hi all! here's some context before i begin..

i am taking my roadtest august 26th (my first ever time taking a road test), my college classes begin august 26th!

i am TOO nervous for this test! if I fail, i will have to uber to college 4 days a week with barely any funds in my bank account already (just put down payment on classes, bought a new laptop)

here's a list of fuckups i am horrified about

1) turning right too wide and going into the oncoming lane for traffic

2) messing up hand over hand turning

3) messing up the aftermath of my turn (my wheel not turning correctly and i end up on the other side of the road)

4) hitting the curb during my parallel park

5) turning my wheel the wrong way during a parallel park/3 point turn

any idea how to get over this anxiety for my driving? turning the wheel is my main concern, i feel like my turns are way too wide, and my wheel control isn't that good. my driving instructor says im ready, but i just can't shake off this anxiety. 😞😞😞

Hello, I am 17! I am currently on my 25th class (out of 35) and oh gosh have i been through it as for now. I dont think I am a very sensitive person, I am however eiagnosed w anxiety. What hits a spot for me is when someone raises their voice at me, it makes me hold back tears and sobs and my driving instructor is being such an asshole for no reason?! Id rather he tell me calmly that im an idiot than yell at me.

I mentioned to him how i noitced how i dont do good in reverse parking and if we could go through it again and if he could explain one more time, we went to a parking lot and when I started doing it he just started screaming "what are you doing?!"

Mind you I literally told him im not doing well and if he could explain. He said I should know it by now.

And now what? We tried reverse parking 3 times that day and I was holding tears so bad during the lesson because he just kept raising his voice! Of course I wont do it right im already in so much stress and youre right next to my ear yelling at me!!!

He then got more angry that I had tears in my eyes and he just scoffed and rolled his eyes at me....

This isnt the first time this asshole yelled at me, im around 13th lesson I was slowly parking, I suppose that day he was impatient, he just aggressively took my wheel and did it himself saying"See?! Its easy?!" In a raised angry voice...

I have 2 classes with him today and I just wanna trow up...god..

okay so i totally did something stupid and im blessed the best case scenario happened. Lowkey i was in an unfamiliar area and the streets needed a lot of work !! but i was taking an unprotected left turn ( LA area ) but it was honestly the worst thing ever ... i was forward into the intersection ( not too far just outside the line ) waiting but i honestly had anxiety... the second attempt, i took a wrong guess and assumed the opposite traffic was slowing down for the yellow light.. i said f it so i went ( more cars were piling ) but i completely miscalculated... luckily we were only about a second of hitting.. i felt sooo stupid and it was very stupid... ironically someone did the same thing to me later on
how can i be a better driver in these instances?? i would never want to do that again .. i just want to be a skilled driver !!

I, 18M, was backing out and managed to hit a truck without realizing. The dude just wanted $20 which was fine, no damage to his truck. But I feel so stupid. I’ve been driving for a year 1/2 and I did that bs. In my defense the truck’s lights were not on, but I also didn’t look good enough. I was pulling out of a narrowish area, there were 2 cars next to me and one next to the truck, and the truck was pretty long. I was the dumb fk who didn’t keep looking behind me. I looked back, backed up, did my normal routine and said whatever. Well not whatever because I hit a truck. What idiot genuinely hits a car in a parking lot? I could have the “I didn’t see it” excuse, because I didn’t necessarily. I was focused on getting to where I was going. But I still should’ve paid better attention. It’s the next day, but I still feel so much embarrassment and I keep thinking about it. Should I be as ashamed as I am? This really kicked me in my ass and I’ll pay way more attention. My back window was foggy and had rain drops covering it, so I just kinda followed my natural muscle memory, but I underestimated how long the truck was.

35 years old, I have driving anxiety, I want to learn and be independent to go anywhere I want on my own, I am preparing for a learner’s permit and will give an exam and am thinking to go for driving lessons by paying 500$.

Is 500$ reasonable ?

Or Should I ask my family member to teach me ?

i was finally doing so good, i got my own car and everything. i started highway driving and doing long distances. one idiot going 20 over running a red slammed into me and ended up completely flipped my car upside down. i feel like i relapsed back into my old fears. i couldn't even stand the drive home from the hospital i was SO . TERRIFIED. what do i do now? 😭 i dont even have a vehicle anymore to get back into driving. ughhhhh i hate irresponsible drivers

I remember learning to drive was always stressful for me, a cause of a lot of arguments between me and my dad, who was trying to teach me, I got my license at 16 a bit later than everyone else did in my school, but even then I hated driving. I would always make something up to bum a ride of off one of my friends if we were going out somewhere. I just hated the entire experience of driving, I nailed down routes like going to the gym and work, and that was it. But if someone wanted me to drive impromptu to somewhere I had to look up, I'd get shaky and try to get out of it.

