Chronic anxiety is caused, at least in part, by thoughts. Anxious thoughts. Our thoughts are the way we tell ourselves what's "true" about the world. If you suffer from driving anxiety disorder, chances are you believe some things about driving that simply aren't true, and you probably have a bad habit of reinforcing these "truths" via negative self-talk that's always expecting the worst to happen. You're likely afraid of some aspect of driving without really knowing why you fear it. That's a good indicator you're suffering from irrational, distorted thinking.
A Few Problems with Just Assuming You Have Driving Phobia.You HATE having cars back up behind you at red lights: Having a bunch of vehicles behind you is very stressful. Who wouldn't feel stressed out? You dread traffic jams: Any normal person dislikes driving in heavy traffic. Having to deal with all those cars in close proximity makes you crazy! You think other drivers judge your driving skills: Look, we live in a very competitive society where we're judged on performance. It's natural that the skills we display behind the wheel will also be judged.
Tell yourself.I trust that life supports me. I am safe. The truth is, you are safe. Driving is an everyday activity that untold millions engage in without incident. The thing that makes you feel anxious is the belief you're in danger. You're really, really not.I am solutions oriented. Driving anxiety disorder is solvable. One of the main reasons people become more and more afraid of driving is because they see it as an intractable problem with no real solution. This is false. This disorder is very treatable - IF you're willing to change your belief that it's not. That's the starting point for all therapies: the belief that change really is possible. I take charge of my emotions, my desires and my abilities. You've gotten in the habit of letting fear take charge of you instead of the other way around. I know the fear feels big and unmanageable. That's perfectly OK. It's still just a feeling, YOUR feeling. It's a feeling that belongs to you. You don't belong to it.I'm confident. I know I will solve my problems successfully. Confidence is simply the belief you can do something. The more you believe you can do it, the more likely you are to do just that. Confidence starts with belief. Beliefs are just thoughts, and affirmations are an effective way to start changing them.
I live in the present moment and I'm confident of the future. All anxiety disorders, including fear of driving, are about what "might happen" in the future. The reality is, whatever you're afraid of ISN'T happening right now. In this moment, right now, you're OK. What you're really afraid of is that you won't be OK in the near future. Take your focus off the future and put it back in the present where it belongs. The future is just the present that hasn't happened yet, and it's going to be fine.I face difficult situations with courage and conviction. I always find a way out of such situations. There's no doubt that facing driving anxiety requires a great deal of courage. Something else that's not in doubt is that you've faced difficult situations before and gotten through them. There's lots of evidence in your life that you've somehow found your way through hard things. I mean, you've gotten this far, right? You'll work through your fear of driving too.Today, I'm willing to fail in order to succeed. This may sound strange, but failure is not something to be feared, but accepted as an inevitable part of learning new behavior. You can pretty much count on it. You're going to have to get comfortable with (or at least tolerate) failure in order to eventually succeed. You simply cannot learn to do something new and difficult without doing it wrong sometimes. Just remember that the only real failure is choosing to do nothing.
These will probably feel strange at first because you're arguing with your negative, irrational thoughts and you won't believe the new things you're telling yourself. Remember that repetition is a key part of success for affirmations.Repeating healthy, life-affirming thoughts has a hypnotic, mantra-like calming and soothing effect that will eventually change how you feel. Say these affirmations to yourself (out loud, if possible) whenever you experience driving anxiety. They have a cumulative effect which may not seem like much at first, but it will lead to surprisingly positive changes over time.You're nearing the onramp. Suddenly, you notice a constriction in your chest. Driving up the ramp, you feel a rush of fear as adrenaline surges through you. It's like being on a rollercoaster; the sweaty, dizzy feeling as the chain drags the coaster to the top of that first monster drop. Except being scared on a rollercoaster is kind of fun. Feeling scared when you're accelerating, trying to merge safely into the steel river of traffic looming in front of you...NOT fun. Not fun at all.
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. You're one of millions of people gripped by intense fear of driving on freeways, a type of driving phobia.Wikipedia defines a phobia as "persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding". If you have driving phobia, it's probably specific to only a few situations. You may have no problems most of the time, but certain settings trigger powerful sensations of anxiety, panic, and being trapped. Freeways are one of the most common trigger environments.Breaking Down Freeway Fear: What Are You REALLY Afraid Of? It's likely you struggle with one or more of the following:
Merging. Merging into traffic at freeway speed is very stressful. Even "normal" (aka non-phobic) drivers find their hearts pounding a little. Merging can feel exposed and overwhelming. It feels unsafe because there's too much happening too fast. Lane changes. The combination of speed and traffic makes changing lanes difficult. Also, pushy drivers sometimes monopolize every extra inch of space, making lane changes even harder for less confrontational types. Lateral movement across lanes takes skill and a certain amount of aggression. This is tough with driving phobia.Passing or overtaking. Going around other vehicles at high speed is nerve-racking because you're so close to other large, moving objects. It's especially bad passing trucks or other big vehicles. Passing feels exposed and claustrophobic too.Feeling trapped. Driving phobia is a manifestation of agoraphobia, which "clusters" around social interactions where exit or escape is difficult. Like sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, or driving over a bridge where pulling over isn't possible. Any experience of close quarters with other people and no "fast out" can trigger panic. Crowded freeways are a prime candidate.
