Going to buy a new car this week or next. Time to get back on the road :-(. 1 month ago

Still haven’t conquered it. Still not important. 4 months ago

crossing the street today, walking home. and saw and old lady driving a car… waiting at the stop for cars to go past so she could turn and proceed… she actually could have driven through earlier, she was holding up traffic a little bit, but guess she was being cautious… remember thinking, if this old lady can drive… so can i. 7 months ago

I went for a walk yesterday, leaving the car at home. I came back several hours later to find someone had put a gigantic dent in the side of the car. The car is not worth claiming for and the girl who did it was very sorry. I’m not claiming on her insurance but I don’t think it’s going to help my confidence when people scowl at me as I drive around, thinking I’m a worse driver. She’s fairly new to driving and has only had her car 3 months. I’ve been there and, although I only damaged my own car when I did it, know the stress it can cause.

I went over to the girl’s house last night and said “Don’t worry about it. I’ll sort it outside of insurance because there’s already a dent in it that I did myself. I’ll see if I can pop the dent out that you did out myself and if I can’t then I’ll just leave it.”

Does that make me a push over? My dad has told me I’m an idiot for not going through the insurance company. The problem is that my car has 120,000 miles on the clock, a dent in the back where I did it myself (that I chose not to notify them about) and it fills up like a fish tank. I can’t imagine anyone ever buying it OR an insurance company saying they’ll fix the car for a big dent in the front. They’d just write it off when the car has 6 months left on insurance and road tax as well as MOT. I might as well just wait 6 months and get something newer. It seems to drive ok. I just need to check the lights work and then it’ll be safe to drive the short distances I use it for.

I just feel utterly crap about it all though because I’m not sure I made the right decision. Maybe I should have let it be written off? 9 months ago

...forgot that I had a car these last 2 weeks. I have used it once, to drop my mum off somewhere but other than that I’ve walked. I like to walk places. I hate to drive places. I left my car on the road like some abandoned creature, looking sad and lonely. When I needed it today it coughed to life but unless I go for a long-ish drive the battery wont be charged. I hate summer drives but hey-ho I’ll have to go and do some driving for the sake of a £100 car battery! Arghhh… Bring on this evening. 9 months ago

I keep thinking I’ll drive today! and then today comes and I put it off.. visualisation is not even helping. 9 months ago

So a goal for me means it’s probably more likely to happen..

I’ve ad my drivers license for over 20 yrs and I’ve probably driven a handful of times and none in the last 8 or so years, but with our Big Lap coming up it would be good to help my husband out with the long hours of driving… so I’m working on this goal with the help of my councillor… she gives me home work, which to date i keep avoiding doing,but I am going back to see her on Tuesday (31st July) so I need to practise at least something of her hard work before then… wish me luck! 9 months ago

Just wrote in the new student’s Facebook page asking for driving school recommendations in the New Haven area for after I settle down there 10 months ago

What gets to me, is the rush of information coming towards me when I drive. It’s simply too much for me. I’ve been told that I should practice more and build up a routine, so that I won’t notice every.single.detail. anymore. I got my license 10 years ago and did drive a little back then, but hated it. I fantasize about what it would be like to own a little car and enjoy driving it everywhere. First step for me would be to take driving lessons again, because I haven’t driven in ages. If the driving lessons go well, I could consider buying a car or renting one when I need to.

For now, I’m ok with excellent public transportation that can pretty much take me wherever I want to go. But someday I will need to tackle this issue, better sooner than later… It’s just that somehow, when I’m behind the wheel, I can’t forget that I’m the one who is driving and making essentially life-or-death decisions… It’s tiring, having to drive (in Europe pretty much always a stick shift) and anticipate on everybody’s move. 11 months ago

For the first time in a long time today I drove in rush-hour AND I parked in town in the only parking space available beween two parked cars. I was holding my breath most of the time but… I did it!!!! 12 months ago

I am so scared to drive. I have my permit, but it scares me to get behind the wheel. I need to get my license because I have a daughter. Also, not driving is keeping me from getting a job. I want to get my license but whenever I think about it, I get sick to my stomach. And when I get behind the wheel, I feel dizzy, sick, shaky, and my legs turn to jello. 12 months ago

I’m very gradually overcoming my fear. I’ve been making it a point to drive on the highway at least once a week, but I’m still too scared to go past the easy 2-lane ones. I’m still a little nervous, but at least I’ve stopped trembling and feeling like I can’t breathe.