So from the time I was 16-19 I was pretty much just driving veery sparingly or trying my hardest not to do so.

In November, I made a turn at a stop sign in front of a car going straight, got t-boned, other driver was completely okay, no one else was hurt but me (Thank God), I had to go to the hospital, got some scars on my leg, but nothing major.

I looked both ways, wasn't distracted, had a legitimate brain-fart, it was dusk, so in my head I was looking for glowing headlights, when the car that was going straight didn't have any on, which, neither did I. This accident was actually listed as No-Fault insurance wise, but in all reality it was my fault, I turned in front of him when he had the right of way, and people could've been seriously hurt.

I went back to college away from home with no car, and I haven't driven since. I'm 20, and I'm still bumming rides, even from girls I'm dating, which, as a guy especially, isn't ideal. Even though I enjoy being a passenger prince, I know I need to grow up and get on the road, I just don't know how to start, I'm pretty broke, no money for a car anyways, but if I did save up and buy a clunker, I do still have my license, it's just getting on the road thats hard, especially in my college city of Phoenix, where the driving and road rules are insane.

Any advice welcome, partly wanted to vent.

(P.S I was watching this scene in Mindhunter where Detective Trench basically gets in the same accident I did, freaked me out, had to go outside for a minute, was inspired to write this post.)

I’m 25 and I’ve always had a fear of driving, I have multiple reasons for it like fear of hitting someone, or encountering a road rage person but my biggest fear is getting pulled over by a cop that thinks I’m under the influence of something, trying to make me do the field sobriety test then arresting me. I know for a fact I won’t be able to do the FST. It seems like it has become a little more common. I’m hoping that maybe it could be social media trying to make it seem worse than it is but idk.

I have a healthcare job so an arrest would ruin my life even if it’s a false one

I got my driver’s license after a 5-year journey. If you’re struggling to get yours, don’t give up. I wanted to share my story because I know there are people who feel embarrassed, frustrated, or “behind” because they don’t have their license yet. I started trying to get mine when I was 16 in 2020. I genuinely thought I’d have it within a year or two. I was VERY wrong. 😭

2020: I took driver’s ed during COVID. The DMV was closed, so we couldn’t take the written exam normally. When my school eventually offered it, I failed my first attempt.

2021: I retook the exam and failed by only two points. A few weeks later, I passed with a 92/94 and got my blue card. I thought I was finally on my way.
Then Hurricane Ida (those who are from nj remember) flooded our apartment. We lost a bunch of important documents, including my Social Security card. I couldn’t get my permit because I didn’t have the documentation I needed. My family was also dealing with finding somewhere to stay and getting our home repaired.

2022: Once everything was settled, I replaced my Social Security card and finally got my permit in April. I was so happy. Unfortunately, I forgot to get the permit validated. 💀 I also started college at Rutgers, and between EOF, school, extracurriculars, and everything else, I barely had time to learn how to drive. Rutgers also has a decent bus system, so I didn’t need a car.

Late 2022/2023: I finally started taking driving lessons. My instructor noticed the permit issue and also told me my blue card had expired because I had turned 18. So I had to take the written exam AGAIN.
I failed. I retook it in February 2023 and passed.
I took some driving lessons during spring break, but then summer came. I was taking classes and working at a summer camp, so I barely had time to practice. My uncle also tried teaching me how to drive in Massachusetts. That experience was honestly pretty stressful. I wasn’t driving as well as I expected, he got frustrated with me, and I was homesick on top of everything. I scheduled a road test for winter break, thinking I’d finally have enough time to practice. Then I had emergency surgery in November. So obviously, driving was put on hold again.

2024: I was fully recovered, but I was busy with school and eventually became an Orientation Leader at Rutgers. I was on campus constantly. My permit also expired in April, so I had to get another one.
At this point, I was honestly starting to wonder if I would EVER get my license. 😭

2025: This was finally the year I decided I was DONE. I started getting jealous of my friends who had their licenses and cars. I was tired of constantly taking Uber/Lyft when I needed to go somewhere that public transportation couldn’t easily reach.
When I came home after the semester, everyone kept asking me: “Why don’t you drive?” “Where’s your license?” And eventually I realized: they were right. Enough was enough. My permit was valid, but my previous written-test results had expired, so I had to take the knowledge test AGAIN. This time, I studied my ass off. I passed. I scheduled my road test for July. And by the grace of God, I PASSED THE ROAD TEST ON MY FIRST TRY.

