How common is driving phobia?

Driving phobia, or vehophobia, is surprisingly common and affects millions of people worldwide. Estimates vary, but it’s thought that up to 20% of people experience some level of driving anxiety. And 10% of drivers meet the criteria for a diagnosed driving phobia. So you are very far from alone but it can be changed when you get the right specialist help. Read more here +

Is the Driving Phobia Cure program for me?

This clinically proven one-to-one treatment is for you if you: Experience high anxiety, fear and panic when driving. Fear you might lose control of your vehicle when highly anxious. Consistently avoid certain roads or driving situations because of your fear. Worry excessively beforehand about driving or being a passenger. Want to drive and feel comfortable and in control again Are serious about getting help to finally overcome your fear of driving.

How do people manage their fear of driving?

7 ways people manage their driving phobia: Planning and driving alternative routes to avoid particular types of roads. Using public transport which usually adds hours to their journeys. Driving at unsociable times when the roads are clear to avoid traffic. Relying on partners or friends to drive instead or take over en route. Making excuses to avoid driving with friends and colleagues, or giving lifts Finding other “reasons” to turn things down like jobs, invites and vacations involving driving. Manipulating people and situations to avoid having to drive.

When does a fear of driving become a phobia?

Even if you've been driving for years, it's normal to feel a little anxious occasionally. But it’s only when you are consistently experiencing high anxiety and are compulsively avoiding driving, or certain driving situations, that a professional will likely diagnose a driving phobia. It’s the consistent avoidance that’s the hallmark of the phobia and what really impacts people’s lives and prompts them to get specialist help.

Will more driving lessons help me overcome my driving phobia?

The vast majority of people who develop a fear of driving are good competent drivers who have driven happily for many years. So it’s not a skills or competence thing: they still have the skills, it’s the fear that gets in their way. That’s why driving lessons are rarely helpful in treating driving phobia and why specialist therapy is the best approach.

What are the 10 most common triggers for driving phobia?

The 10 most uncomfortable situations for people with a fear of driving are: Motorways and multi-lane highways (most common) Multi-lane highways with no hard shoulder or emergency lane Fast busy roads (so having to drive at speed) Bridges, elevated roads and flyovers Overtaking (especially large vehicles) Being tail-gated or around aggressive drivers Feeling trapped in heavy traffic Being too close to particular vehicles (especially trucks) Hills (up or down) Driving on high or mountainous roads These driving situations are usually avoided or else endured with great anxiety.

Do I need to remember how my driving phobia started?

Remembering how your driving phobia started is helpful but not critical to successful treatment. It’s the patterns and reactions you have now that are important. With a driving phobia, it is usually very obvious when it starts. But the trigger event can be relatively minor, like feeling a bit uncomfortable when driving on a highway one day. It doesn't have to be a dramatic event or road accident that sets up the phobic response. In fact, that is very rarely the case because an accident might lead to short-lived post-traumatic stress, but not to a driving phobia.

What is a fear or phobia of driving called?

The clinical scientific name for a phobia of driving is vehophobia , which is defined as an intense and irrational fear of driving a vehicle . It can manifest in various ways, such as fear of losing control, fear of accidents, fear of being trapped or a fear of driving on certain roads or in specific situations. Vehophobia is distinct from amaxophobia (the fear or phobia of being a passenger in a vehicle) and hodophobia (a more general fear of traveling ). It's important to remember that vehophobia, amaxophobia and hodophobia are all very treatable phobias with the right help.

DRIVING PHOBIA

[ Motorways, dual carriageways, other roads. Dread, anxiety, panic & avoidance]

"I'm not fearful of the thought of making a motorway journey and I thank you for kind of giving me my life back. I used to love driving as a young man and I feel I'm getting back to that space once again.

I totally recommend the Mindspa Phobia Clinic to anyone with any kind of driving anxieties - Their therapies do work."

Mark L

I totally recommend the Mindspa Phobia Clinic to anyone with any kind of driving anxieties - Their therapies do work."

Mark L

I totally recommend the Mindspa Phobia Clinic to anyone with any kind of driving anxieties - Their therapies do work."

Mark L

I totally recommend the Mindspa Phobia Clinic to anyone with any kind of driving anxieties - Their therapies do work."

Mark L

You're in the right place because driving phobia is one of the most common phobias we treat in our clinics. So although it might feel like you are alone, you are not and this can be changed.

What is driving phobia?

Fear of Driving (or driving phobia) is an excessive and irrational fear of driving, of being or feeling out of control whilst driving, causing dread, panic and avoidance. The sufferer recognizes that the fear is excessive or unreasonable but feels powerless to change their responses.

The sufferer either avoids driving (or avoids particular roads or driving situations) or endures it with intense distress and discomfort. This interferes significantly with normal daily routines (work, social activities, and relationships).

Fear of driving is distinguished by the intense, often debilitating, fear it generates. At its worst it will end in a panic attack. So it’s way beyond driving nerves. This is hardcore white-knuckle fear.

The physical symptoms of driving phobia

Physical symptoms will come on when starting a journey or en route when exposed to a particular driving situation (typically a certain kind of road). The symptoms usually stop once the driver is out of the situation or out of the car.

For some drivers these symptoms may start at a lower level sometime before actually driving and persist for some time afterwards.

