Anxiety VS Driving
Good morning!
As i’m now in the middle of taking my driving class, I thought this would be a great opportunity to share my experience about it, and how my anxiety in the early years affected that.
Side note; I seems to mostly get Mental Health posts ideas lately.. and not much Bookish ones 😅 So i’m sorry in advance for that, ahah!
Where I live, the age where one can take the driving test/driving class is 16 years old with parental permission. If you wanna skip that part of having a parent sign with you, it’s 18 years old. Considering i’m now 25 and just started this processus last year, i’m almost a whole 10years “late”.
In my town, I would say it’s pretty rare to see a person over 20 not having it’s own car or atleast it’s licence.. Which was another thing that I felt bad for not having while I was already so old (the other one was still living at home) — But since i’ve joined this community and spent more time talking to people online, I saw that there was just a BUNCH of people just like me who didn’t knew how to drive.
The truth is that even at 16, I never wanted to drive.. even when I started to be behind the wheel, I was still pretty nervous and didn’t really wanted to. People in my town just drive so badly that my anxiety kicked in and I was just so scared of being in an accident. Hell, I was not even the one driving and I was flinching when a car just switched lane in front of us.
Back then, just the idea of being like my mom and casually drive around without much trouble was just so far-fetched to me… like, I had it ingrained that it just wasn’t something I would be able to do. I had also took a peak at the manual and it seemed to have so many informations, and rules to learn that it seemed just impossible for me to know all that..
I’ve only been driving since September, so of course I still have lots to practice and to learn before i’m ready to have my full learner’s permit; as of which my first test is in late may. But it’s just amazing how i’m feeling absolutely relaxed and actually like it, now that i’m properly medicated and my anxiety isn’t as strong as it was. I still has bits where I’d slow down because I don’t know if the other driver would do as supposed or just go ahead and cut me – but that’s the thing, i’m more aware of the others so I “see everything”; so that’s not a bad thing.
Although it’s something that’s so easy to feel judged on when it’s a step that feel like “you should have by X”, it’s really important to know yourself and only enroll when you feel like you’re ready. If I would’ve had caved and went before last year, in the middle of my anxiety crisis, it could have been really bad.. even my own mother is like “yeah no, I wouldn’t had felt okay giving you the car.. scared you’d do something harmful”.
How do you feel about driving?
4 thoughts on “Anxiety VS Driving”
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Girl, I feel you. People in my city drive in a way that could scare Hulk. God it can be stressful just sitting beside the driver and watching everyone drive like they don’t care what’s going to happen if they don’t follow the rules. Driving is about mutual trust. You trust the others on the road to follow the rules and you follow the rules for their safety and yours. God IKR ? I’m aware of my own hesitation to learn how to drive as well has to do with the fear that something would happen and not because of me but because of whoever is in the opposite driving.
The best thing to do is not trust anybody else than your driving — if they do drive correctly, awesome! But if they don’t.. well atleast you’re covered.
I’ve got one time where it was a 80km down to 60 as it was a curvy turn, AND it was a plain like (so no overtaking).. stupid idiot after me decided to full speed do it anyway 🤦🏽♀️ if ya wanna speed, that’s on you buddy, i’m doing my limit here.
This is such a brilliant post. It’s definitely okay to learn only when you’re ready and not when society says you should be! I’m so glad that you’re learning to, quite literally, take the wheel on this venture. I hope it all goes well for you. The longer you practice and the more you drive, the more confidence you’ll gain and the more natural it will become. But remember, even if you pass your test, if in the future your anxiety rides high again, there’s no harm in taking a step back and waiting until your in a better headspace to try again. 🙂
Thank you so much xx