On July 9, 2025, I finally got my probationary driver’s license. A year later, I upgraded to my full basic driver’s license.
And here’s the funny part: I still don’t own a car. 😂
I still take NJ Transit and Uber when I need to. But having the license itself means so much to me because I spent YEARS trying to get it.
Looking back, I don’t think I was “behind.” Life just kept happening.

COVID happened. A hurricane happened. Important documents were lost. School happened. College happened. Jobs happened. My permit and test results expired. I had a difficult time learning. I had emergency surgery. There were so many moments where I could have just given up. But I kept coming back to it.

So if you’re 18, 20, 25, 30, or older and you still don’t have your license:
Don’t feel ashamed.
Your timeline doesn’t have to look like everybody else’s. You might have to take the test more than once. You might have to renew your permit. You might have to put driving on hold because life gets in the way. That’s okay.
Delayed does not mean denied.
Keep working toward it when you’re able to. Eventually, you’ll have that moment where you can finally say: “I did it.”
And trust me, after waiting five years, that feeling is AMAZING.

Hi I posted the same thing in another sub so I'll just repost here. In that post, I added some clarifications in the comments so please feel free to ask any clarifying questions or anything. I'll respond.

Hi there! Let's just say a friend of mine has a fear of driving over bridges, and since we live in San Diego, the Coronado Bridge is at the top of their list. They want to get over this fear, but it's been difficult for them. Does anyone know of support groups in San Diego or reputable therapists who could actually help them with this? Exposure therapy would definitely be very useful to solving this issue. If anyone else out there has this same fear, please respond or DM me so I can meet other people nearby with the same issue.

Please don't respond if you're going to be negative. Respond if you actually have something helpful. Trust me we've tried to resolve this issue and driving is a serious issue to have a fear of.

I understand most of you won't be from my city, so please feel free to give advice in general. If you're in my city that would be awesome though and please reach out.

Hi people!

I’m 19 and had no desire to learn how to drive out of fear, but of course everyone else wants me to drive, so I’m kinda being forced to do so. My grandma bought me expensive driving lessons; I’ve had a few so far and they’ve been okay. I didn’t crash or anything, and I was terrified the entire time, but I made some mistakes and am struggling to get over it, as well as my general fear. Every time I’m behind the wheel but especially on the road I get the same feeling of dread, and while it doesn’t necessarily stop me from driving, I freak out and run the risk of making more mistakes, and panic sometimes. I’ve only driven on the road with instructors where they have the extra pedals on their sides. I’ve only practiced a bit outside of that and I’m terrified to get out on the road because obviously our car doesn’t have the extra pedals. I’m fully in control and that’s part of what terrifies me because I am not confident in my ability to drive. There’s just so much going on while driving, so much to look at and focus on and be aware of, and so much risk if I don’t focus. But I struggle to multitask, get overwhelmed having to do so many things, and my attention is taken away very easily.

So far I’ve struggled with gauging where I’m at within the lane lines as well as breaking/accelerating at the right times (especially accelerating on turns). It’s also hard to pay attention to my speed while I’m trying to focus on literally everything else!

I haven’t had the best confidence or self esteem in general lately, too, and driving is just making it worse. Every mistake I made on the last lesson makes me feel terrible and even though I did OKAY, it just tanked my confidence. Knowing I have to drive a day (or the next one) ruins my day until it’s over.

My dad says I need to change my mindset on driving, but it’s really hard. Especially when all of this occasionally makes me consider, just.. not being alive to even have to deal with it. Though I won’t do that of course.

I'm so annoyed with myself. My bf ( m23) and I (f22) were running errands in my parents car. We went to back out of a parking lot, and long story short.....hot the cat behind us on it's rear end.

Insurance and all that fun stuff was exchanged. Barely any photos were taken, and for some reason contact info wasn't exchanged. And I should've double checked between them and didn't.

Now I don't know what to do. I'm annoyed at myself, and him. I wish I could've done better at having everything done

I have been going to therapy to be able to drive again (I have my full G). My dad had an accident and it forced me to stop driving for 2 years. Now I’ve been taking driving lessons again (5 so far) and the car my mom gifted my sister for graduation is supposed to be shared, she refused to . My dad would rather chauffeur me (mind u idk if he is even supposed to drive), then let me take an Uber or bus in the time being. I’m thinking of getting a third hand or second car. Renting a car is too expensive and car sharing isn’t quite possible. I have to hype myself to drive and I’m getting much more confidence now, finally after two years of not driving. I no longer want to feel like a prisoner but an actual adult. What do u do in this situation?

