Overcoming Driving Anxiety Using a Fear Ladder

Have you avoided getting your driver’s license? Are you scared of practicing driving? Do you tense up when merging on the highway? Maybe you’ve been in a car accident before, or are constantly anxious about it occurring. 

Whether it be slight tension or full panic attacks, anxiety related to driving and being in cars can impact your daily life and limit your autonomy. 

In our blog post on fear ladders, we talked about using small, manageable steps to overcome anxiety without overwhelming our nervous systems. We can use this concept to tackle our driving anxiety!

Let’s brainstorm some things we want to teach our brains and bodies:

• I can drive.

• I can sit in a car.

• Even though I can’t control what other people do on the road, I can do my best to be safe.

Let’s list some of our driving fears:

• Getting near the car

• Sitting in any of the seats, especially the driver’s seat, even if the car isn’t on

• Starting the engine

• Going in reverse

• Driving in an empty parking lot

• Parking the car

• Driving on the highway

• Driving on busy streets

• Driving with other people in the car

• Driving at night

• Driving in the rain

• Making turns

• Switching lanes

Now, assign fear ratings to these items using a scale from 0 to 10, where 10 is extreme anxiety and 0 is no anxiety. Then, let’s make our fear ladder using the lowest fear rating as the lowest step in our ladder. We also want to make these items actionable! Add time limits or specific goals if it’ll be helpful in making each step feel more realistic. You can also feel free to use increments or accommodate this to your needs.

• Getting near the car and standing outside of it for five minutes (fear: 1)

• Sitting in the back seat for five minutes with the car off (fear: 2)

• Sitting in the passenger seat for five minutes with the car off (fear: 2.25)

• Sitting in the driver’s seat for five minutes with the car off (fear: 2.5)

• Starting the engine while the car is parked outside, sitting for 3 minutes (fear: 3)

• Practicing driving down to the end of the street with someone else in the car (fear: 4)

• Parking the car (fear: 4.5)

• Driving in an empty parking lot slowly for 5 minutes with someone else in the car (fear: 5)

• Driving to the grocery store with someone else in the car (fear: 6)

• Driving on my street at night for one block (fear: 7)

• Driving on my street in the rain for one block (fear: 7.5)

• Driving and switching lanes one time (fear: 8)

• Driving on the highway for one exit when it isn’t rush hour (fear: 9)

• Driving on the highway for 15 minutes when it isn’t rush hour (fear: 9.5)

• Driving on the highway during rush hour (fear: 10)

Now that you have your ladder, it’s time to climb! Start at the lowest step and practice it until you feel your anxiety reducing to a manageable degree. Sit with the anxiety and allow your body to process it, eventually recognizing that this is a doable step. Then, move on up!

Read more tips in our blog post on fear ladders.