How to overcome the fear of driving for beginners: advice from a psychologist on how to combat anxiety

The instructors at the Vector driving school know how to teach how to drive a car so that a beginner does not develop autophobia. Fear of driving a car occurs in many novice drivers. But not everyone copes with it successfully: some are frightened by the statistics of accidents on the roads and the inadequacy of other road users, others break into a cold sweat at the sight of traffic police officers. In any case, excessive anxiety does not allow you to relax and causes many problems. How to overcome fear and feel confident behind the wheel?

How does fear of driving occur?

It's easier for men to get behind the wheel than for women - and that's a fact. The fair half of humanity is more emotional, which creates an excellent “platform” for various phobias. In addition, understanding technology is the lot of guys, so they better understand the intricacies of the driving process, which means they adapt faster. However, the problem can affect everyone.

Experts identify several common factors that make beginners afraid to drive:

lack of experience is a natural phenomenon for everything new;
presence of negative experience - for example, incorrect behavior of an instructor or participation in an accident;
caustic comments from family and friends - insults and swearing not only offend, but also make you worry more than before;
uncultured behavior of other drivers - women suffer the most from this circumstance, as they tend to perceive any remark or boorish behavior as a personal insult;
the need to communicate with traffic police officers is usually a problem for those who are intimidated by all the officials in uniform.

A person who is used to keeping everything under control and coping with all tasks with an A+ may experience fear due to the risk of embarrassment. Incorrect parking, stalled engine, low speed and many other situations provoke condemnation from others. And in order not to become the cause of ridicule next time, it becomes easier for a novice driver to get into public transport rather than behind the wheel.

Fear of driving a car - the psychology of fear

As during training for a license, in the fight against fears, you first need to understand the theory - the reasons, then begin practice - apply the advice in life.

Fear of the unknown

The fear of driving a car in adulthood is quite explainable by complete psychological maturation. Whatever one may say, after this mark a person is most sensitive to the world around him. He interacts more reverently with other people and understands the full responsibility of his actions.

Any unforeseen situation is perceived as an uncontrollable future fraught with danger. Driving a car in heavy city traffic seems like an impossible act. And the idea of this situation is shocking, firmly cementing the fear of driving in your brain.

Excellent student syndrome

Either good or not at all! It turns out - never on public transport.

This kind of perfectionism, the desire to do everything to the maximum, very often becomes a “stumbling block” in the process of learning to drive. The first failures on the road, the horn signal from other road users, piercing aggressive glances from the cars of passing motorists are the nuts that forever close the door to the world of driving.

Fear of looking stupid

A continuation that reinforces the previous two fears. So to speak, “polishing” fears of getting behind the wheel.

We are sure that it seems to you that only experienced drivers who have completed Formula 1 courses live on our roads. When turning, it is done very quickly and maneuverably; when changing lanes, it is done deftly and as accurately as possible. Movement in a narrow space? At speed, rushing a centimeter away from nearby cars.

What do you care about them, because with your speed and skills, from the outside you look like a child riding a bicycle for the first time in his life. What if, while moving so slowly and carefully, someone honks at you?

Everything is lost. You are ready to fall through the ground, because you are sure that the driver in that car has already collected all the obscene language. Moreover, addressing it directly to you.

Fear of killing a person

“A car is a vehicle of increased danger” - this is how almost all books devoted to teaching traffic rules begin. Such a mantra is deposited on a subconscious level, stimulating new fears of driving a car.

What will you do if something suddenly happens? It’s better to immediately abandon such risks, let others take risks, and you will be on the other side of the barricades. The same pedestrian!

Phobia of damaging your own and other people's cars

Okay, it’s yours, but what if it’s someone else’s! There will be so many problems and trials ahead. Moreover, what to do if this happens? How to call the traffic police and “register” an accident? And in general, does it need to be registered?

It’s certainly guaranteed that when you travel by tram, such problems will not arise.

How can a woman overcome fear?

The impressionability characteristic of women rarely affects the ability to drive a car. Many girls are able to outrun men on the road, but before mastering virtuoso skills, absolutely everyone needs to overcome the fear of driving a car. For those who have recently received their license, it is recommended to:

place a novice driver sign (a bright yellow square with a black exclamation mark) on the glass, which will force other road users to be more careful;
spend more time driving, gradually increasing the pace - it’s better to start with empty streets and large areas, and then drive onto roads with dense traffic;
while driving a vehicle, turn on pleasant music - psychologists are convinced of its beneficial effects;
get to know your car better - get used to its dimensions, try out a sharp start and brake, and become familiar with all the accessories.

The better a woman knows her car, the easier it is for her to overcome fear. This way, the likelihood of a hopeless situation arising is reduced to zero.

