The Sunday Morning Herald - Australia - The secret strife of white-knuckle drivers
The secret strife of white-knuckle drivers by NICK GALVIN December 26, 2009
Road risk ... some fear is good for safe driving but too much is dangerous. More motorists than you might imagine are terrified of getting behind the wheel — but help is at hand.
You probably think just about everyone drives. Sure, there are those who are too old, too young or too infirm to get behind the wheel but driving is such a vital skill that surely anyone who is fit to drive takes up that opportunity.
The truth is, for some people even thinking of a short car trip is enough to summon feelings of dread.
These people are car phobics and far from being a rare curiosity, there's a very good chance someone in your immediate social group is suffering from some form of the condition.
The good news is there are treatment options for getting phobics back on the road.
Driving phobias come in many forms and degrees. Some sufferers may only drive locally along familiar roads, while others might be petrified of driving across bridges. In the most severe cases, they may be so paralysed by fear they stop driving completely. Then there are even more exotic phobias that play on people's minds, such as a morbid dread of crashing or being splashed by the acid from the car's battery.
Parking is a particular concern for many people, says Tania Emmitt-Clarke, who specialises in helping driving phobics through her business, Fear of Driving.
Emmitt-Clarke says one woman who came to her had managed to hide her parking phobia for years.
"She kept making this excuse that the car was too big so her husband went out to buy her a nice, sporty, new little car," she says. "She came to me and said that she had to be able to park now. She was easily helped with some targeted driving lessons. Afterwards, she came in and said that the kids were so excited to see their mum parking between two cars - they had never seen it before!"
Emmitt-Clarke says she established the business after realising how widespread the problem was.
"I did a bit of a survey asking everybody I bumped into what they knew about this and everyone could name at least one person in their social group," she says.
Emmitt-Clarke believes a sense of shame leads many sufferers to hide their problem.
"I discovered that it is a far larger social problem than you might think because all these people are very secretive," she says. "It covers all age groups and both genders."
Although there are no official figures kept, Emmitt-Clarke is compiling her own statistics. One of her key findings is that the vast majority of people - 95 per cent - keep their problem hidden because others depend on them to provide transport or because their job depends on them being able to drive.
Surprisingly, it is common for sufferers to be very successful in other aspects of their lives. "The people who come to me for assistance tend to be very high achievers," Emmitt-Clarke says. "They are the ones who are sitting back and saying there is the potential for an accident to occur."
There are several possible causes of driving phobias. The most obvious is having been involved in an accident as either a driver or passenger, or as a pedestrian.
"People who have post-traumatic stress disorder from a traffic accident of course have a very understandable fear of driving," the director of the Centre for Emotional Health at Macquarie University, Professor Ron Rapee, says.
Surprisingly, Rapee notes, it is often the passenger who is more mentally scarred after an accident.
"The passenger is often far more traumatised than the driver because the driver has a sense of control," he says. "Even though they are both in the same accident, the driver is trying to do something about it while the passenger is just sitting there and can't do anything.
"That sense of helplessness and loss of control is a major predictor of how much psychological damage you experience."
But it's not just being in an accident that can leave people fearful of driving. It may be they are already suffering from a condition called generalised anxiety disorder, in which they worry constantly about everything in their lives. A small incident while driving can be enough to tip these people into being driving phobics.
Others can have difficulty with driving because they have been scared in the past by the aggressive driving of someone else - often a family member.
"When a partner says: 'Would you slow down or back off,' the confident driver says: 'No, I'm an excellent driver' and doesn't alter their behaviour," Emmitt-Clarke notes. "So it becomes a frightening experience that is repeated over and over."
One woman, she recalls, was so traumatised by her husband's aggressive driving that she actually took to riding in the back seat and consequently lost all confidence in her own driving.
A clinical consultant psychologist, Grant Brecht, has treated many patients with phobias about driving. It's not unusual, he says, for sufferers to enter a destructive cycle of fearing that the symptoms of their fear will occur while driving.
"The fear of the symptoms is as bad as the fear itself," he says. "They will get really worried that they are going to faint, pass out or make a fool of themselves or have a crash because they will start to hyperventilate or get panicky or whatever."
Experts point out, however, that a little fear is important in encouraging prudent driving. Graphic road-safety advertising is aimed at shocking drivers by showing the consequences of risky driving.
"For most people, when they start out driving, there is a small degree of fear," Rapee says. "Some people have too little of this, though, and they are the ones who take crazy risks on the roads. It is very much a continuum."
Brecht agrees that a sense of danger is vital for normal drivers. "But it's when that level of anxiety gets too high, such that your concentration goes and your co-ordination and timing goes, that you become a danger on the road."
The good news for anyone with a driving phobia is there are techniques to help overcome the problem that are successful for most people.
Typically, the treatment is the same as for other phobias and involves a process of desensitisation.
To start with, patients are asked to imagine whatever it is they need to do in their car. As their anxiety level rises, they are shown relaxation techniques to combat the fear.
After that, it is time to put the lessons to use behind the wheel.
"You take them out in the actual situation and get them to practise relaxation responses as they are actually doing the action that would once have brought them a great deal of anxiety and fear," Brecht says.
Emmitt-Clarke says that in her group sessions, tears are not unusual from clients who are relieved to be able to share their secret problem.
One technique she uses successfully is to refresh clients' knowledge of road rules so they can be assured they are driving properly - even if the people around them aren't.
"Very much what I am doing is saying: 'It's OK to be doing the right thing. You don't need to be intimidated by other road users."'
Fear factorsIt's likely someone you know suffers from some form of automotive phobia.
The focus of the phobia and the severity can vary widely. Some sufferers feel unable to enter a vehicle and drive. Others can't drive on bridges or highways without experiencing symptoms of severe anxiety. Others fear a specific accident occurring.
Treatment is available and usually involves desensitising phobics to situations they find uncomfortable.
Trouble getting over itWendy Turner wasn't consciously aware that she had a problem driving across bridges until the day she was returning from a holiday with a girlfriend.
"Apparently, we were talking away and then I'd start going over a bridge," she says. "Mid-sentence I'd stop talking — and breathing — until we got to the end of the bridge and then I'd take up where I'd left off."
Now, Turner says, she will drive an hour out of her way just to avoid going over a major bridge.
A confident driver in other respects who has "driven all over the world" since getting her licence at 18, she has no idea why the problem developed.
"I've tried to work out why but I don't know," she says. "It's not like I was pushed off a bridge when I was little or anything like that. And heights are generally not a big deal. I get on planes like people get on buses.
"I don't know what it is that scares me. Maybe it's because if you are pushed off the side you've got nowhere to go."
In cases where she can't avoid a bridge, she relies on her own techniques to cope. "If I know I've got to go over a bridge I have to concentrate on my breathing," she says. "I'll shut everything out and concentrate on remembering to breathe and on the fact that it is only a little part of a big journey."
Source:
The AgeBefore some motorists can improve a greater understanding and research is required.
When those that are too scared to ask for help resort to hiding or not tackling their fears this is not good for their road use or for others around them.
I wonder what the percentage of road users this effects ? & how long it might last ?
If it is not being researched or 'treated' then the figures are unknown.
Having faith in the driver / rider who is in control to drive / ride well is a huge trust from the passenger and a huge responsibility to the driver / rider.
Are some just under-confident, an then it develops? - Does it start with under-confidence & / or trauma ?