Fear of driving on motorways is common and something you can overcome.
Many people I have worked with over the years have had problems on motorways, such as being scared when there’s nowhere to stop, such as on a Smart motorway, a fear of speed or a fear of bridges.
Let’s start by looking at what the problem really is.
See my online driving anxiety course if you’d like help overcoming your fear.
See all of my videos on YouTube about the Fear Of Motorway Driving.
Panic attacks while driving on motorways
Were you driving one day when you suddenly had a panic attack on a motorway?
Did it come out of nowhere and make no sense because you’ve been driving for years without issues?
The feeling seems so strange and out of place because it is! What’s happening is that you’re reliving an old experience now, in a time that it doesn’t belong to.
This can sound odd at first, but it’s why no amount of driving will fix it.
A fear of motorways has nothing to do with driving!
Most people who come to me for help have wasted years with exposure therapy and CBT, which will do nothing because they focus on your driving, which isn’t even the issue.
Driving is just what triggers the real problem. It isn’t the problem itself.
So what is the problem?
Watch a consultation where we start to trace what their fear of motorways really is
What causes a fear of motorway driving
Your real problem comes from pressure building up throughout your life, which has now been linked to driving. Think of it like a trapped emotion that wants to get ou,t and it does that by giving you a fear of driving.
There can be other reasons, but a trapped emotion from the past is the most common cause.
I’ve known a fear of driving on the motorway be caused by a tent, a train station and karaoke. If that sounds crazy, then watch the video below, which explains how your subconscious mind works, and it’ll all start to make sense (but don’t worry if it doesn’t, it’ll still work).
Fear of Smart Motorways
The fear of driving on Smart Motorways, where there is nowhere to stop, is very common.
Many people I work with say they feel fine if they know there is somewhere to pull over, such as a hard shoulder, but they struggle to understand why they start to panic when there is nowhere to stop.
The first thing to note is that there is always a place to stop. If there were nowhere to stop, there’d be nowhere to drive! Just realising that can help, but it won’t fix the problem.
What you’re experiencing on the motorway is an old feeling that is trapped in your unconscious mind. You’ll have no idea what that is, and that’s the whole point. Finding and releasing that trapped emotion is what frees you from the panic.
I’ve known it to be from a time someone was locked in a cupboard as a child, and that sense of being trapped with no escape was being relived when they drove in areas where there was nowhere to pull over. That wasn’t the end of the story; it was the other detail they’d long forgotten which freed them from their driving anxiety.
You won’t find what this trapped emotion/event is by sitting and listing things that have happened in your life. That’s all logical, conscious thinking that will get you nowhere.
Fear of overtaking on motorways
A fear of overtaking on motorways is very common.
Do you find that your palms sweat, your heart races and you end up braking just as you’re about to overtake a vehicle?
As with panic attacks on motorways described above, this is all due to an old trapped emotion that now comes out when you drive. If that sounds crazy and you’re sure you need driving lessons and logical CBT sessions to fix this, then you’re going in the wrong direction.
Watch the video below for a more detailed explanation of this. It will help you find what these feelings are and release them so you can easily overtake vehicles whenever needed, just as you did before.
Watch someone driving who had a fear of driving on motorways
This video shows me going for a drive with someone after they overcame their fear of motorway driving.
It can look like just a normal video of two people driving, but when you know the story behind this, it becomes incredible!
The driver had a huge phobia of driving on motorways 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. 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.
Why the fear of motorway driving can seem impossible to fix
Spending 20 years as a driving instructor brought me into contact with many people who had a fear of motorway driving.
I never understood why people were scared when I was only a driving instructor. My idea was that forcing people onto the motorway would just knock the fear out of them. I used brute force with gentle persuasion to help them overcome their fear.
That’s what most driving instructors do, and while it can seem to work, it doesn’t. All it does is move the problem elsewhere. Instead of a fear of driving on motorways, you might develop a fear of driving over bridges. It won’t always be a driving issue; sometimes you’ll develop a whole new problem elsewhere in your life!
Driving is just the symptom of another problem that is showing itself. If you make the classic mistake of working on the symptom, then you’ll never be free of the real problem.
How I can help you when others can’t
My unique mix of driving instruction experience and hypnosis skills makes me the number one choice for anxious drivers.
We can often get a result in one session thanks to my experience. I understand exactly what causes driving anxiety and don’t waste time talking about all the things that don’t cause it.
A common misconception many people have is that therapists have some secret power to heal others. Some therapists even believe that themselves, but that isn’t how it works. Expecting someone else to fix this for you will only lead to failure.
You have the solution to your problem, not me. My job is to guide you to that solution by using the appropriate methods. How long it takes to fix, and even if you get a result at all, is up to you and not me.
How it feels to drive on a motorway after hypnotherapy
It’s perfectly normal to feel a bit anxious when you start your journey. You’ll soon find that the problems you used to experience just don’t happen.
What you do in therapy is disconnect the emotions you feel when driving. The trigger (the motorway) will still be there, but it won’t produce any feeling, or it will be massively reduced.
Many clients have said it’s an odd but lovely feeling to be back to driving just as they used to! If you’ve never felt comfy driving, you’re in for a big surprise when you experience it for the first time.
Contact me now for help
My online driving anxiety course helps you overcome your fear of driving without even having to take therapy sessions with me.
If you prefer to work with me 1-2-1, contact me to work with me online from anywhere in the world.