• Muscle tension
• Quick and shallow breathing
• Stomach discomfort (nausea)
• Increase in heartbeat
• Tightness in the chest
• Shaking and sweating
• Headache and neck pain
• Panic attacks
• Faintness or dizziness
• Dry mouth

• Exaggerated safety or overcautious behavior on road
• Avoidance behavior regarding traveling or driving
• Over preparing before driving

• Racing thoughts
• Trouble concentrating
• Thinking worst case scenario (such as accident)
• Overwhelming fear
• Nervousness

Those who already have or been previously diagnosed with anxiety disorder can experience similar symptoms (discussed earlier) while driving. 

It can make driving difficult when it comes to concentration or making quick decisions. Let’s say you are driving down the road, and you haven’t been paying attention to whatever map device you are using. 

It lets you know that you have to turn left, right now, or else you will miss your turn. You have a few options, you can turn right now since the car coming towards you is still quite far away, or you can continue driving straight and turn around somewhere. 

All of these choices can quickly become overwhelming and make you lose confidence in your ability to drive at all, especially if you’ve experienced an accident in the past due to this issue. You are not alone.

Recent studies highlight that “1 in every 5 victims of an accident suffers from an acute stress disorder, and 1 in every 4 suffers from psychological problems up to 1 year after an accident, including PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).” 

For every 1,000 miles on the road - your chances of getting into a crash are 1 out of 366. Sadly, it is often a cause of premature death, so if you are diagnosed with Amaxophobia you should take extra precaution when driving becomes unavoidable.

If you haven’t directly experienced a vehicular accident, even a fear of dying in a road crash or overthinking the fatalities that can take place in an accident can be a trigger. 

If you or someone you know feels they are being weighed down or that this type of anxiety is taking over your life. An EMDR and PTSD Therapist can help you process, and work through the issue. 

Schedule your free consultation with Dr. Invia – who is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Sex Addiction Therapist trained in EMDR, specializing in sex addictions, couples therapy, and trauma.

Those who have a family history of anxiety disorder may also experience symptoms when traveling. 

Because anxiety disorder is a  mental health condition, it can be passed down through generations. It doesn’t only affect your ability to react mentally - it can affect your ability to control physical responses. 

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic attacks, and phobias are common forms of anxiety disorder. This is how it can affect you physically when traveling:

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

People with GAD can become tense while driving. Making it hard to react during unpredictable situations behind the wheel. 

Panic Disorder

Individuals with panic disorder may already be anticipating panic attacks.

As a result, it can trigger anxiety while attempting to stay calm regarding something that hasn’t happened yet.

These symptoms of panic disorder, including but not limited to, are:

• Chest pain
• Excessive Sweating
• Heart palpitation
• Trembling
• Nausea
• Dizziness

A lack of confidence in your driving skills can be another factor in why you might be struggling with anxiety on the road. 

It may be due to a lack of experience, or a strong capacity to handle difficult situations. 

Another reason why you may have low confidence is that you (at one point or another) witnessed a traumatic event. 

The following are other possible reasons for rising anxiety affecting new drivers: 

• Driving on new or difficult routes 
• Driving at night
• Peer or family pressure

Other studies reveal that exaggerated safety and people who are being overly cautious, even in normal conditions, can be a reason behind driving anxiety. 

For instance, say you are sidetracked, meticulously checking all of your mirrors, or adjusting your seat repeatedly and maintaining overly slow speeds resulting in a vast distance from the cars ahead of you. 

This can be dangerous – disrupting traffic and possibly causing the drivers behind you to experience road rage. 

It can also increase the risk of rear-end collisions if not going the speed limit. Though over-cautious driving behavior can decrease the immediate distress in the mind of this type of driver, this behavior violates accepted traffic norms, and can threaten motorists or other drivers. 

You may experience anxiety when driving through harsh weather like snow, intense foggy suburbs, and heavy rainfall. 

Research reveals that nearly 30% of drivers face similar emotions when entering the highway.

Highways and bridges can pose significant challenges for victims, often triggering their phobias. Additionally, driving through tunnels may evoke feelings of claustrophobia.

In BVD (Binocular Vision Dysfunction), your eyes can have difficulty working together to create a clear image. 

This can lead to blurred and double vision, creating troubling situations while on the road, along with a poor driving experience. 