I’ve been doing okay driving locally, until something happens that gets to me – someone beeps at me, cuts me off, tailgates me, or even just when I have to brake suddenly. These things didn’t bother me before the accident, now they get me shaking and wanting to cry.

So I’m slowly improving. But I don’t enjoy driving anymore. I used to love going out for drives, even when I had nowhere to go. Now driving stresses me out. I hope one day I’ll start to genuinely enjoy it again, but I’m scared I’ll never get that back.

The most important thing for me has been to make myself drive. A lot of the time I don’t feel like it, and at particular times of the day, like rush hour and nighttime, I’m scared to, but I still make myself do it. When I’m home, I bring my dog with me so it’s more fun. 13 months ago

I am 47 and have never driven a car, outside of a couple of futile attempts to learn.

I want to get my permit again and this time practice enough to pass the test.

I felt OK behind the wheel when I first took lessons, but couldn’t manage to find a car to use on the road test.

I’m really scared about driving in the rain, or in the dark though.

One step at a time. 14 months ago

I went for a drive yesterday to escape my house. D’you know… I quite enjoyed my drive. I had no pre-determined destination. I figured I’d just end up back home but I went down a windy road at about 11pm and just steered into the curves of the road and I smiled. It was a smooth and effortless drive. I hummed to the radio and just drove. I seriously considered going and doing it again. That’s not happened in a long, long while.

They say all things happen for a reason- well perhaps that’s the reason for the arguments lately? 14 months ago

not driving for months on end, i drove myself home from work today, and did some reverse parking outside my house.

i should drive more often. its on my mind alot lately. so going to try and do that.

im thinking of booking some refresher lessons with a driving instructor or some sort of driving acadamey school at some point.

i think its time to move past this fear. practice makes perfect. also want to buy a car, thats been in my head alot. if i owned and was paying off my car, then id definatly use the car alot. no matter how i felt 14 months ago

Yesterday marked my one month anniversary of regular driving. When I started trying to conquer my fear of driving I said I was aiming for the following:

• The Ideal Goal: to be a competent, calm and confident driver.

• The Realistic Goal: to be a nervy but okay driver.

After three months of research, stress, sweat, tears, determination and practice, practice, practice, I think I’ve reached a point somewhere between the two so I’m going to call this goal complete. When I started I never thought I’d make it this far, so I am a very, very happy person right now. :D 15 months ago

When I started driving full time a few weeks ago I decided to try something new to lower my driving stress, namely background noise.

I didn’t have anything that would work on hand so I went to the library and checked out the CD “The Most Relaxing Harp Album in the World… Ever!”. I’d play it during my commute and it did actually make a difference! I wouldn’t really hear it while driving but every time I stopped (streetlights, stop-and-go traffic) it’d register and I’d sit back, unknot and destress a bit.

After my success with the music tape I decided to try something else I’d been thinking about for a while. I spend six plus hours a week in a car; over the course of 2012 that’ll probably add up to 350 hours or 14.6 days. Even ignoring the fear factor, that’s a lot of time for my brain to idle.

So, audiobooks. I went back to the library (<3) and checked out a 17 hour book.

WOW! A fraction of my attention goes to the book and most of it stays on the driving but the portion of my lizard brain that is responsible for my fear of driving is overwritten by the passive listening. It’s AWESOME!!! 15 months ago

Well, school started up on Monday and I’ve passed my first week of mandatory driving. I estimate my distance driven for the week is approximately 160 miles. Some of it was done in light traffic with nice weather… and some of it was done in rain, snow, rush hour, the dark, or some permutation thereof.

And I’ve survived. :) 16 months ago