Typical symptoms of driving phobia will include some of the following:

Tightness in the chest
Sweating (especially the palms) and shaking
Physical tension (especially in the arms and hands)
Light headiness or dizziness
Shortness of breath or over-breathing
Rapid heartbeat or palpitations

For a small percentage of sufferers, some of these symptoms may also be experienced as a passenger.

The psychological symptoms of driving phobia

Before driving there may be a build-up of dread and anxiety for hours or even days before a “big journey”, leading to sleeping problems and loss of appetite. When actually driving, psychological symptoms may include feeling that you:

Might lose control
Might do something stupid
Might swerve
The car might tip over
Are being pulled or drawn to the left or right
Are detached from the experience as if someone else is driving
Have to focus and concentrate intensely
Can’t tolerate distractions (engage in conversation, listen to the radio)

How people respond

When these physical and psychological symptoms come on, most drivers will do some of the following when actually driving:

Slow right down (sometimes to a dangerously slow speed). This can often seem involuntary.
Pull over, stop the car and try and calm down before driving on or having someone else take over.
Drive on with great discomfort.
Try and reduce their discomfort by forcing themselves to think of other things. Strategies including reciting the alphabet backwards, counting backwards or singing at the top of their voice.

Many people, of course, will respond by not even going there. They will simply avoid driving on particular roads or avoid driving completely.

Who it affects

Driving phobia can affect anyone.

Most people with a driving phobia are normal, intelligent, well-balanced people who once drove happily but are now anxious and panicky when driving or else don’t drive at all. Over the years we have treated all kinds of drivers, some with exceptional skills and experience, including police drivers and a rally driver. We have treated doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists.

So it can happen to anyone and it’s never a skills thing. It's the fear that gets in the way. In fact most people with driving phobias are good, competent drivers. Which is why additional or advanced driving lessons are usually of no benefit in overcoming a driving phobia.

What causes driving phobia?

Driving phobia is very rarely caused by a traumatic or unsettling event (such as an accident) but is usually caused by something milder (like suddenly feeling a little strange when driving at speed on a multi-lane highway) which normally would be okay but at the time the individual was perhaps a lot more stressed that normal (background stress levels raised by other things like tiredness or by financial, work or relationship problems) and this tipped them into a mild panic attack. This builds into a phobia.

So driving phobia is linked to different things for different people – to driving on wide open roads like major highways (most common), to dual carriageways, small roads, hills, high roads, bridges, flyovers, particular routes, junctions, to manoeuvres (especially overtaking), to being boxed in by heavy traffic, to being close to particular vehicles (usually large or high-sided ones) or to being limited to a particular speed. It often starts on big highways and spreads to smaller roads, restricting the routes, speed and distances that can be travelled.

Safety & avoidance behaviours

Safety and avoidance strategies are used by the sufferer to reduce the perceived danger and to control, conceal and accommodate their panic and embarrassment.

As more and more routes or situations are avoided, the sufferer’s world starts to close in. Energy and time are used in planning and driving alternative routes. They may have to drive at times when the roads are clear. Partners and friends may have to drive instead or take over en route. Excuses are made to avoid giving people lifts or traveling with friends and colleagues. Jobs, promotions and social invitations may be turned down. People and situations may be managed and manipulated.

Eventually these “solutions” become part of the problem. When this happens most sufferers think “enough is enough” and do something about it. And get help.

How we can help

We have developed the Driving Phobia Cure program*.

This is a direct therapy program whose purpose and expectation is to eliminate the fear of driving. It’s a fast, gentle, positive and effective treatment delivered by UK experts in the field. And it's without the scare tactics and exposure therapy used by the older and less effective driving phobia treatments.

And it requires just two pleasant treatment sessions * at one of our private clinics (or online over Zoom video) to be free of your driving phobia. So that in future you can drive in calm and comfort like you most probably used to. Driving can just become second nature again. In rare cases more than two sessions may be required.

The two session clinic program is £300 a session, so £600 in total. The two session online Zoom program is £200 a session, so £400 in total. We ask you to pay for each session as you come in. Each session is 1½ hours but you should allow 2 hours in case of overrun.

The sessions are, ideally, spaced a week or two apart so you have the chance to test things out and notice the changes and improvements between the sessions.

Learn more about how driving phobias start, develop and are overcome from our dedicated driving fear website.

If you are reading this and think this is what you have been looking for and you are serious about getting help then take the next step and call 0800 302 9452 to speak to a specialist about your driving phobia and how we can help you.

If you are reading this and think this is what you have been looking for and you are serious about getting help then take the next step and call us now on 0845 591 2345 to speak to a specialist about your driving phobia and how we can help you.

In the media

See what they have written about us:

Article in The Guardian about the Phobia Clinic

Recent posts

The Fast Phobia Cure
Fear or Phobia?
The Science of Phobias
Types of Phobia
Phobia Names

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The Phobia Clinic

DRIVING PHOBIA

Motorways, dual carriageways, A roads
Dread, anxiety, panic & avoidance

I totally recommend the Mindspa Phobia Clinic to anyone with any kind of driving anxieties - Their therapies do work."

Mark L

[ Motorways, dual carriageways, other roads. Dread, panic & avoidance]

I totally recommend the Mindspa Phobia Clinic to anyone with any kind of driving anxieties - Their therapies do work."

Mark L

I totally recommend the Mindspa Phobia Clinic to anyone with any kind of driving anxieties - Their therapies do work."

Mark L

You're in the right place because driving phobia is one of the most common phobias we treat in our clinics. So although it might feel like you are alone, you are not and this can be changed.