People with BVD may also have difficulty before and/or after driving: experiencing dizziness, motion sickness, and trouble concentrating, which can cloud their ability to see nearby vehicles, roads, and road signs.

Schedule a free consultation now with Dr. Invia A. Betjoseph – who is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Sex Addiction Therapist trained in EMDR, specializing in sex addictions, couples therapy, and trauma.

A person experiencing driving anxiety may have to depend on public transport, ride sharing services (like Uber and Lyft), and other family members to go from one place to another for different daily activities.

Hence, it could hinder one’s independence and lead to helplessness.

Driving anxiety leads to (driving) avoidance behavior, which could strain relationships and, hence, leading to social isolation.

A driving anxious individual may skip important family events or friends, when the individual have to drive or ride through tunnels, freeways, or any specific weather condition.

Driving anxiety continuing for a long could cause non-negligible social isolation, which could further turn into frustration.

Driving anxiety can affect mental and physical health. Panic attacks and overwhelming fear related to driving, could affect mental health by causing the following problems:

• Increased stress
• Depressive disorders
• Fatigue
• Anxiety disorders (GAD)
• Other phobias

Hence, proved, unmanaged driving anxiety could worsen the mental health of the individual and lead to traumatic events on the road.

A person’s job may require them to commute to far off distance on daily basis. However, it could be difficult if one is experiencing driving related anxiety.

Or an individual with driving anxiety may not pursue those professions that require much traveling. Such a person could prefer jobs and professions, which are at walking distance to them.

Hence, all these problems by driving anxiety could restrict individual from the desired professional growth and career opportunities.

People with driving anxiety have to depend upon their family members and friends to help them travel. Requesting busy friends or family members for driving/traveling help could tire them and they may feel you like a burden.

Hence, you may feel guilt for depending upon them or when they refuse to help you repeatedly. Such scenarios could shatter your confidence.

Similarly, the people with driving anxiety may experience peer pressure or fear of judgment while driving which could also lead to erosion of their self-confidence.

Find a way to conquer road and get out of the terrifying world of driving anxiety with a licensed therapist Dr. Invia— who is an EMDR & PTSD therapist. Schedule your free consultation, now.

One way to manage driving anxiety is to learn and then practice relaxation. There are many ways to manage stress and anxiety. You can learn any one and do it for a few minutes before going behind the wheels.

However, if you feel stressed while driving, you can stop your car to relax with any of your learnt or preferred relaxation style.

These days many people prefer listening to calming or meditation music, and audios while driving, which could be a good option for some while distracting for people with driving anxiety.

Here are the 6 relaxation techniques by The Harvard Medical School:

• Breath Focus
• Body Scan
• Guided Imagery
• Mindfulness Meditation
• Yoga, Tai Chi, and Qigong

How to do any simple breathing relaxation?

• Sit with a straight back whether in your vehicle or anywhere.
• Breathe air through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
• While inhaling and exhaling air, push as much air as you can so that lower abdominal muscles can contract and expand.
• Keep on trying for a few minutes until you feel better.

If you think about the worst-case scenario (such as an accident or meeting anything bad) while driving, you need to work on your thinking.

You may be experiencing these thoughts because of distressing personal experience with vehicle, road trauma, novelty, etc.

Heal your road trauma and find peace while driving! Schedule your free consultation with Dr. Invia who is licensed EMDR therapist.

One way to change your unhelpful thinking towards driving is to shift your mindset towards realistic thinking to stay in the moment and focusing on driving. While the other popular way of eliminating negative thinking is by doing affirmations. For instance:

• I drive with confidence.
• I (can) cope with any stressful situation while driving.
• With every new day, I feel better at the wheel.

To challenge your unhelpful thinking, you can also do journaling. As every action has feeling, writing your thoughts would help you analyze why you are thinking in this way.

After putting efforts to change your mindset towards driving, your behavior is likely to change. However, you also need efforts to make intentional changes in your behavior.

It is man’s nature to avoid scenarios what they feel scared of. Nevertheless, avoidance cannot help one to get past fear.

Do one thing every day that scares you ~~~Eleanor Roosevelt

Avoiding fear and anxiety at the particular time may feel you much relived and relaxed but the anxiety or phobia would prevail. On the other hand, facing a stressful situation of manageable difficulty can help you cope driving anxiety by desensitizing anxiety sensations.

