—August, 7th Nov. 2022
Have you ever had such an experience? Do not dare to drive on the road, even under the guidance of the sparring partner also inner anxiety and tension. Because driving a car is afraid of rubbing against the roadside pedestrians, other bicycles, and motor vehicles. Cause inner tension is uncomfortable, palms and backs are cold sweat. Even your calves and thighs are sore from a tense past, your eyes are glued to the front, and your shoulders are stiff. If you experience any of these symptoms, you may have a fear of driving.
So what exactly is driving anxiety? What are the causes, and is there any way to get over driving anxiety in your life? In order to let you have a better understanding of driving anxiety, let's have a detailed understanding of the performance of driving anxiety phobia, the causes, and ways to overcome it.
How much do you know about driving anxiety？
About the definition of driving anxiety
According to Anxiety UK, one in ten drivers suffers from a "fear of driving". I don't know if you pay close attention to the people around you, but it's a common part of our lives.
According to data, Driving-Anxiety syndrome (DAS) is a comprehensive sign, such as conflict and tide return, caused by thinking contradictions in the process of urban development. It is the product of hormone growth since the industrial development of "driving", which causes ideological contradictions and conflicts at multiple stages and levels, including the front, middle, and back.
The definition may be a little vague, but the symptoms can give you a better understanding of the psychological problem.
Driving anxiety symptoms
Excessive driving anxiety can affect your life as well as your physical and mental health. Therefore, it is also a kind of mental illness.
The level of anxiety and anxiety conditions of driving anxiety can range from mild to severe. They range from subtle changes in your mind as you grab your keys, to full-blown anxiety and panic attacks at the thought of driving.
We've divided the symptoms of driving anxiety into physical and psychological ones. Physiological anxiety includes the following:
1.Heart palpitations 2. Excessive sweating 3. Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing 4. Chest pain and tightness 5. Nausea or upset stomach 6. Lightheadedness or lightheadedness 7. Chills or feeling very hot, flushed face 8. Numbness or tingling in the extremities 9. Tremors throughout the body 10. Dry mouth and hyperactivity
Psychological anxiety includes the following: 1. Feeling uneasy, nervous 2. Feeling fatigued and fatigued easily during or after a car trip 3 Not paying attention while driving 4. Be short-tempered and unfriendly to others.
Some people may ask, why do I have such anxiety, while others are so good at driving? The causes are complex and varied. It can be a mixture of nature and nurture. Finding out why we have driving anxiety can help us get over it better. Now let's talk about the causes of driving anxiety
The causes of driving anxiety
A recent accident
Perhaps the most obvious cause of driving anxiety is someone who has recently been in a car accident. If the patient has seen or experienced a car accident while driving, there is a high risk of psychological trauma, resulting in nervousness and anxiety when driving.
This phenomenon is known in psychology as post-traumatic stress disorder or acute stress disorder. This mental illness refers to a situation in which the sufferer experiences or witnesses a serious traumatic event, such as war, earthquake, serious criminal case, traffic accident, or witnessing the threat of death, etc. It is usually a big shock, causing the sufferer to have more terrible and painful memories. After such a scenario, the patient may have a delayed or persistent partial reaction after the event.
It is estimated that up to 30% of people experience anxiety-related symptoms after being involved in a traffic accident
Inclement Weather
Not all problematic driving situations result in accidents. Having to drive in difficult conditions such as snow, fog, and heavy rain, or having to drive long distances in unfamiliar situations, can introduce new anxieties.
Have specific phobias
Fear of open spaces or crowd agoraphobia may increase the risk of driving anxiety disorder. Bridges and tunnels may also trigger a fear response in people, even if they don't have
A specific phobia
Tunnels can make people feel closed and trapped, while Bridges can produce images of collapsing or driving cars over.
Lack of confidence in your driving skills
Highway driving means more speed, more cars, more lanes, more distractions, and more danger. People who are not used to the experience can be overwhelmed and overstimulated by the behavior on the highway.
Unfriendly behavior by other drivers in a driving environment
Many people in contemporary society are under great mental pressure, and many car owners are easy to develop road rage. The typical characteristic of these people is that driving swearing becomes normal, driving emotions easily out of control, a traffic jam or touch have the impulse to start. Hot temper, if encountered in traffic, rear-end, and other accidents prone to quarrel. This expression originated in the United States in the 1980s of the last century. It describes anger caused by the stress and frustration of driving in traffic jams. It is this impolite driving atmosphere that aggravates driving anxiety.
The effect that driving anxiety has on us
Above, we talked about the causes of anxiety, which lead drivers to experience more and more negative emotions. When they have anxiety, they can't help but have an impact on visual search, reaction time, and so on, which are hidden dangers of traffic safety. Secondly, such emotions will produce a strong sense of fear, so that they will not drive at all, miss important appointments, and so on, which will reduce their happiness in life. In order to better understand the negative effects of driving anxiety, we will elaborate on the two aspects of safety and happiness in life.
Driving anxiety affects driving safety and endangers life
The adverse physiological reactions caused by driving anxiety can lead to chronic muscle tension, and large changes in heart rate and stress level. Anxiety affects drivers in a complex way. It will make people enter a state of stress, high tension, heart rate, hormone secretion level changes, etc.
