{"id":2195,"date":"2014-12-09T09:19:56","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T14:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theartofperegrination.wordpress.com\/?p=62"},"modified":"2014-12-09T09:19:56","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T14:19:56","slug":"overcoming-driving-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/2014\/12\/09\/overcoming-driving-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming Driving Anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019d sit in the driver\u2019s seat of my dad\u2019s old Honda, engine humming away as I idled in my driveway. I watched cars zip down the road seemingly at the speed of light; I was paralyzed. Wide-eyed, heart pounding, and hands shaking, sometimes I\u2019d manage to loop around the neighborhood. But sometimes I\u2019d turn the engine off and walk back into the house in defeat.<\/p>\n<p><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text\/html' width='620' height='379' src='https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N-v51CQXx2Q?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;%23038;fs=1&#038;%23038;showsearch=0&#038;%23038;showinfo=1&#038;%23038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;%23038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is actually an eerily accurate representation of my mental state. When I took my driver&#8217;s test for the first time,\u00a0I was so nervous I had trouble just starting the car.<\/p>\n<p>I renewed my learner\u2019s permit at least four times before I finally got my license at age 20.<\/p>\n<p>While most of my high school friends were driving to school and the movie theatre no problem, I refused. <em>16 is far too young to be operating a motor vehicle, <\/em>I rationalized to myself. What was I so afraid of?<\/p>\n<p>I feared green lights because I couldn\u2019t predict when they\u2019d turn yellow. I feared left turns. I feared changing lanes. I feared merging onto highways (not to mention highways themselves). I feared driving above 25mph. I feared getting into a car accident, of course. I feared making decisions. I feared trusting myself.<\/p>\n<p>I surfed the Internet and found forums of strangers to provide me with virtual <em>I\u2019m-not-the-only-one! <\/em>support. In talking to people at my liberal arts college, I\u2019ve found that driving anxiety is pretty prevalent here, too. (Social scientists, please conduct a study on the link between driving anxiety and liberal arts students. I&#8217;ve talked to too many people here for it <em>not\u00a0<\/em>to be a thing.)<\/p>\n<p>Now I have a car on campus and drive back and forth to Cumberland Valley school district every week. I\u2019ve made the two and a half hour drive back home three times already. This past Fall I drove to Baltimore for the first time\u2014a major moment of pride for me. If you had asked me whether I\u2019d be able to drive to Baltimore a year ago, I would have guffawed in your face.<\/p>\n<p>How did I get over it? <strong>Practice<\/strong>. This is the most annoying advice you can give to someone with driving anxiety, but it&#8217;s true. The only way to get over your fear is to push past it and practice. <strong>Start small<\/strong>&#8211;your driveway, your neighborhood, abandoned parking lots. Build your confidence and take baby steps.<\/p>\n<p>Realizing this was a confidence issue also helped me. When you get in a plane, you&#8217;re placing all of your trust in your pilot. When you get in a car, you&#8217;re placing all of your trust in yourself. Realize that you\u00a0<em>are\u00a0<\/em>capable of making good judgments and <strong>trust your instincts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Once I realized that <strong>making a mistake doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean getting into an accident<\/strong>, I felt much more relaxed. The stakes didn&#8217;t feel quite so high anymore.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I blasted music<\/strong>. I don&#8217;t advocate driving distracted, but this method worked for me.\u00a0Because I have a tendency to overthink things and psyche myself out,\u00a0music helped me relax and let my subconscious take over the wheel.<\/p>\n<p>Now (dare I say it), I kind of\u00a0<em>like\u00a0<\/em>driving. For everyone out there suffering from driving anxiety, there&#8217;s hope!<\/p>\n<p>  <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/gocomments\/theartofperegrination.wordpress.com\/62\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/comments\/theartofperegrination.wordpress.com\/62\/\" \/><\/a> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/pixel.wp.com\/b.gif?host=theartofperegrination.wordpress.com&#038;blog=75367242&#038;%23038;post=62&#038;%23038;subd=theartofperegrination&#038;%23038;ref=&#038;%23038;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&rsquo;d sit in the driver&rsquo;s seat of my dad&rsquo;s old Honda, engine humming away as I idled in my driveway. I watched cars zip down the road seemingly at the speed of light;&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/theartofperegrination.wordpress.com\/2014\/12\/09\/overcoming-driving-anxiety\/\">Continue reading <span>&rarr;<\/span><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/pixel.wp.com\/b.gif?host=theartofperegrination.wordpress.com&amp;blog=75367242&amp;post=62&amp;subd=theartofperegrination&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/2014\/12\/09\/overcoming-driving-anxiety\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2385,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"advice","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[109702],"tags":[109703],"class_list":["post-2195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-advice","hentry","category-student-blog-project-2014","tag-syndicated","post_format-advice","post_format-anxiety","post_format-driving","post_format-self-help"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}