Fear of driving on highways is a common problem and one that you can overcome.
This page explains why you have a fear of driving on highways and how to fix it. You may also want to see my page on the fear of driving on motorways and panic attacks on motorways.
Contact me now to overcome your fear of driving on highways.
Why you have a fear of driving on highways
Your fear of driving on highways, freeways or motorways comes from your mind stopping you from driving because it thinks that is best for you.
Your mind thinks this because an event happened in your life that gave your mind reason to think that driving on highways is bad or dangerous.
This event that caused your mind to think this way has nothing to do with driving. That’s why this problem can seem impossible to fix; you just can’t think what’s causing it!
There are actually two events that will be causing your highway anxiety. The first event gave you the feeling you experience now when you drive on highways and another event activated that feeling.
Think of it as finding an app on your phone. Have you ever been browsing on your phone one day and found an app that you never knew was there? It’s been there for months, maybe years, but you never noticed it before.
Phobias and fears are just like phone apps: they sit there for years not doing anything just waiting to be loaded!
Why do I feel trapped and need somewhere to stop on a highway?
If you’ve ever had the sensation of needing somewhere to pull over or stop on a highway then you’re not alone. This is one of the most common driving anxiety problems I deal with on a day-to-day basis.
Do you ever feel any of the following?
- You feel fine driving around town but panic on a highway when there’s nowhere to pull over
- You feel like you want to just stop, even on a busy road
- Every part of your mind and body screaming at you to get off the road
- You panic if the next exit is a long way off
- You start to overtake large vehicles only to have to abandon it
- Your hands keep steering towards to edge of the road because it feels safer
- You don’t like large vehicles overtaking you
Don’t worry, I hear this all the time and you can easily fix it! It all comes down to simply finding the reason behind this behaviour.
This is where my expertise comes in. Because I only work with driving anxiety and nothing else, I have heard it all before and can quickly guide you towards finding what the cause of the problem is.
Don’t worry if you’ve been to all kinds of therapists and have tried CBT, counselling, hypnotherapy and all sorts only for it all to fail. I spent years working out why that is!
Watch someone driving after fixing their fear of highways
This video shows me going for a drive with someone after they overcame their fear of highways using hypnosis.
It can look like just a normal video of two people driving but when you understand the story behind this, it becomes incredible!
The driver had a huge phobia of driving on highways and had at one point had a panic attack which resulted in them dangerously slowing down when in the fastest-moving lane.
She had not driven a car for over a year and even then it was an automatic car, not a manual car as she was driving here. There was also a fear of being passed by lorries and being distracted by noise.
She thought that she’d never drive again yet here she is driving through as many distractions as we could add; high and long motorway bridges, the sat nav shouting out directions, me talking to her, her talking back, lots of wind noise, driving around Spaghetti Junction (the most confusing motorway section in the UK), and she did all of that in a manual car! The remarkable change you see here is all done with hypnosis.
Contact me to arrange professional, long-lasting help like this or watch lots more videos to help you on my YouTube channel.
How to overcome fear of driving on highways
The best way to overcome a fear of driving on highways is to remove the cause of the fear.
This involves finding the event that we mentioned earlier and changing the way you think about it. We don’t get rid of it or remove it, we just change your perception of it.
Imagine that you are walking down a street one night when a man starts running towards you. You start to panic, sweat and anticipate being attacked. He then explains that you dropped your phone and he gives it back to you.
What happens to your fear when you realise he wasn’t attacking you but giving you back your phone? It goes.
It’s just the same with your driving anxiety. Your mind has simply got something wrong and once you find out what that is and fix it, the problem will go.
What if I can’t find the cause of my fear?
You don’t need to find the cause, that’s just one way of doing it.
Sometimes the problem can be lost in your mind or it just doesn’t want to show itself. No problem, we can come at it from other angles and fix things in other ways.
We can look forward instead of back and concentrate on how you want to feel now rather than digging up the past.
Generally, you get a better result by digging out the root cause but it’s not essential. Everyone’s mind works in a different way. How boring would it be if we were all the same?
Can I do this with YouTube videos?
Many people make the mistake of thinking that anything can be fixed by looking on Google or YouTube.
YouTube videos telling you to be calm and relaxed do not work. They’re not getting to the root cause of the problem as we would by finding the event as described above.
The best you can hope for from MP3 tracks is temporary relief but the problem will soon return. It’s like how you need to pull up a weed from its root to get rid of it. It’s no good just pulling part of it up or covering it up with a plant pot because the weed will still be there!
I have written a whole page titled Do YouTube hypnosis videos work? where you can learn more about why they don’t.
If you want a problem fixed properly then you need professional help.
How do we fix it and how long will it take?
You can fix a fear of driving on highways online using Zoom. How long it takes is different for everyone so I don’t give a set time limit. It can be done in under an hour in some cases.
The great thing about working online is that we can work together wherever you are in the world.
What result will I get?
In most cases, your fear of driving will go and you can drive just like you used to.
Some people report feeling much better but with a slight niggle remaining. Others say they feel worse at first and then the problem goes a few days later. Some people think nothing has happened and then 9 months later they suddenly feel it work!
There is no fixed solution or way of solving this. That’s why it’s essential you work with an experienced expert such as myself. Don’t rely on well-meaning amateurs and self-proclaimed “experts” in online help groups and on YouTube.
I cannot guarantee a result for everyone but it works around 90% of the time.
Contact me to fix your fear of driving
Book your free consultation with me now to overcome your fear.
You can learn more about driving anxiety. Also, see my pages about specific problems such as fear of driving over bridges or fear of driving downhill.