Pro Tip: Instead of completely avoiding driving, drive your vehicle every day, and park it too. Improve your knowledge regarding vehicle, road or traffic rules to gain confidence and better understanding. You can sit in the car with your experienced friend to feel better.

You can understand specific driving anxiety responses (physical or psychological) by using 3Ws questions (when, where, and why) to develop better coping strategies.

Here are the examples that how you can use 3Ws and other questions in your case:

• What symptoms do you experience in your anxiety case?
• What causes you driving anxiety (road crash or genetic)?
• When do you face driving anxiety (In snowy weather or regularly)?
• Where do you face it most of the times (on freeways or while parking)?
• Do you feel your heart racing and shallow breathing?

Remember driving anxiety triggers could vary from person to person. By identifying your triggers and experiences that make your anxiety complicated, you can better manage your problem.

You may need to rely on professional treatment if your driving anxiety is due to road trauma (accident), PTSD, or other anxiety disorder.

Dr. Invia specializes in healing trauma and PTSD using EMDR and other therapy techniques. Schedule your free consultation now.

Driving schools have qualified driving instructors to help anxious drivers cope with nervousness and driving phobias.

These driving experts, with their knowledge, can also help individual identify specific driving anxiety responses besides emotional support.

In driving course, you can learn technical skill, relaxing techniques while driving, traffic laws, and safe driving strategies to acquire confidence.

Moreover, in driving schools, you can also listen to and learn from other drivers’ experiences. There, you can also learn defensive driving techniques to monitor surroundings and anticipating other drivers’ moves besides dealing with road risks. The other things you can do to manage your driving anxiety are:

• Taking a long drive daily on the time of yours choice.
• Knowing different mechanism of controlling car by reading car manual.
• Watching YouTube videos to learn different driving skills.

If you find an experienced relative or your friend in driving for your support, it could lead to better driving experience and reduced anxiety.

Another way an individual can cope with driving anxiety is by joining support groups and communities (whether physical or online). The following are the benefits of joining support group:

• You get some real practical tips to improve your driving experience.
• People extend emotional support and empathy towards one another, which helps gain confidence.
• You can get accountability partner in support groups to track your progress and reminding you of your driving goals.

Every person recovers differently from driving anxiety. Some follow self-help techniques and coping mechanisms to get rid of it. While others, whose anxiety is sever and continuing from long, may need a help from a therapist.

If you are the one who is experiencing driving anxious behavior, then seeing a licensed therapist, (who specializes in depressive and anxiety disorder and road trauma) is necessary.

Dr. Invia A. Betjoseph is offering free consultation to the people facing road anxiety/trauma or PTSD due to road accidents. Dr. Invia is a Licensed EMDR therapist specializing in treating addiction, anxiety, and trauma.

A therapist can employ one of the following treatment options to treat driving anxiety.

• CBT: It stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. CBT therapy can be useful in reframing and altering your negative thought patterns and behaviors related to anxious driving. It can treat phobias, PTSD and anxiety disorders.
• Talk Therapy: This therapeutic approach allows individuals to speak with a mental health professional about their anxiety and problems, including driving anxiety.
• Exposure or Desensitization Therapy: Therapists often use exposure therapy to treat anxiety disorders like GAD (generalized anxiety disorder), phobias, and driving anxiety. It involves exposing an individual to their anxiety or phobia in a safe setting to help him or her overcome it.
• Virtual Reality Therapy: Virtual reality therapy (VRT) is one that uses a virtual world such as computer generated or 3-D environment. It is different from a talk therapy that therapists perform virtually over Zoom or Google Meet.

VRT for driving anxiety can look like driving video games, but it must involve a therapist or mental health professional for support and help you tackle the overwhelming driving phobia (without actually being in a dangerous situation).  

• Medication: The therapist may go with an antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication options if your driving anxiety is severe and other options have proved ineffective in treating the anxiety. 

             SSRI (Prozac, Zoloft, etc.)

             SNRI

             Benzodiazepines (Clonazepam or Klonopin, Ativan)

Note: Please take medication after therapist’s recommendation as some medications may cause drowsiness at the wheel, which could be dangerous.

Heal your road trauma and find peace while driving! Schedule your free consultation with Dr. Invia who is licensed EMDR therapist.