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If you’ve ever had a fear of driving, you know how much it affects your daily living. Sure, there are other ways to get around, but those methods aren’t realistic for most people. Luckily there are some actionable steps for how to get over fear of driving!

As a mental health therapist, I constantly have people come into my office (or telehealth) to work on their fear of driving. They are often frustrated and hopeless, because no matter what they do, it seems to just keep getting worse. This post is ALL ABOUT how to get over fear of driving.

Step One: Explore Your Triggers

The fear of driving is different for everyone. Some people are scared to get into a car, whether or not they’re driving. Some people are okay on regular roads, but don’t like freeways. Others are okay driving, but only if there is no traffic or bad weather.

Fear, or anxiety, is a sign that there is something telling your brain you are unsafe. Identifying the threat, or trigger, is an important step in how to get over fear of driving.

Write down a list of the moments, thoughts, or specifics about your fears and you should be able to notice themes pretty quickly.

(Watch this video to better understand anxiety)

Step Two: Discover Where the Fear Came From

If you are able, try and discover where this fear of driving originated. Did you or someone you know have a car accident? Did you have a scary incident while driving? Have you heard messages about driving being unsafe at some point in your life?

Sometimes, the origin might not be so obvious. Often, I have worked with clients who discovered that their fear was tied to something completely unrelated, like a childhood memory.

If you are having trouble discovering the origin, try meditating on it. Imagine how you feel in your body when you think about driving. Do you have any sensations, like tightness in your chest? Close your eyes and focus on those sensations. See if your mind can trace back to other times that you may have felt that way.

This is something that you can try on your own or seek the help of a trained therapist! If you still cannot find the origin, that’s okay, you can still continue on to the next steps.

Step 3: Regulate Your Nervous System

Whenever your anxiety is activated, your brain turns on your sympathetic nervous system, preparing your body to fight the perceived threat. These sensations make sense when you are actually threatened (like if a bear were attacking you) but can be uncomfortable when the threat is something like driving.

Some sensations that you might experience when your sympathetic nervous system is active are a racing heart, tingling or numbness in your arms or legs, upset stomach or nausea, foggy thinking, tunnel vision, feeling hot, shaking, and difficulty breathing. Trying to drive with all that going on seems dangerous!

Before you can make any logical decisions in this moment, it’s important to try and calm your system down. Luckily, there are quite a few tricks to do that! (Click here for 3 Fastest Ways to Calm Anxiety)

The first step would be slow breathing. Fill up your lungs with air (this may feel difficult when you are anxious, but try anyways), and release the air out as slowly as possible. Slow and long out-breaths tell your sympathetic nervous system to calm down, allowing these other symptoms to slowly go away.

Another option is using extreme temperatures, like cold air or ice water, to bring your body back to the present moment. Try bringing a cup of ice water in the car and rubbing the ice on your wrists or neck when you get anxious. You can also try turning the A/C on high and putting your face near the vent (assuming the car is stopped).

Step 4: Self-Talk

Whenever you are feeling anxious, your brain tends to have anxious thoughts. Try to identify these thoughts and look for ways to challenge them. Remember, when you’re anxious, your brain wants to feel safe, so look for self-talk that can send messages of safety.

Some examples of this are: If your anxious thought is, “I’m going to have a panic attack on the road,” you can combat it with, “I have tools to help me calm down,” or “I can always pull over and wait it out.” If your anxiety is being stuck in traffic and feeling trapped, you can tell yourself, “If I REALLY wanted to, I could open my door and walk. I’m not actually trapped.” You can even have a mantra for yourself, for example, “I am safe. I’m okay.”

Another self-talk technique that is common in CBT (cognitive behavior therapy) is to play out the script. Think of the thing you are afraid of, like “I am going to pop a tire on the road,” and then play out the script. If you pop a tire, then what? You will pull over. Then what? You will call someone to come help and go get a new tire. You can do this technique with most fears, which will lead you to discover that you will likely be okay at the end of the script.

Step 5: Safety Plan

Again, anxiety is prompting your body to seek safety. Having a back-up plan for when you are driving, even if you don’t use it, can put your mind at ease.

Examples of safety plans for how to get over fear of driving are:

– Planning a less stressful route
– Knowing where you could pull over if you need to
– Identifying who you could call if you have anxiety (talking to someone you trust can help you feel safe)
– Downloading a calming playlist or podcast to distract you
– Bringing water, gum or even essential oils to have in the car

Using these techniques aren’t necessarily long-term solutions, but they help in the long run when creating corrective experiences, which you’ll read about in the next section!

Step 6: Create Corrective Experiences

The last step for how to get over fear of driving is to create new experiences that tell your brain that driving isn’t scary. Emotions, specifically anxiety, are tied to memories. If you have a bad experience driving, then your brain will categorize that as proof that driving is scary. If you have anxiety driving because you believe it is scary, then your brain will continue to log these experiences under, “Driving is Dangerous.”

The same is true for the opposite belief. If you begin to tell yourself that driving is safe, and then you have positive driving experiences, eventually your brain will change the negative belief to a positive one. It’s important that even if you have anxiety driving, you mentally acknowledge that you survived the experience, and you are okay.

It may seem challenging to just get on the road right away, so start with this exposure therapy method. In exposure therapy, you slowly introduce yourself to the thing you are scared of, step-by-step, until it becomes nonthreatening. For example, start with driving around your neighborhood, then when you feel comfortable, level up to a further distance.

I hope this post helps you with understanding how to get over fear of driving! What are your experiences with trying to overcome this fear? Leave a comment below!