So… I got my diver’s license as soon as I turned 18. It was a very stressful period of my life, and I hated everything about driving. They promised me freedom, but I got shackled.
Passing the exam as a nightmare (took me 3 attempts) and even during the lessons the professor saw how horribly tense I was. I got sick just by thinking about the car.
Once I passed, my family decided that I’d get over my fears by forcing me to drive, every single day, for weeks, with the whole family in the car, yelling, mocking me…
I had several panic attacks that were dismissed as lack of maturity, and I stopped driving. It’s been years.
But now I’m going to have to get better at this due to circumstances, and I’m scared.
I feel that I can’t focus on all the elements of the road, I have a very hard time calculating distances because I’m very short (edit: 1’50m, if that is relevant) and barely see above the wheel, I have to move the seat so close to the wheel that I fear that if one day the airbag jumps, I’ll suffocate. My blind spots seem infinite.
My car is automatic, so no stick to worry about.
If you have read all I wrote, I’ll greatly appreciate any advice or encouragement. Thank you
General advice: Forcing it rarely helps. Baby steps!
Driving advice based on the above: Get in your car. Turn the engine on. Move your car a meter forward or back. That’s enough for today.
Then tomorrow (or some other day, no pressure) move it a bit further.
At some point you’ll hopefully be comfortable taking it on the road. Do it in the middle of the night, or some other time with minimal traffic. You don’t have to go far, you just have to experience driving on your own terms.
I hear most anxiety when it comes to driving isn’t so much the act itself, but more to do with other drivers. My idea with the above is to make you at least be comfortable driving on your own, and hopefully you’ll be able to ease into it with the few cars you may encounter.
And just for the record driving in heavy traffic is awful for experienced drivers too.
Huh. I hadn’t thought about simply moving the car a meter forward and back.
Today I’ll spend some time behind the wheel, to see how I feel.
Perhaps tomorrow I’ll do the meter thing! Thanks!
Also, I’m indeed scared of the other drivers. I was a safe driver, but whenever I saw someone on the phone or doing other questionable stuff while driving, my anxiety went off the charts.