People who have experienced the symptoms of driving anxiety, and who possibly could have been severely injured due to an accident caused by anxiety, are capable of developing a driving phobia. When one possesses a driving phobia, they may begin to avoid certain highways, streets, intersections, or they may begin to avoid driving altogether. Taking these actions will only further associate driving with the fear and panic in your mind.As with any anxiety, it is possible to treat driving anxiety. Just because you have experienced a bad episode of driving in the past does not mean you are doomed forever in the future.
Driver Training / Coaching. Perhaps your fear is due to feeling that you lack good driving skills. Whether you need to learn how to drive, or just want to brush up your abilities, a good defensive driving course can make you more confident behind the wheel. Hypnotherapy. Common misconceptions about hypnosis are that you're under someone's "spell" and might be manipulated. This is mostly due to stage hypnosis that's used for entertainment. A qualified hypnotherapist treats anxiety by inducing a relaxed state where you learn to change your internal reactions to fear triggers.This also helps you control the physical reactions of anxiety like dizziness and hyperventilation by stimulating the parasympathetic response - your body's built in stress reduction mechanism.
Self-Help. Many, MANY resources are available. Evaluate your options carefully here, and proceed with caution. If you're brand-new to this world, you may want to start with professional therapy. It takes familiarity with effective treatment to accurately evaluate the quality of self-help resources. Not all are created equal, and not all have your best interests in mind.Medication. Sometimes anxiety is so intense it must be chemically reduced before other options can be explored. Medication is not an effective long-term strategy for driving phobia. It should be combined with other methods for more successful recovery. Always seek medical advice from a qualified professional like a doctor or psychiatrist. NEVER buy anti-anxiety medication from potentially dangerous sources like so-called "generic drug" websites.You don't have to live like this. And you don't have to continue avoiding freeways either. Your condition is highly treatable - it's just a matter of finding the options that work best for you.Next time your heart starts pounding as you approach an onramp, make a vow to get help for this crippling problem. When the day comes where you're driving easily down a freeway, WITHOUT fear, you'll be really glad you did.
A Few Problems with Just Assuming You Have Driving Phobia.You HATE having cars back up behind you at red lights: Having a bunch of vehicles behind you is very stressful. Who wouldn't feel stressed out? You dread traffic jams: Any normal person dislikes driving in heavy traffic. Having to deal with all those cars in close proximity makes you crazy! You think other drivers judge your driving skills: Look, we live in a very competitive society where we're judged on performance. It's natural that the skills we display behind the wheel will also be judged.
Tell yourself.I trust that life supports me. I am safe. The truth is, you are safe. Driving is an everyday activity that untold millions engage in without incident. The thing that makes you feel anxious is the belief you're in danger. You're really, really not.I am solutions oriented. Driving anxiety disorder is solvable. One of the main reasons people become more and more afraid of driving is because they see it as an intractable problem with no real solution. This is false. This disorder is very treatable - IF you're willing to change your belief that it's not. That's the starting point for all therapies: the belief that change really is possible. I take charge of my emotions, my desires and my abilities. You've gotten in the habit of letting fear take charge of you instead of the other way around. I know the fear feels big and unmanageable. That's perfectly OK. It's still just a feeling, YOUR feeling. It's a feeling that belongs to you. You don't belong to it.I'm confident. I know I will solve my problems successfully. Confidence is simply the belief you can do something. The more you believe you can do it, the more likely you are to do just that. Confidence starts with belief. Beliefs are just thoughts, and affirmations are an effective way to start changing them.
I live in the present moment and I'm confident of the future. All anxiety disorders, including fear of driving, are about what "might happen" in the future. The reality is, whatever you're afraid of ISN'T happening right now. In this moment, right now, you're OK. What you're really afraid of is that you won't be OK in the near future. Take your focus off the future and put it back in the present where it belongs. The future is just the present that hasn't happened yet, and it's going to be fine.I face difficult situations with courage and conviction. I always find a way out of such situations. There's no doubt that facing driving anxiety requires a great deal of courage. Something else that's not in doubt is that you've faced difficult situations before and gotten through them. There's lots of evidence in your life that you've somehow found your way through hard things. I mean, you've gotten this far, right? You'll work through your fear of driving too.Today, I'm willing to fail in order to succeed. This may sound strange, but failure is not something to be feared, but accepted as an inevitable part of learning new behavior. You can pretty much count on it. You're going to have to get comfortable with (or at least tolerate) failure in order to eventually succeed. You simply cannot learn to do something new and difficult without doing it wrong sometimes. Just remember that the only real failure is choosing to do nothing.
