When driving is a challenge: "My trauma is putting it in fifth gear."

BarcelonaA couple of months ago, Núria went to renew her driver's license. She had passed the test ten years ago, and it was due to expire at the beginning of the year. What set her apart from the rest of the users queuing up to pass a reflex test was that she hadn't been able to drive a real car for some time. "I'm embarrassed to admit it, but imagining myself behind the wheel makes me anxious. I don't understand why it's so hard for me. It's something everyone can do!" she confesses.

Amaxophobia, or fear of driving, is characterized, like any other phobia, by an irrational fear of facing the stimulus that causes the aversion, in which case, driving is the only option. According to most studies, fear of driving affects around 30% of drivers. Of these, according to data from the CEA Foundation (European Automobile Commission), 55% are women and 45% are men. The data show that more than 50% drive regularly, but 22.4% only do so on certain occasions, and 21%, like Núria, are unable to get behind the wheel. "It's a more common phobia than we think. It's not one of the most recognized because many people don't say so. I have patients who even make up things like not wanting to pollute," explains Sebastià Sánchez Marín, president of the Mobility and Safety Psychology Section of the Official College of Psychology. According to Sánchez Marín, differentiating between a fear and a phobia is key when addressing the conflict.

Fear or phobia?

"It's normal to be afraid of driving if you got your license many years ago, did the minimum amount of practice required to pass, and haven't driven a car since," explains the psychologist, who asserts that what this person needs is practice driving to gain confidence. In fact, most driving schools offer refresher classes, lessons aimed at people who already have their license but feel they need to brush up before driving independently.

This would be the case for Sandra, who stopped driving fifteen years ago because she moved abroad and, since she didn't need a car there, she gradually lost practice. "Driving caused me quite a bit of stress; I also drove a car without power steering, and it wasn't very comfortable. When I returned, I got used to my partner driving," she recalls. Lately, she explains that she's trying to drive again in sparsely populated areas with the support of a family member to gain confidence. "I feel bad about having lost a skill that gives you independence. Although it causes me tension, there are times when I can almost say I enjoy driving."

Sandra's fear or insecurity is what experts define as a rational emotion, like the one a person would have when entering a cage with a lion that hasn't eaten for a week. However, an irrational phobia is when the person has a highly exaggerated response to a stimulus that poses no obvious danger. Sánchez Marín exemplifies this with one of the first cases he treated as a psychologist specializing in amaxophobia. It involved a salesman from Girona who traveled 100,000 kilometers per year. "We got into one of the dual-control cars we use in the clinic, and he drove better than me!" he recalls. That patient had been suffering from anxiety attacks inside tunnels for six months, and because he'd had such a bad time, he started avoiding them. "When we entered a tunnel, he would start sweating, his hands would shake, and he would experience severe muscle tension. And when we came out, he would calm down again and drive fantastically well," she explains about the case, which she defines as a good example of what a phobia would be, because it paralyzes you or makes you flee from the situation. "He would plan routes to avoid tunnels. A trip that could last an hour would stretch to two. And so on exponentially."

Driving in enclosed spaces like tunnels, crossing bridges, merging onto expressways, driving on motorways or dual carriageways, or taking a long trip are some of the situations that a person with a persistent fear of driving may fear. Elisenda, who got her license in 2003 at the age of 22, explains that her blockage occurs at speed. "I drive, I drive. And I do it very calmly until I have to shift into fifth gear. It makes me feel very insecure, and I start to feel like the car can control me instead of me controlling the car. My trauma is putting it in fifth or sixth gear," she explains.

Uncertain origin

The causes that can provoke these fears are very varied, and often the origin of the phobias has no rational explanation. "You haven't necessarily had to go through a real experience. In fact, people who have suffered a road accident are the easiest to treat," says Sánchez Marín. "Our brain needs reasoning that calms them and tells them: 'You're suffering all this because you've had an accident and you've had a terrible time. It's normal that you're afraid now,'" he explains. But according to the psychologist, this isn't usually the most exemplary case in the consultation. "Imagine that someone's company is laying off people. And their boss tells them one afternoon that he needs to talk to them. That he doesn't have time that day, but that he wants to talk first thing tomorrow," explains Sánchez Marín. "That worker goes home anxiously thinking that the next day they'll be told they're being fired. They can't stop thinking about the mortgage they won't be able to pay, what they'll say to their family... Then they start to suffer anxiety, and they're just driving and enter a tunnel." According to the psychologist, the problem is that the mind ends up making an association with a danger that isn't real: "Danger is associated with losing your job, not with entering the tunnel. But since you've had anxiety in a tunnel and don't want to have a bad time, your body sends you warning signals so you don't go in."

There are questionnaires designed to analyze the intensity of the fear of driving and, accordingly, what treatment is needed to overcome it. Starting to treat amaxophobia from the beginning is easier because the phobia isn't as strong. "The phobia gains ground as the person goes backward. First, they may notice that when they leave Catalonia in the car, something grabs them and they don't quite know what it is. And they begin to restrict themselves. They no longer go beyond I don't know which region, then they no longer leave Barcelona. And finally, there comes a time when they no longer get in the car, not even in the neighborhood, not in the parking lot."

Small goals

According to experts, if a person feels unable to drive, a good idea is to start by setting small goals. For example, if you suffer from anxiety when driving at high speed, a good place to start is to find a stretch of highway that you can enter and exit quickly. Once you've overcome the difficulty, try it the next day and gradually work your way up to longer stretches. This was the technique used by Àgata Subirats, known as @mamayogabcn On social media, she didn't see herself capable of getting her driver's license. "I have four children, I've run two successful businesses, but just imagining driving made me anxious. It was a limiting belief I'd always had," she explains.

The first summer after separating, she realized that getting her license would make her family vacations easier. "We do things on the train and bus, but with four children, two of them very young, it was very difficult." As she explains, she was greatly helped by some advice her mother gave her. "Isn't passing the theory test scary?" she told me. "And that's what I did," she recalls. Subirats explains that they set short-term goals and little by little she lost her fear. Until a year ago, she got her license. "The first time I drove alone was a very important moment in my life. I get goosebumps just thinking about how I overcame that obstacle. Now I'm able to drive much more confidently than I could have ever expected."

According to Sánchez Marín, 85% of people who suffer from amaxophobia manage to overcome their fear. "We don't know why the remaining 15% don't respond adequately to treatment, possibly because this disorder is compounded by other disorders. If you've only recently experienced anxiety behind the wheel, it's easier for you to figure out how to structure your practice and cope with it on your own. If it's more advanced, you'll need professional support, a psychologist on hand to help you.