How to cope with autophobia after an accident?

The fear of driving a car often develops in those who have once been involved in a traffic accident. It does not matter whether the person was driving or in the passenger seat. After an accident, the car begins to be associated with danger, and in this case there are 2 options: either forget about driving forever, or pull yourself together and deal with the problem.

First of all, psychologists recommend not taking long breaks. Otherwise, there is a risk of losing the skill and forgetting everything that was taught in driving school. Starting from scratch a second time will be even more difficult, so despite the fear that has arisen, you need to act and train regularly. This should be done in stages:

Be in the car more often, but not go anywhere - clean, repair, to the best of your ability. You can simply get behind the wheel without starting the engine, and mentally reproduce all the actions while driving.
When your fear begins to subside and you gain a little confidence in your own abilities, you can plan a short trip. It’s good if it’s a few meters, for example, from one yard to another. Here it is important to take your time and fight your fear of driving gradually.
The next stage is to increase the distance to the nearest store, near which you will need to park, get out of the car, and then return home in it.

Step by step, confidence will replace anxiety, and a person will cease to be afraid, even when he finds himself on the main city highway. The presence of a little anxiety is normal and, naturally, there is no need to fight it. It will force you to be more attentive and responsible while driving. No matter how sad the experience may be, it still teaches correct and adequate behavior behind the wheel.

Advice from a psychologist for those who want to overcome anxiety

To overcome your fear of driving, there is no shame in turning to a psychologist. There is no such disease in medicine and there is no scientific name for such a condition either. But excessive worries risk over time developing into a serious phobia that will require serious treatment. To prevent this from happening, you should try to overcome the recent panic using simple but effective methods:

study routes in advance;
learn emergency driving;
take a travel companion on the road;
realistically assess your capabilities;
think positively.

Before traveling to a new place or along a road that was not previously on your usual route, it would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with it in advance. This is easy to do using a GPS navigator. The main thing to pay attention to: intersections, U-turns, one- or two-way traffic. Preliminary preparation will eliminate the fear of the unknown, and the next unregulated intersection will not make you panic.

Every driver: man or woman, beginner or experienced, should learn emergency driving, which goes beyond the generally accepted traffic rules. This course teaches how to properly get out of emergency and extreme situations. Mastering it will not only relieve the fear of driving, but also add confidence.

Traveling with a travel companion will help you overcome anxiety and take your mind off negative thoughts. At the same time, it is not necessary to ride with an experienced driver, who will correct mistakes every now and then and teach along the entire road. It is better to invite a calm and patient pedestrian who does not even know the rules of the road. He will provide invaluable moral support. And on your first independent trip, you can ask a friend in a car to drive ahead or behind you. This way, all responsibility for driving the car will fall on the driver, but he will not be as afraid as he would be alone.

In order not to experience fear while driving, or at least try to reduce anxiety, it is worth stocking up on literature with current traffic rules and service contacts. This will significantly save time and nerves if an unexpected problem arises on the road. What’s also very important is that you don’t need to set yourself super-complex tasks. To cope with the fear of driving a car, it is better to stop, turn on the emergency lights and relax. It is stupid to endure a state of panic while driving, otherwise the risk of getting into an accident increases significantly.

How to overcome the fear of driving a car without risking your life

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You can’t get by without a car, and your stomach is churning from the fear of driving. You say: “I’m not just afraid to drive a car, I’m even afraid to get behind the wheel ,” and in response to you: “There’s only one way - gain experience!” How to overcome the fear of driving a car if you don’t drive?

And so you crawl slowly, clinging to the side of the road, flinching when they honk at you (and they honk at you all the time) and shy away from every oncoming car. You are constrained, tense, unable to adequately monitor the situation on the road, which creates an emergency situation. Experience is not gained, and you will be a danger to yourself and others until you figure out how to overcome your fear of driving a car.

How to get rid of the fear of driving. We are looking for a way

Perhaps you have already tried to somehow overcome the fear of driving using folk methods, such as advice from friends or some kind of psychotechnics. Or maybe you’ve wandered into forums where beginners write “oh, I’m afraid to get behind the wheel,” and experienced people teach them from the height of their own experience how to get rid of fear while driving and other wisdom?

Judging by the fact that you are reading this article, the problem has not gone away, and this is bad and good at the same time. Bad - because the fear is still with you, good - because you are here, which means that now you have a real chance to get rid of it.

I'm no longer afraid to drive. A new word in psychology

Such a chance is given by the system-vector psychology of Yuri Burlan, where training participants overcome any fears. It doesn’t matter whether the person came to find out how to get rid of the fear of driving or, for example, he is afraid of water, the dark, spiders, etc.