These will probably feel strange at first because you're arguing with your negative, irrational thoughts and you won't believe the new things you're telling yourself. Remember that repetition is a key part of success for affirmations.Repeating healthy, life-affirming thoughts has a hypnotic, mantra-like calming and soothing effect that will eventually change how you feel. Say these affirmations to yourself (out loud, if possible) whenever you experience driving anxiety. They have a cumulative effect which may not seem like much at first, but it will lead to surprisingly positive changes over time.You're nearing the onramp. Suddenly, you notice a constriction in your chest. Driving up the ramp, you feel a rush of fear as adrenaline surges through you. It's like being on a rollercoaster; the sweaty, dizzy feeling as the chain drags the coaster to the top of that first monster drop. Except being scared on a rollercoaster is kind of fun. Feeling scared when you're accelerating, trying to merge safely into the steel river of traffic looming in front of you...NOT fun. Not fun at all.
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. You're one of millions of people gripped by intense fear of driving on freeways, a type of driving phobia.Wikipedia defines a phobia as "persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding". If you have driving phobia, it's probably specific to only a few situations. You may have no problems most of the time, but certain settings trigger powerful sensations of anxiety, panic, and being trapped. Freeways are one of the most common trigger environments.Breaking Down Freeway Fear: What Are You REALLY Afraid Of? It's likely you struggle with one or more of the following:
Merging. Merging into traffic at freeway speed is very stressful. Even "normal" (aka non-phobic) drivers find their hearts pounding a little. Merging can feel exposed and overwhelming. It feels unsafe because there's too much happening too fast. Lane changes. The combination of speed and traffic makes changing lanes difficult. Also, pushy drivers sometimes monopolize every extra inch of space, making lane changes even harder for less confrontational types. Lateral movement across lanes takes skill and a certain amount of aggression. This is tough with driving phobia.Passing or overtaking. Going around other vehicles at high speed is nerve-racking because you're so close to other large, moving objects. It's especially bad passing trucks or other big vehicles. Passing feels exposed and claustrophobic too.Feeling trapped. Driving phobia is a manifestation of agoraphobia, which "clusters" around social interactions where exit or escape is difficult. Like sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, or driving over a bridge where pulling over isn't possible. Any experience of close quarters with other people and no "fast out" can trigger panic. Crowded freeways are a prime candidate.
People who have experienced the symptoms of driving anxiety, and who possibly could have been severely injured due to an accident caused by anxiety, are capable of developing a driving phobia. When one possesses a driving phobia, they may begin to avoid certain highways, streets, intersections, or they may begin to avoid driving altogether. Taking these actions will only further associate driving with the fear and panic in your mind.As with any anxiety, it is possible to treat driving anxiety. Just because you have experienced a bad episode of driving in the past does not mean you are doomed forever in the future.
Driver Training / Coaching. Perhaps your fear is due to feeling that you lack good driving skills. Whether you need to learn how to drive, or just want to brush up your abilities, a good defensive driving course can make you more confident behind the wheel. Hypnotherapy. Common misconceptions about hypnosis are that you're under someone's "spell" and might be manipulated. This is mostly due to stage hypnosis that's used for entertainment. A qualified hypnotherapist treats anxiety by inducing a relaxed state where you learn to change your internal reactions to fear triggers.This also helps you control the physical reactions of anxiety like dizziness and hyperventilation by stimulating the parasympathetic response - your body's built in stress reduction mechanism.
Self-Help. Many, MANY resources are available. Evaluate your options carefully here, and proceed with caution. If you're brand-new to this world, you may want to start with professional therapy. It takes familiarity with effective treatment to accurately evaluate the quality of self-help resources. Not all are created equal, and not all have your best interests in mind.Medication. Sometimes anxiety is so intense it must be chemically reduced before other options can be explored. Medication is not an effective long-term strategy for driving phobia. It should be combined with other methods for more successful recovery. Always seek medical advice from a qualified professional like a doctor or psychiatrist. NEVER buy anti-anxiety medication from potentially dangerous sources like so-called "generic drug" websites.You don't have to live like this. And you don't have to continue avoiding freeways either. Your condition is highly treatable - it's just a matter of finding the options that work best for you.Next time your heart starts pounding as you approach an onramp, make a vow to get help for this crippling problem. When the day comes where you're driving easily down a freeway, WITHOUT fear, you'll be really glad you did.
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