from additional assistance from a professional. This can include seeing your doctor or getting counselling or psychology sessions with a mental health professional. It is paramount that you feel safe when driving. If you feel that your anxiety and having a significant impact on your confidence to drive and overall driving capacity, it may be beneficial to seek professional help. A trusted counsellor or psychologist may be able to help you develop ways to deal with your driving-related anxiety.

Safe Vehicles For Teen Drivers

If youre considering getting your teen a used car, youre in good company. A past survey of parents of teen drivers by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that 83% of parents who bought their teens a car purchased a used vehicle. That survey inspired the IIHS to publish a list of affordable used cars that meet certain safety criteria, like vehicle reliability, performance in braking and emergency-handling tests.

The IIHS has since teamed up with Consumer Reports and put together a list of safe used cars for teens, divided into two tiers: best choices and good choices. The prices range from $6,000 to almost $20,000. You can view the full list here.

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Driving Anxiety: 11 Actionable Steps To Overcome Your Fear

Driving anxiety is common and affects people from all over the world. While driving may seem natural to some people, it can evoke fear, anxiety, and panic in others.

If you experience driving anxiety, the very thought of getting behind the wheel can make you nervous. In some cases, driving anxiety can stem from being in a specific situation like driving through tunnels or bridges.

Driving anxiety can be overcome by receiving professional help from a therapist- Click below to book your appointment.

Spend Time On The Passenger Seat

If youre new to driving or havent driven in some time, being in the drivers seat can be unnerving. To get over these nerves, you can spend some time in the passenger seat and get acclimatized to driving.

When possible, get someone youre comfortable with to drive you around and just watch them.

Watching someone else drive effortlessly will fill you with confidence. Additionally, as youre in the passenger seat, other cars, the road, and driving will seem more natural, which then helps you overcome your nerves.

Start driving anxiety fear treatment with a licensed mental health professional- Click the button below to schedule your appointment.

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Breathe In Breathe Out: How To Cope With Driving Anxiety

It can be common to mistake anxiety for simple stress. And it makes senseâboth can mirror similar symptoms. But they are different, which is why weâre here to help build the conversation around mental health. Weâll bring awareness to driving anxiety and share some ways to reduce anxiety while driving.

Driving anxiety is common

Driving anxiety is just a small piece of the anxiety pie. In research done by The Zebra, they noticed that this type of anxiety occurs most when someone experiences anxious symptoms while driving, getting ready to drive or

even

66 percent of Americans experience driving anxiety, but why? Addressing the why of this phobia can help us better understand the reasons behind the fear or anxiety of driving.

Driving maneuvers

The Zebra data showed that nearly 55 percent of survey participants have the most anxiety while performing basic driving maneuvers such as backing up or reversing, merging, switching lanes, completing a U-turn or passing other vehicles.

The biggest anxiety inducer? Merging onto the highway. With 26 percent of survey participants stating they feel the most anxiety during this driving practice, it doesnât come as a surprise. The U.S. Department of Transportation has stated that a major bottleneck of traffic and safety concerns exists near freeway merges.

Driving-related phobias

• The fear of getting lost

• The fear of being trapped

• The fear of accidents

Prior history of anxiety

Causes Of Driving Anxiety

There are several different types of driving anxiety and thousands of experiences that may lead to panic behind the wheel. Two of the most common causes of driving anxiety include:

• Panic Attack While Driving

One of the most frightening instances of driving anxiety occurs when someone has a panic/anxiety attack while operating a vehicle. Panic attacks overwhelm individuals, because they encompass your entire mind and body, making it difficult to concentrate on anything else. When they come on, it can feel like there is no escape, which is only heightened if this happens when driving. Unfortunately, these events can cause increased anxiety with driving, because of the fear of having another panic attack behind the wheel. If allowed to have these thoughts, people will likely incite another panic attack. These attacks have a way of repeating simply based on the fear of having it again.

• Dangerous Situations

Anxiety also tends to occur as a response to dangerous experiences or perceived dangerous experiences. For example, an accident or several near accidents may promote anxiety of driving. Even hearing about car accidents or seeing them can contribute to that anxiety.

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