Fear is normal but if you are suffering from a fear that does not allow you to do something very useful like driving a car can be devastating.
The fear of driving a car, or hodophobia, exists, and thus how can you overcome it? Fear of driving a car can be frustrating especially if you want to go some places and you can't just get into the driver's seat.
Like any other fears and phobias, the fear of driving a car is a psychological problem.
Some people develop this fear and phobia if they have seen or experienced some traumatic events in their lives related to driving.
This fear however is common to people who just learned how to drive that they may feel that other cars may collide with their car.
Although the feeling of being uncomfortable driving in the open road can be a little bit normal for those who just learned to drive, some may just develop the fear for long.
If you are one of these people, it may be comforting to know what you can indeed overcome this feeling and enjoy the benefits of being able to drive your own car in the open road again and go wherever you want to go.
The Causes and Symptoms Usually, the fear of driving may involved being tensed when you are on the wheel.
At times, you may feel bothered and not being able to remember things and that driving may lose your capacity to talk.
You may also feel tensed in heavy traffic and may feel the same if you hit a junction or go into multiple lanes and roundabouts.
You may also develop the fear of getting into accidents or losing control of the vehicle.
When you start to feel these tension and fear, you may develop physical symptoms that can be identified with that fear of driving a car.
Among the symptoms include palpitations or your heart beats faster, you can feel you are about to faint, your legs seem to lose strength, you sweat a lot, you feel dizzy and you have difficultly to breath and the feeling that you can become sick anytime.
These symptoms can be distracting and uncomfortable but although sometimes the root cause of all these are just in your mind, it can indeed affect your physically and may cause you not to drive again.
Finding Treatments Of course, you can find treatments if you have developed a fear of driving a car.
If you want to enjoy the benefits of being able to drive where you want to go without having to feel all those anxiety and tension, there are indeed treatments that you can get.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is one that can help you combat the fear that you feel whenever you are driving.
This is usually done with expert psychologists who will guide you to a process of eliminating the fear of driving.
Having a personal coach will also help you lessen your problem as the coach can often give you advice, provide you support and can also boost your confidence that you can do it.
With a personal coach, it is however important to get a personal coach that is expert also in dealing with such anxieties and fears in drivers like you.
Neuro-linguistic programming or NLP is also another technique that is said to be an effective weapon against the fear of driving.