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Original poster

Overcoming driving phobia

76 replies

Stormotto · 04/10/2025 09:28

I know non drivers are not popular on MN! Has anyone managed to overcome severe driving anxiety/phobia? I’ve never learned because of anxiety and panic attacks, never thought I would be safe on the road but now my kids are approaching teens there are so many more things that they need driving to and I want to learn.

Has anyone managed to overcome severe anxiety? How long did it take you? Do you have any tips or advice. Do you like driving now or still hate it?

Feel so stupid that I never learnt but it has alway been a huge problem for me :(

OP posts:

ProcrastinatorsAnonymous · 06/06/2026 23:36

Dresdan · 06/06/2026 22:51

I'm just saying it was a frame of reference that I found helpful and my very scared, crying-every-lesson daughter did too.

As I wrote on the initial thread you might find a modern electric car a game changer. We have a VW and it has an amazing amount of automation including auto-stop to stop you smashing into things. It automatically sees speed limit signs and adjusts your speed for you, slows you down for impending roundabouts, auto assists you back into lanes. It's incredible. Nothing you can't override because you"re still the one driving it but it's made a huge stride forward in "failing safe".

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This does sound amazing, but the issue for me is not so much operating the car or watching my speed and position or anything about observation - it's that things about road layouts that seem obvious to others are not always obvious to me. I'm not lacking in common sense in everyday life, but when it comes to road layouts, I have to take time study a static image of the road to understand it - which you obviously can't do in a moving vehicle. Eg - I find the markings on many roundabouts bewildering as I drive up to them, and then I panic. I'm not sure the automation would fix it if I try to do something ridiculous like drive the wrong way up a one-way slip road.

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