Driving anxiety refers to a specific fear of driving a vehicle and affects many people. Driving anxiety can significantly impact your day-to-day life by causing stress and avoidance of driving. Typically, this phobia is an irrational fear that doesn’t stem from traumatic experiences, so it is possible to overcome this anxiety and regain confidence in driving.
In the following guide, we are going to explore different techniques and tips to help overcome driving anxiety.
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Identify the Roots of Your Anxiety
The first thing to do is figure out exactly which aspects of driving trigger your fear response. This could range from having to merge onto highways to getting anxious driving others around. While reflecting on this, begin to isolate if anything in your past contributes to your driving anxiety such as a traumatic event or specific negative experience.
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Gradually Desensitize Yourself
Desensitization involves gradually exposing yourself to whatever you may fear. For driving anxiety, start by driving around in small spurts to slowly increase your confidence. You can drive with a loved one around your neighborhood or even within empty parking lots just to expose yourself to driving again.
Once you feel confident doing this, gradually ramp up the exposure by getting onto normal roads. As you continue driving over a few weeks or months, you’ll start to realize what you’ve been afraid of this entire time has probably been an irrational fear.
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Practice Relaxation Techniques
Relaxation techniques can be very effective if used correctly to combat driving anxiety. While there are some short-term techniques you can start with, incorporating mindfulness into your daily routine is imperative to be able to draw on it during stressful situations.
One technique you can start with is visualizing yourself driving with no problems. Only think of and picture yourself driving confidently. Once you’ve visualized this enough times, you will start to notice a shift in your attitude once you are truly in the situation.
Another relaxation technique to practice is deep breathing. Deep breathing exercises promote mindfulness and a calmer state of mind which will counteract any irrational fear responses you get while driving.
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Find Support
While therapy is typically the first thing you think of when people say support, that is only one option in coping with your driving phobia. You can receive support from close friends and family who want to help you get over your fears.
There are also support groups you can join that share similar people who have the same fears and experiences as yourself. Sharing experiences with eachother or listening to how others are coping with their fears can add additional motivation.
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Become A Better Driver
It’s entirely possibly many of your fears stem from your driving skills themselves. If this is the case, consider enrolling in defensive driving courses voluntarily to boost your confidence on the road. Defensive driving courses go over accident protection as well as anticipating dangerous situations. Knowing how to react during these situations can give you increased self-assurance.
Conquering your driving anxiety and phobia requires consistency and patience with yourself, but you aren’t alone. Many individuals suffer from driving anxiety, but by utilizing the techniques discussed you can start to gradually regain your driving confidence.