How does this happen?

Through recognizing the underlying causes that cause the manifestations of fears, phobias, panic states, and increased anxiety. During the training, a person understands what fear is and what its root is, as well as who is more susceptible to fear than others and why. His fantasies on the theme of fear lose ground and dissolve, and he soon notices with surprise that he is no longer afraid of the dark, insects, or other far-fetched horrors. This in itself, of course, will not make you a good driver, but it will definitely remove the unnecessary component that prevents you from developing driving skills.

When the fear goes away

The wild imagination and imaginative thinking of visual people provoke the emergence of a wide variety of fears, even out of nowhere. No wonder they say: “Fear has big eyes.” Only those with a visual vector have the ability to “see” a terrifying monster in a simple shadow from a branch and be scared to death. And what can we say about the real danger.

Yuri Burlan's training helps people with any combination of vectors, including visual, to free themselves from psychological garbage and direct their properties in a positive direction. Fears, resentments, depression go away, and space is freed up for joy, love and creativity. Almost from the first classes, participants notice many positive changes in their lives, as they themselves say:

“I had a license for 10 years. But I couldn’t getting behind the wheel in my worst nightmare. After starting classes in the group , I noticed that I was driving on the roads as a passenger calmly and not paying attention to the road. Then more and more - I had a desire to try driving. And in December I took several lessons and even traveled on my own without an instructor, taking my little 6-year-old daughter with me.” https://www.yburlan.ru/forum/moi-rezul-taty-posle-proxozhdenija-treninga-352-975.html#p52262

“ I went on stage for the first time in 10 years and sang in front of a large audience. I got behind the wheel, although I put it off out of fear for more than 6 years. She confessed her love to a man, although she remained silent for 1.5 years, afraid of being rejected. In general, I am much less afraid of showing my true feelings than before. I pretend less, I become myself. practically disappeared. Significantly less hysterics..." https://www.yburlan.ru/forum/moi-rezul-taty-posle-proxozhdenija-treninga-352-1425.html#p69973

Free introductory lectures on system-vector psychology by Yuri Burlan are held online on the portal. To participate, just register at https://www.yburlan.ru/training/

The article was written based on the training materials on system-vector psychology by Yuri Burlan

Author: Marina Murina

Benefits of Positive Thinking

In any area of a person’s life, attitude is important. Everyone is familiar with the situation when a bad mood interferes with the performance of simple, everyday tasks. If everything is falling out of your hands and you don’t want to do anything, it’s better not to get behind the wheel. Excessive nervousness will aggravate the panic state. If things cannot be canceled in any way, and you still need to go, you need to create a positive attitude:

allocate an hour for one episode of your favorite series;
conduct auto training, convincing yourself of the ability to skillfully drive a car;
visualize a successful trip.

It will take no more than 5 minutes to “play out” the upcoming trip in your head. And this time is more than enough to overcome fear and create a good mood. You can imagine a happy traffic police officer who wishes you a safe journey, visualize an absolutely calm situation on the road, and then ideal parking at a store or office. In the same manner, you need to mentally return home, and with a feeling of complete satisfaction and tranquility, go on a real trip.

How to calm the anxiety and fear of taking exams at a driving school?

Today, more and more people are trying to study at a driving school in order to obtain a driver's license. Having a car in a family is no longer a luxury, but a way of transportation to save time. People of different ages and social status study at the driving school, but they have one thing in common - excitement before passing exams. So how can you worry less during the theory and practice exam?

A person has been trained in a driving school: a theoretical course, practice on the site and in the city, which means he has both knowledge and skills. Now the main thing is to calm down and demonstrate your knowledge. However, emotions often prevent us from concentrating, and the fear of an exam even creates the feeling that we have forgotten everything.

Calm! There are proven techniques and recommendations to overcome uncertainty as much as possible and calm down.

Do not take any sedatives on the eve of exams or on the day of exams. Everyone knows that any drug somehow affects the nervous system and has side effects. And the exam is a very serious matter, your thoughts must be clear. Therefore, it is important to get enough sleep and go to take the test with renewed vigor.
Breathing exercises. Many have heard, but not everyone has used breathing techniques in practice, but in vain. This will be useful not only before the traffic police exam, but in any other situation. Exercise “10 slow inhalations and exhalations.” Slowly take a deep breath in through your nose and also slowly exhale through your mouth. Already on the 5th exhalation you should feel relief.
"A moment of relaxation." Try to find a place and a couple of minutes of time to relax as much as possible. You need to take a comfortable position, close your eyes, even out your breathing and think about something good. By putting this technique into practice periodically, you will appreciate how in a matter of minutes you can calm trembling or contain negative emotions.
Basics of self-regulation. Self-regulation is helping oneself in order to manage or change one’s psycho-emotional state.

