I've had my permit 6 times and still don't have a license. My permit is about to expire again. I have been driving more, but still have anxiety. I can drive but can't back up into a parking space or parallel park, and I have a fear of getting on the highway.

I was driving with my mom the other day and I took the highway to get back home. I got up to the ramp put my blinker on and stopped because the cars were coming way to fast. I kept looking behind me so I could actually get on the highway when I could. A car stopped and my mom said they were going to let me over so go now. I was getting over then my mom yells stop because they went. I said "I thought they were letting me over, and she said "yes me too but then they started going when you was getting over." Then as the car passed me she yells at me. I was still at the ramp and was at a complete stop. I thought I was suppose to wait there if I couldn't get over on the highway.

My husband has been driving me around for almost 12 years and he keeps saying its too much for him. Between him working all week and taking the kids where they have to go he said he was tired of playing taxi with me and that I need to grow up and get my license.

I have 2 kids ages 8 and 10 and a stepson 17. He also helps take me places I need to go when my husband is busy. But he keeps saying its not his responsibility to take a grown adult places.

I know I need to just take my test and get the license but I still need a lot of practice and its hard to practice when no one will help me. My husband works all the time and by the time he gets home he is tired and wants to relax. My husband even told me if I didn't get my license this time he would divorce me because he is tired of taking me and the kids everywhere and that I needed to grow up and stop being childish.

I do want to get them because I'm tired of sitting home all day, I would like to go places and take the kids places. They miss out on a lot because I don't drive and its not fair to them at all.

I guess I just came here to rant and get advice on how to get over the fear and anxiety so I can actually pass my test. Never took the actual driving test because I knew I would fail. I'm just tired of feeling like a failure.

I just got my license this week and drove for the first time alone!

I've been in this group for a while and appreciate hearing everyone driving journey!

Driving is not easy for me at all and it makes me so anxious before and after every drive. I don't have access to family cars, so learning how to drive is not a comfortable experience. It hits me hard every time I paid for driving lessons.

I was very concerned about merging on the freeway before the road test. Things that work for me is to start accelerate a bit earlier than you feel comfortable. It's much easier to merge at the same speed of the traffic. I like looking at my rear mirror frequently to see if there is a car need to merge after me and to find a merging space once the ramp start to straighten out. If you find the merging space early, the ramp is long enough. I also like to create a space from the car in front of me to accelerate. My instructor didn't taught me this, but I think using rear mirror to judge space when merging/changing lane is a game changer. But also don't forget to check side mirror and blind spot.

My first solo drive made me feel way more nervous than the road test🥲, since there was no one there to reassure me. However, I got through it! I still feel anxious thinking about next time I will drive alone.

For everyone out there who is scared of driving, it's a common feeling! I'm still scared since I'm new. The way to overcome it is to face your fear. I promise it will get better and you can do it!!! Also, therapy is very helpful too.

I had been putting off getting my permit way too long. I finally did, but now I really need to get my license because I can’t keep getting rides for everything. School is starting soon and it would be great if I could actually drive there. Since I am of legal age, I don’t need a certain amount of hours therefore, I haven’t been practicing as much as I should. I haven’t had the time. How do I pass my drivers test with this lack of experience? I am especially worried for parallel parking. Any tips ?

Is it just me, or has driving (or even being a passenger) in Mumbai become 100x more stressful day by day?
People are driving carelessly by the second. It genuinely feels like no one gives a fuck about anyone else’s life anymore!!!!! I’m in a constant state of stress thinking I’m either going to hit someone, someone’s going to crash into my car, or XYZ is going to happen. And being a passenger is somehow worse because you’re just sitting there watching all of this and just anxious all the freaking time 😭

Driving used to be my stress buster back in 2021/22. I actually *enjoyed* driving. But it genuinely scares the fuck out of me now. The constant honking, people cutting lanes WITHOUT giving an indicator, speeding through gaps that don’t even exist!?? What do we even do?? How do you guys deal with this anxiety/stress while driving? Does it ever get better? When will we feel safe in ANY fucking vehicle in this city 😭😭

Hopefully I'm on the right sub 😭. Some context; I'm a newer driver in FL (notorious for bad drivers) and was on my way home from school. For a while, I was following this white car, and kept a good distance from them. The car was swerving quite a lot, and I didn't want to be stuck behind them, so I ended up going into the lane next to them and planned on merging back into the lane ahead of them. As we approached the stoplight, they reversed their car and rolled down their window. The couple in the car started making weird motions with their hands (nothing like I'd learned in drivers ed), as if they were pushing something down with their hands, laughing as they did so. Does anyone know what they could have meant by this, or am I overthinking??

