There is perhaps little doubt that everyone reading this article will have, at some stage in their life, attended a social function of some kind or another, such as a wedding, funeral, retirement party, engagement party or even just the work’s Christmas bash. There will also have been those gatherings that take place in the name of employment, such as training courses, business seminars, exhibitions and other promotional events. No matter what the gathering is for, or who is in attendance, one thing is for sure; all will require some form of social interaction.
 The British seem to be famed with a reputation for the willingness to discuss the weather, perhaps because we have so much of it, albeit not the variety the people of other nations will relish, but all in all, we can hold a complete conversation about it. What else will we find to talk about when perhaps involuntarily placed into an environment where we have to make polite conversation?
Depending upon the nature of the gathering, and the purpose of being so gathered, you might speak of a holiday, or at least a place visited, drawing comparisons with whatever places the guy to your right has just spoken of. If the conversation topic drifts to something on more of a personal note you may speak of your family, perhaps recounting the life–experiences of family members, as and where they seem relevant to the conversation.
In such a gathering, and as the polite and thoughtful conversation changes in direction, colour and intensity, if someone there present mentioned they had a fear of injections, this perhaps being mentioned during a conversation about the inoculations necessary for a foreign trip, would you find that strange? No, that’s fine; you can quite understand that one. You would also excuse one of those present if they were to announce they had a fear of going to the dentist. Heights? Yep, that’s a regular, although it doesn’t bother you, you have known and know many who have such an aversion.
You Have Always Enjoyed Life on The Road
Spiders, mice, rats, snakes and even flying. Yep heard of them too, but what do you think the group response would be if a member announced they had a fear of driving. No, we’re not talking of someone who has not yet shed the L–plates, and is fearful of the enormity of the tasks involved to progress to the driving test. We’re talking about someone who has many years of driving experience, has always enjoyed life on the road, but now would have an absolute screaming fit of terror if they were to find themselves driving on a motorway. Oh yes, that one is a real conversation stopper.
There, did you feel that? There it is again, that little urge in you to now find something else to read, because suddenly the initial interest you had in this piece has just begun to jade over and it has made you slightly uncomfortable. "I want to read about nice cars and fun–time driving, not this deep and maybe weird stuff." WELL PAY ATTENTION, because this is important. If you don’t read this article you will miss out on a vital piece of information about a condition that is not only avoided during social conversation, denied by many to be fact, but you will lose an opportunity to learn about SOMETHING THAT COULD EASILY HAPPEN TO YOU!
In The Dark & Twilight Underworld
Lurks This Spectre
It is unknown how many people have developed a phobic reaction to driving, as due to the very nature of the problem, the truth is very much pushed underground. Therefore, only in the dark and twilight underworld does there lurk this spectre, and so obscure and shrouded is it in secrecy that in most cases not even those who are afflicted will know of another’s presence – even if that other would be standing next to them; but what kind of people get like this? There’s got to be something weird about them to start with hasn’t there? Ah yes, of course? The answer is simple, and was there all along. They’ve been in a bad car crash and now lost their nerve. That’s why they can’t face driving anymore!
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, like everyone else, you just don’t understand do you? The people to which this page refers, far from being representatives of an alien species, are normal, everyday, rational, intelligent beings, and as far as being involved is car crashes is concerned, very few have had more than so much as a tail light broken.
In answer to the question of what type of person develops these issues, the truth is it happens to people exactly the same as you. In fact, it could be tomorrow, or the next day, next week or next month, when it could well be you, because frankly this can happen to anyone – just as in the same random way that decides who will catch a common cold virus. It seems to be indiscriminate, certainly non–gender or age specific, but you can protect yourself.
A Symptom of Our Modern Lifestyle
The number of reported anxieties and phobia cases, in general terms, are rapidly increasing, and the condition is very much a symptom of our modern lifestyle. We as a species have perpetuated this in our never tiring quest to achieve perfection in our lives. Over the past 60–years our expectations have rocketed through the roof, and means that we have become used to getting what we want and when we want it. Not only that, we demand better performance from all that we have, use and see, and as the quality of the things around us gets better, all we do is ask for it to get better still.
