A Tale Of My Driving Phobia
And how I overcame it
I couldn’t drive a car. No matter how I thought about it, I didn’t get any far!
Since my childhood, machines and I never got along well. Though machines had a role to play in that, the majority of the fault lay with me, especially when it came to driving.
Thinking of driving a car scared the shits out of me. To be honest, I never gave it a real go. And, before I knew, it became a phobia.
What was I afraid of about driving a car?
A superb question, I must say. You can judge me all you want, but I was scared of a lot of silly things. Writing about which, after many years, makes me smile but trust me when I say this: the struggle, at that time, was real.
Some of those ridiculous fears I had about driving are as follows.
- Car won’t start
- I won’t be able to change the gears
- Car will go into whatever direction it wants
- It will turn itself off while on the road
- I will crash (into another vehicle, a human, an animal, a tree, and anything else you can think of)
- My worst fear was: I’d kill someone!
- While parking, I’ll just hit a pole or pillar
- If I drive uphill, the car will start sliding downwards
- And the list goes on.
How I overcame the fear?
Thinking will not overcome fear but action will. — W. Clement Stone
When I moved to Melbourne, Australia, I had to learn how to drive a car as public transport was not convenient.
Few things I did to overcome this phobia are as follows.
- I found courage. I had to face my fear. I told myself there’s no escape; I might as well enjoy it
- I hired a Driving instructor — and they’re good at what they did
- Before my first driving lesson, I asked truckloads of questions from my instructor, about my phobia, about the car, about driving
- I asked for an auto vehicle so that I didn’t need to worry about changing gears
- Once satisfied, they took me to an area with less traffic
- I practiced with the instructor. Like a lot of practice
- I read a lot of theory about how to pass a driving test
- Once confident, I sat in the exam and passed in the first go
- Since then, a lot of driving has helped me be more confident.
Was it just a phobia?
Yes, it was just a phobia. I’m alive and driving. I caused an accident, yes, but that’s what happens when you drive a car on the roads.
If I can, you can too. It’s not just about driving; it applies to any and every phobia you might have. Unless something is a medical condition, phobias can be tamed.
Thinking will not overcome fear but action will. — W. Clement Stone
Salam is a polyglot poet by passion and an Agile Coach by profession. You can read his introduction article to know more about him.