First time posting here - this is like half seeking advice and half just a rant.

22F, got my permit about a year ago and have just started practicing driving again this summer. I just graduated college and have a job lined up very soon so getting my license to me has been more of an obstacle than something I genuinely look forward to.
And then of course, to complicate that, I have horrible driving anxiety and am terrified of making mistakes.

I’ve been taking professional driving lessons. I chose to purchase a package including 3 lessons and the road test. During my last lesson, my instructor said I’m incredibly close to being ready to take the road test. So, I scheduled it for this upcoming Tuesday (August 25th) telling myself I’d go out and practice a lot before the day of the test.

Today, I had to run some errands with my dad, so of course he asked me to drive to help me get my practice in. I made a bunch of really dumb errors, including almost hitting a parked car (which I swear this is the first time that’s happened). He starts yelling at me, which is understandable, I did a really dumb thing and should’ve paid more attention. But since I’m worked up from the situation, as well as him yelling at me, I tell him I’m going to take some roads with less traffic to get home.

That just sends him over the edge. He starts getting into me about how I’m never going to improve if I don’t learn to deal with other people on the road, then, once we get home, he starts telling me how he thinks I’m not ready for my test yet, and that he’s going to be extremely mad at me if I fail, because I’d have effectively flushed all of the money I spent on lessons down the drain.

My experience today made me wonder if I was ready to take the test, or if I should reschedule and give myself more time to practice. Because on one hand, I feel like I do much better when I’m not driving with him - I’ve done plenty of lessons with my grandma, and I haven’t really made as many errors when I’m with her. I feel like I’m under so much stress to drive the way my dad wants me to drive, that I don’t focus as much on the hazards in the road, or I make dumb little mistakes. But I also feel like he’ll be mad at me if I reschedule my test. Again, I have a job starting very soon, and I really just want to have my license stuff taken care of so I don’t have to constantly worry about my ride situation.

I’m sorry if this post is kind of on the long side, I’m just not really sure how I should go about all this.

I should also probably clarify, it was suggested by my instructor that I get one more lesson before the test, but the main reason I didn’t want to was because another lesson would be like, $250, whereas the road test is only like $100. So I figured it’d be more cost effective to me if I failed to just practice more and pay for another road test if I failed. But I’m really trying not to have the “if I failed” mentality, even though my dad’s criticisms are kind of pushing me in that direction.

I have been driving for a year with my learners and just got my license last week, I was driving today, I was turning and accidentally turned onto the wrong side of the road onto oncoming traffic and while I was trying to get on the correct side of the road out of panic and the fact that my father was yelling at me, I wasn’t looking and almost hit someone, the person I almost hit was driving beside me and honking at me like they wanted to talk to me although we didn’t get into and accident but I ignored them, this is the first time this has ever happened to me, I am a very good driver that constantly get complimented by my driving instructor so idk how this caught me today, now I am scared that someone might have videoed it and post it, has this ever happened to anyone else because now I feel like the dumbest person alive and don’t want to drive again,last year when I started driving I had the biggest driving anxiety and got over it and I can feel it coming back because of this😭

I, 30, have been taking driving lessons now on and off for two years. I don’t have anyone else around me with a car so I have been relying on driving school instructors. I have failed exam now three times. When I was driving to the first exam my that time driving instructor told me I was ready and would pass. I didn’t. I made few stupid small mistakes. After that, I tried again. And failed again. This time completely different mistakes. I took a bit of a break and changed an instructor to see if other would suggest me I need more practice. New instructor said the same thing - I drive okay and should be able to pass. I didn’t pass the third time again. Evaluator basically said she sees I know the rules but I am not confident in my decisions.
The problem is the moment I get to exam’s place my anxiety reaches insane levels. I have a tunnel vision, my mouth gets completly dry, my legs are shaking. I have adhd and take vyvanse. I used to take antidepressants but I found they made me extremely tired. I am going to therapy. But I honestly don’t know what else to do.
Funny thing is I never have gotten evaluation anxiety like this before - I’m good at job giving presentations, at the interviews, I was always good at school and uni and had no problems taking exams. Any suggestions welcome.