Self-regulation allows you to calm down and restore yourself through words, breathing, mental images, etc. These methods include:

Self-orders. We choose short instructional phrases for ourselves and repeat them many times (“Calm down!”, “Pull yourself together!”, “You will pass everything!”);
Self-approval. Unlike self-orders, the wording looks softer. For example, “You’re great”, “You can handle it”);
Visualization. Mental representation, image. In this situation, you can replay in your imagination how you pass the theory test, then the driving test. And all this goes easily and calmly. Having played this in your head, in the smallest detail, in reality it will be easier.

Autotraining, affirmations. These techniques are very effective, but the condition for their effectiveness is consistency. Autotraining – self-hypnosis, affirmation – positive attitudes aimed at improving areas of your life. You can work with these formulations any time and as much as you want, the main thing is daily. At first it may seem that this is not working and the person does not even believe what he is saying, but later he will notice that positive changes are taking place in his life.

Affirmations can be taken from the Internet or made up yourself. Examples:

“Every day my life gets better and better.”
“Every day I am successfully improving my driving skills.”
“Everything always works out for me.”
"I will pass the exam."
“I am absolutely calm and confident.”

By using these exercises, which can be used in any situation, tension and fear are significantly reduced. Believe in yourself and everything will work out!

Is it possible to get rid of fear without treatment?

Experts clearly distinguish between a novice’s fear of driving a car and a real phobia. And if the first option does not relate to the disease and does not require treatment, then the second is considered a dangerous pathology. Phobias are obsessive in nature and are severe mental problems. It is impossible to get rid of them without the help of doctors. What are the signs to suspect the disease:

categorical refusal of the car - as a driver and passenger;
severe sweating on the road, trembling hands, excessive tension throughout the body;
a distinct state of stress and feeling of fatigue after the trip;
rapid heartbeat, nausea, dizziness while driving.

Autophobia is fraught with the fact that a person can imagine how the brakes fail or the steering wheel sticks, and begins to believe it. Trying to get out of a non-existent emergency situation can lead to a terrible accident. If you experience at least one of the described symptoms, you should seek medical help. One of the effective methods of treatment is hypnosis. The doctor sets the stage for confident driving and frees the patient from oppressive emotions.

Unlike a serious phobia, uncertainty and the wrong attitude are easily corrected without the help of doctors. Using simple tips, you can achieve success in a very short time. And you shouldn’t be ashamed of excitement and anxiety - emotions are common to both women and men. To become a confident pro, you need to be patient and persistent.

What psychologists advise

In psychology, they study this behavioral problem of women and men. This is due to the occurrence of a stressful situation. To overcome it, psychologists have developed some useful tips. Each person independently chooses the most suitable tactic for him. If the advice does not help overcome the problem, then it is recommended to contact a specialist directly. The most useful tips are:

When a person goes to take his license, he pursues certain goals. You need to be reminded of them periodically to make you want to overcome your fear.
If the fear is associated with the lack of an instructor, then you can increase the number of practical lessons in a driving school or find an experienced driver who will help control the process on the road. Do not forget that sooner or later you will have to give up accompanying persons in order to start driving a car without fear.
In cities you can find racing tracks for beginners. To begin with, you can practice on them.
Every day, tune your psyche to the fact that nothing will happen while driving around the city.
There is no need to despair if nothing works out and stop acting.
To relax while driving, it is recommended to play pleasant, relaxing music.
You can set yourself an ultimatum: “If you don’t drive alone today, then...”. In this case, you definitely need to deprive yourself of something dear and desirable.
Stimulate with desire and dreams of buying your favorite car. After all, it’s impossible to drive your favorite car until you gain experience.
For some people, driving a car completely alone is the most effective way to overcome fear. The main thing is to choose the right time. If the fear is very strong, it is better to start during deserted hours.
To improve the perception of driving independently, you can build a pleasant association with this process. For example, if I get behind the wheel, then in the evening I can afford to buy a long-desired outfit. This acts as motivation and a pleasant association.
Developing a permanent route for training will help people move to work, their child’s kindergarten, school and other communications. To do this, at a late time, they make several circles to the designated point. This will help you learn all the intricacies of the path.

Driving a car as a novice woman in the early stages causes fears. Almost every motorist faces this problem, no matter whether it is a man or a girl. If you choose the right coping tactics, the fear will quickly disappear. This will help improve your quality of life, save time for more important things, reduce fatigue after the road, and also give you the opportunity to be anywhere at any time.