Secondly, studies show that there is a significant positive correlation between dangerous driving behavior and anxiety level, so if this emotion is not handled well, it will lead to a higher risk of traffic accidents.
Whether the driver keeps his or her emotions stable in the process of driving the vehicle has the most direct relationship to the safety of the vehicle situation. Therefore, the stable emotions of the driver can effectively promote the development of the driver's good skills. On the contrary, drivers' negative emotions and fluctuating emotions will lead to safety accidents to a large extent.
Secondly, the generation of anxiety is easy to have some revenge and anxiety in the spirit, and it will also have certain changes in physiology, so as to affect the change of behavior. For example. Arrhythmia or elevated blood pressure, due to physiological discomfort, will make the driver produce more negative emotions and negative emotions, the driver not only to overcome the physical torture but also to bear the impact of negative emotions, under the mixed effect of two factors, the driver is easy to produce fatigue.
Driving anxiety reduces happiness in life
While the stress response to driving anxiety may be short-lived, it can also have long-term effects for some people. If someone stops driving because of anxiety, it can lead to problems related to finances, housing, relationships, and employment. These symptoms may appear quickly, or they may steadily increase over the course of many years.
Driving is an important part of modern society. Although urban transportation is becoming more and more perfect, it still has the disadvantage that it cannot be popularized in every location in the city. Driving anxiety is not only reflected in the anxiety of driving, but also in the mobility problem.
In terms of life experience, Being able to drive can affect how much control and independence a person has over their life. When they are confined to their home, this decision may cut them off from friends, family, and other positive aspects of life. Therefore, it is very important to know how to get over driving anxiety. Here are some driving anxiety tips to overcome it.
Ways to overcome driving anxiety
Perfect driving skills and purchase auxiliary equipment
Some people are afraid of driving because their driving skills are not good enough to cause anxiety. We can practice driving more in open areas. Through repeated contact and constant repetition, we can perfect driving skills, accumulate driving experience and develop a good sense of driving. The second is not to put yourself a completely out of control when you practice driving. It is best to have an experienced driver sitting beside you and able to help you observe the road conditions.
If you are a new driver, it is important that you do not develop any bad habits or dangerous tendencies in behavior. You can choose a dashcam to help you drive. Car driving records can not only record the whole process of driving video images and sound but also help you drive.
A good dashcam should have other auxiliary powers supplied during driving. Here I recommend a dashcam REDTIGER T700 Mirror Dash Cam.t it has the auxiliary function of Sony Starvis& Super Night Vision. When it drives at night, it can refract the strong light and ensure the safety of driving. Second, the inline car recorder has a large built-in screen and a dashcam parking mode. It can play videos for you so you can spot any mistakes and improve your driving ability. Its specific role is to avoid reversing the ancient, also does not have to worry about the rear of the accident.
This is a dashcam with GPS and speed. Automatic start radar monitoring mode and fixed speed measurement. This is arguably the benefit of the dashcam - the monitoring of the driving process. With the help of the built-in GPS, the car recorder can accurately track your driving position and speed.
While the computer plays the video, a Google Maps view will display your car's location, route, and speed. It can also display GPS information in your phone app.
If you want to purchase this item, you can choose to visit Redtiger and buy it yourself
When anxiety arises, it is necessary to practice relaxation experiments
Whenever high stress and anxiety begin to arise in new situations, You need to practice some relaxation techniques and you need to fully realize the importance of relaxation. Relaxation techniques are a behavioral intervention that can help reduce stress and anxiety. The lack of oxygen associated with stress can be alleviated by breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, taking slow, rhythmic deep breaths during the process.
We need to know ourselves better.
One of the most important driving anxiety tips is to clearly understand the causes of driving anxiety. No one has a driving anxiety problem for no reason. It's best to understand the cause of your driving anxiety and treat it accordingly to help you have a good mood while driving.
Knowing the cause of anxiety is the first step to overcoming pride anxiety. If we do not know the cause of anxiety and the degree of anxiety, we can search for the self-scale of driving anxiety. If you find mild anxiety on your own test, don't worry too much. If your anxiety score is significantly too high, you should seek help. For example, if you are anxious because you are not skilled, practice. If you are anxious because you have seen a traffic accident, drive slowly and take medication to help.
Distract yourself by listening to music
Many people's anxiety problems when driving are caused by a long time in a state of anxiety. In order to reduce injuries, it is suggested that people use diversion methods to make themselves drive in a good mood, which can help people away from driving anxiety. For example, you can listen to music.
When driving, you can listen to music appropriately. Because listening to music while driving can make you feel more gentle. However, it is very important to choose music when driving. If you choose music that has certain emotional stimulation, it will not do any good to the driver.
Summary
Driving anxiety can lead to unhealthy psychological conditions, such as feelings of isolation and social disconnection. In fact, many people around the world experience varying degrees of stress and tension while driving. Although driving anxiety does not have obvious negative effects like other mental illnesses, these symptoms are real and occur with high frequency. If we ignore such symptoms, it may gradually worsen. So we need to treat driving anxiety properly to make sure that our quality of life is not compromised.
Buying a dashcam can effectively relieve driving anxiety caused by unfamiliar driving skills. Dashcam plays a role in effectively curbing traffic violations such as speeding, restraining drivers' bad driving behaviors, and assisting drivers in driving. If we can relieve driving anxiety through a positive attitude and proper equipment, it will be better for our life.