Take your Internet connection, as an example. Remember the old 56k modem? Wasn’t it wonderful when that was launched. Access to the big World Wide Web, but soon there were better connections and suddenly the old dial–up system was old hat. Even now, with the super–fast Broad Band systems of today, we’re still not satisfied. We are the same with our cars in our pursuit of faster and better performance, and to demonstrate how bad we have become in our demands for satisfaction, we even try to defy the laws of physics through what we expect our products to achieve.
So, What’s This Driving Thing All About Then?
So, what is this article all about then, apart from there being a bunch of people who get scared to drive? Well, it’s all to do with pressure – pressure to fit in, to be something or someone, to measure up, to match with a perceived model of what a person in the year 2009 should be and achieve – or it’s just plain not coping. In the work place, ever–increasing demands are being placed upon the level of result, the amount of production, sales, targets, statistics and what is expected to be completed in a set amount of time. It is about trying to jump over that high–jump bar that is actually at the top–level of what anyone is capable of, and with that extraordinary expectation demanded by others to have it jumped even higher comes the equal expectation we develop of ourselves. Then there is parenthood, now that’s a pit of rattlesnakes.
To be a parent in this age it isn’t just about having a baby. It is about having the perfect baby, having all the ‘right’ gear to go with it and to bring it up the ‘right’ way. What is the must–have baby buggy, oh and what about the shop from where to buy baby clothes. Hell, we need to move house, as the school here scored so poorly in the recent Ofsted reports. Got to get his name down for nursery, and if he has to go to that school, how am I to look Mrs. Jameson in the eye when next in Sainsbury’s. Yes, got to have the right postcode, or we’re doomed.
Everywhere, there is pressure, whether it be actual, virtual, real or perceived. It is there, all the time, and we don’t realise it. We go through life loading ourselves up with all this weight, seemingly with the notion that the more we find we are capable of carrying on our shoulders, the more we can take on board. Let’s face it, who is there reading this page would argue that an invention of a 36–hour day would be a good idea?
There You Are, Driving On The Motorway
So, now you are driving on a motorway, pushed for time as usual, because just like usual, you have set yourself an unrealistic time frame in which to complete your tasks. On your mind there are a myriad of pressures. Things that need doing at home, for which there has not been the time. Those assurances and promises you made to your significant other, your mates, your colleagues and your manager, not stopping to think about when you will actually be able to find even half the amount of space required in your life within which to complete whatever it was you were somehow hoping to do. There is that saying about brooms and backsides, but this is your broom, your backside and you who has put the two together – no one else.
How many of you who drive a lot regard your car as your protective capsule, your special place within which you are saved from the world at large. This is the cocoon into which you climb, and no matter what is going on in your world, no matter what the amount of muck and bullets is flying around you in your life, here you are safe from it. You shut it all out and now you can switch on your CD player and just have that oh so blissful me–time. You are, at least for the duration of that journey, at peace with yourself and can re–charge your energy cells ready for the next battle that awaits you at the other end.
Yes, there you are, driving on that motorway, and before long, your mind strays from the road and perhaps to the tense situation at home. It may be the fact your mother, father, sister, brother, or any other one who is close to you is very ill, or may even have recently passed away. Perhaps it is a financial issue that consumes your thoughts now, and as you cover mile upon mile with apparent ease, and to the point of almost being detached from the act driving, you are less in your car and more in your thoughts involved with your situation.
Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, you begin to feel weird. Slight dizziness perhaps. Yes, this doesn’t feel right, and breathing becomes laboured. Your chest aches, and flippin’ heck, hasn’t it just got very hot in here? Your hands are sweating, making the steering wheel all slippery, and now serious alarm is taking over as your legs don’t seem to want to respond to the rest of your body like they are supposed to. Your arms go to jelly too, so what the hell is going on?
