It is important to consider the different driving fears people may have, once these fears are established there are easy methods available to cope with them. Although some reasons for a phobia of driving are obvious, there are also many that may not be so apparent instantly. Hence, some reasons for the phobia will be more difficult to overcome than some others. Although some fears will be situation specific, there are also others that involve general driving.
Firstly, an example of a less obvious fear could be, but is not limited to claustrophobia; being enclosed in a car could create problems for people. A car is a relatively small space and being trapped in this small area would make some people uneasy.
Another fear that is less obvious is motion sickness. Without a doubt, this is more obvious than the previous example, yet is perhaps still not instantly obvious. A car obviously moves; therefore someone who has severe motion sickness causes many problems, making them feel quite sick.
A fear could be brought on from a specific traumatic incident. If a child was in an accident at an early age; then they could develop a fear for later in life. This could result in a fear avoiding cars completely, or just driving the automobiles. This can be brought on gradually, or instantly after a collision etc. Furthermore, a fear could develop when no crashes occur; a situation of several near misses could cause a fear to develop as one example.
These fears are often rather irrational; therefore there must be a way to get over the fears? When the fear is specific to certain situations, a gradual introduction to the environment of the fear is great cure. For claustrophobia the person involved should enter a familiar small room that is enclosed. Once the person is comfortable with this, the room should be then changed to something smaller, once comfortable keep going until the environment is as small as possible. This does not necessarily have to be done over one single day, but a few weeks or months would probably be better.
If the driver is scared of all driving in general then it is important to assess why, and understand that the fear is most likely irrational, understanding how many people drive every single day without any problems, and any incidents that may occur are mostly quite minor. Obviously freeway (motorway) driving is seen as more dangerous and collisions there generally have more serious repercussions. However, if you personally drive safely, then there should be no problems. Many people drive for years often without any problems.
A fear through motion sickness, or other none psychological ailments are harder to self-treat. However, there is often medicine for such illnesses, and thus treating these, overcoming the ‘fear’.
Psychological illnesses are therefore quite easy to treat, introducing yourself to the problem, and gradually becoming more accustomed to it. This is a basic form of a type of CBT which many world famous psychologists recommend. This should help to cope with the fear of driving.
Hodophobia is actually a driving fear. Did you know this? You would learn this in the driving fear articles that you will find on our site. Why do some people have a fear of driving? How do you overcome it? We’ll explain it to you.