Adults with a fear of driving?

BinaryPulsar

I have my license. I have driven a lot. But, I never liked it. It seems I drive less and less these days. I was injured in a car accident (with no seat belts), as a passenger, right before I got my license. Then I was riding my bike as my rehab and a women that could not see well enough to be driving, just drove right into me. My body and head bounced all across her car and across the street, and she almost ran over my head. I wasn't wearing a helmet, no one had ever taught me to wear a helmet. But, I did start wearing helmets after that. I was also in two other (less serious) car accidents and another bike accident (broken bones from that). I do feel worried about driving. And I do not even consider those car accidents to be "traumatic" in comparison to the other trauma I experience growing up (which was much much worse and much much more traumatic). I have ptsd and one of the symptoms is that when I am under stress my eye will blink and I have trouble controlling it. And honestly that is one of the reasons I don't feel safe driving right now because it has recently gotten worse (I am working on it, with stress reduction and relaxation).

My husband did not get his license until he was 24. He is a physicist and wanted to invent a car that did not need a combustion engine (he works in alternative energy development). But, I told him he needed to get a license because I couldn't do all the driving (especially when we were in New York City, we lived in New York at the time).

ladymiseryali

And I thought I was the only one who is afraid to drive. I'm 28. I got my permit when I was 18, even took extra driving lessons over the summer. But I can't shake the anxiety I got behind the wheel though. I don't know if I ever will......

Sapporo

I'm 36 and have my beginners for the 3rd time in my life, have never completed a road test to get my full license. I'm also scared to drive. I'm a space cadet, always out to lunch and not paying attention so I find driving nerve wracking, I get all tense and don't feel in control. I have only driven once in the last year since I got my beginners again.
Luckily I live somewhere with good transit so I don't need to drive.

MsEmmy

I'm 42 and only took my driving test when I was 31. i put it off for years because I just didn't want the responsibility, especially with my kids in the back. But then I got a new job and, time-wise, taking the kids to school on the bus (we don't have proper school buses in the UK) wasn't practical so I had to bite the bullet and learn to drive. I hated every second of my driving lessons. I used to pray that the instructor would cancel. I couldn't sleep the night before. It was torture to me (not only driving, but being watched by someone else.)
However, when I passed my test I was so proud of myself. It's one of the biggest challenges I've overcome. I still don't like driving on motorways (it's better now I have a safer car but in my old one if I'd been hit I would've been a goner.) I am a confident and safe driver now, not too slow, not a speeder and I love the freedom I have to go where I want, when I want and be independent. I can pile my dogs in the car and take them somewhere nice for a walk, go shopping without having to wait til my husband wants to go, decide to go to the cinema with my sons at the last minute. I even started my own business which I wouldn't have been able to do if I didn't drive.

It is a weird thing to learn. It requires different skills to those we normally use when we learn something new so you often find that the more academic people can have a bigger fear of learning. I have a friend the same age as me and I don't think she will ever take her test despite holding a learner's license and having lessons for 15 years - she has never failed anything in her life and I think she is scared of failure. Take it from me, it does get easier as you get more experience and after a few months you don't think anything of jumping in the car to go somewhere :flowerforyou:

jpuderbaugh

And I thought I was bad with my fear of driving into the city or driving where I don't know the route by heart. I, as someone else said on here, am much more afraid of someone else driving me than me driving myself. You can't control how well someone else pays attention, and lots of people like to look around as they drive. This drives me crazy. Watch the freaking road, not the stupid building on the side of the road!

I started driving short distances and around my grandfathers fields at 13. I'm a truck drivers daughter and the granddaughter of a farmer, I basically grew up driving.

JusticeGirl25

I do have a fear of driving during winter weather. That is always tough.

BflSaberfan

I'm 42 and only took my driving test when I was 31. i put it off for years because I just didn't want the responsibility, especially with my kids in the back. But then I got a new job and, time-wise, taking the kids to school on the bus (we don't have proper school buses in the UK) wasn't practical so I had to bite the bullet and learn to drive. I hated every second of my driving lessons. I used to pray that the instructor would cancel. I couldn't sleep the night before. It was torture to me (not only driving, but being watched by someone else.)
However, when I passed my test I was so proud of myself. It's one of the biggest challenges I've overcome. I still don't like driving on motorways (it's better now I have a safer car but in my old one if I'd been hit I would've been a goner.) I am a confident and safe driver now, not too slow, not a speeder and I love the freedom I have to go where I want, when I want and be independent. I can pile my dogs in the car and take them somewhere nice for a walk, go shopping without having to wait til my husband wants to go, decide to go to the cinema with my sons at the last minute. I even started my own business which I wouldn't have been able to do if I didn't drive.

It is a weird thing to learn. It requires different skills to those we normally use when we learn something new so you often find that the more academic people can have a bigger fear of learning. I have a friend the same age as me and I don't think she will ever take her test despite holding a learner's license and having lessons for 15 years - she has never failed anything in her life and I think she is scared of failure. Take it from me, it does get easier as you get more experience and after a few months you don't think anything of jumping in the car to go somewhere :flowerforyou:

Very interesting you say that. I did go see a professional and he asked if I had been a straight A student and if I was a control freak (yes and yes) he kind of laughed and said typically people who have a fear of driving are ones that NEED to have control, driving I realize I wont always be the one in control and will constantly have to try and determine what others are doing or going to do. His best advice was to just go and do it. That was 4 years ago. lol

I am afraid of parking lots too but I wont have to worry about that too much if I am just getting myself to and from work. I am also afraid of pulling up to the gas pump =( well I do feel so much better realizing I am not the only adult out there with this fear. I get made fun of quite a bit for it (mostly by my step dad). I'm not a sensitive person but it can bring me almost to tears because he doesn't understand.