Frantically You Pull to The Hard Shoulder & Stop The Car
Panting for breath you are bewildered and somehow scared. This has never happened before, and you might be forgiven for thinking you have been taken ill. Okay, so if you sit there a while, have a sip of water or two, everything will be all right. There, that’s better; perhaps it’s okay to carry on. What an episode, but it’s all over now.
However, as you rejoin the main carriageway, and as your speedometer needle hits 40mph, you are seized with terror. This is ridiculous. Here you are in a 150mph car and now, for some reason, you are feeling like you are going to die if you exceed a fraction of the legal motorway speed limit. A frustrated trucker bears down on you from behind, hooting angrily and flashing his headlights before swooping out around you and then cutting back in sharply, nearly clipping your front wing.
Somehow the car has become affected, seemingly pulling the left, and you wince as your nearside tyres catch the rumble strip between lane–one and hard shoulder. You feel desperate, breathless, even feverish, and all the time scared and bewildered as to what is becoming of you. Eventually, however, you make it off the motorway, and abandoning your day, and make it home. Yes, that’s what the problem is; you just need a good night’s sleep.
Next day, you feel relatively good, although not as good as usual, and you are again ready to enter the rat race of life. You throw your jacket into on the back seat, jump in behind the wheel, satnav on, hands free set on and tuned, turn the key and you’re off. Not long down the road and you are lining up the start of the motorway slip road, but no sooner are you on it than wallop! You are again struck by the mystery virus (that’s what you may think it is) and the same symptoms come back with a vengeance – as experienced the previous day.
A Phobic Response to Driving On a Motorway
What you now have developed is a phobic response to driving on a motorway; as to now try to complete that task will be as easy as willingly thrusting your hand into a pan of boiling water. Your response is to conceal it, even from your relationship partner, through fear of being ridiculed and therefore through embarrassment. You go about your daily business as before, but now you have to get creative. You are going to still get from A to B to C to D in the same day, but you are going to have to do it without touching a motorway.
Now life begins to get miserable, because now you are feeling really stressed, but not the type of stress you have been thriving on. This is bothered stress and it is so draining. Not long into your new working and travelling regime you have a similar attack episode on a dual carriageway, so now you have to cross those off your list of usable roads. Slowly and surely the phobia backs you further and further into a corner, and seemingly there is no way out.
Working With Driving Phobia & Anxiety Cases
At Ride Drive we deal with a huge number of enquiries every year from people who have experienced an episode as described above, and the volume is growing. We have devoted a whole section of our business to working with driving phobia cases and are very successful at it. It would take too long to go into all the technical details as to what is going on psychologically, but in basic terms, this condition largely affects those who have high demands upon their own performance, who have perhaps gain pleasure from the cut and thrust of a hectic life schedule, and who have just pushed their expectations of their own capability to cope one notch too far or for too long.
As it has been said at the top of the page, the culture of today is that you can be a super human being, who can cope with all that is thrown at you and more. It is to be a person who has to be what their peers and what the world apparently expects them to be, and to act as those forces would have them act. What this affliction is is a protest, and a protest that is shouting at you for not being kinder to yourself.
So, What’s The Answer?
Step back, take a look at yourself and what you are doing. Back off the demands you are placing upon you and get it into your thick head that it is okay to make errors. You are only human, a sophisticated animal in fact, and therefore far from perfect. So, accept you are not perfect, think more about how your lifestyle and working practices are affecting you. Take more care of yourself by making sure you always eat a nutritional and regular diet (three meals a day), maintain your body fluids, take regular exercise, as well as make sure you always have plenty of sleep. Learn to relax – yes, it is okay to sit down with a coffee and do nothing for 10–minutes. Oh, and talking of coffee, not too much of that either, and stop drinking so much alcohol, as that won’t help. Just take care of yourself. The phobia takes about 5–seconds to take hold and thereafter you could be affected for the rest of your life!
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