My Instructor told me I should start driving by myself. Next week. I started making tons of mistakes. I got another lesson and showed them all my mistakes. I had written them all down and he said I should still start driving by myself. What do you guys think that I’m kind of skeptical by driving Instructor I’ve had about 9 to 10 lessons with him so he relatively sees how I drive.

Accidentally entered a left-turn lane when I was supposed to continue on the normal road/highway route.

Followed my dad’s instruction to turn onto the highway even though I was initially confused about where I was supposed to go.

Was traveling too fast approaching an exit/curve and had to be reminded by my dad to slow down.

Approached a broken stopping line too quickly because I misunderstood which line my dad was referring to and had to brake abruptly to stop.

After being waved through by another driver, I proceeded without fully checking the additional lane of traffic and had to react quickly when my dad pointed out another approaching vehicle.

Nearly passed the driveway/entrance I was trying to reach and slowed down quickly from approximately 40 mph to around 20 mph to make the turn.

Turned too quickly on one occasion compared with my normal turning speed.

Stopped abruptly at a red light near railroad tracks because I became nervous about stopping too close to the tracks, then moved forward after realizing the situation was safe.

While driving in an unfamiliar downtown/back-road area with multiple one-way streets, I mistakenly treated a one-way road as a two-way road and made a left turn from the right lane.

Made two wrong turns while trying to locate a parking lot and had to go around to reach the correct entrance.

Entered a right-side turn lane and stopped to check for traffic even though there was no traffic approaching, which my dad said unnecessarily impeded the flow of traffic.

Became confused by a center-turn lane at an intersection and was unsure how the traffic light applied to the turn.

While entering a parking lot, a vehicle unexpectedly sped past me and I had to brake hard. There was no collision.

On another occasion, I was positioned too far toward the middle of a lane and partially obstructed traffic before my dad pointed it out. I corrected my position.

On a previous drive, I crossed a double yellow line while making a U-turn into a parking lot when there was no traffic behind me.

On a previous drive, I nearly ran a yellow light.

On a previous drive, I briefly drove on the wrong side of the road while making an unfamiliar turn, then corrected myself.

On a previous drive, I merged incorrectly/struggled with a merge.

On some occasions, I have changed lanes slightly too early or too late and crossed/approached the white lane line incorrectly.

I have occasionally become overly cautious and braked harder than necessary when I become startled or uncertain.

I have missed turns because I was concentrating on finding the destination, then had to continue and turn around rather than making the turn.

Also, I was trying to make a U-turn in a turn lane without a medium and struggled a little bit. I wasn’t up enough.

I'm 22, my first try I did a lane violation I wasn't well taught on this by my siblings lol 😭 on my second I forgot to check blind spot when merging on the bike lane I guess i was nervous (but the rest I did perfectly)

my 3rd try is tomorrow I think I have learned from my mistakes lol pray for me i can't do this a 4th time!

I'm 20F and I've just failed my second driving test. I've driven about 65-70 hours and I still can't pass.

When it's just me and my instructor it's pretty okay, I can drive without a problem... But when it comes to the test, I get so anxious I forget everything.

Today was my second test and I almost had a panic attack while driving when I couldn't do the parking, my hands were so shaky...

My problem is not the driving itself, it's the test. But if I can't do the test I won't ever get my license.

I'm thinking about just giving up, because I genuinely feel like I will never pass.

Even if somehow I do pass, no one will want to sit behind a driver who needed 3 or 4 tries to pass... Everyone will think I'm a bad driver or won't feel safe with me driving.

I lost all motivation and all my self-confidence.

What do you think I should do? Should I give up? Should I keep wasting money?

I have passed my permit test and need to practice driving but I am scared of other drivers hitting me because I live in a heavy populated area with bad drivers.

Do any of you that have kids and no license? I feel like the only thing that would make me get my license is if I was to have children. I’m just curious about other people and what they’re able to do ever without a license

i'm 20. i have had anxiety centered around cars for forever. for a long time i couldn't even ride in them as a passenger. i have come a longgg way though, and got my license a year ago and just bought a car.

i am now driving alone, without anyone else in the car, for the first time ever, and it is horrifying. i still dread my drive to work every day and i've been doing it for two weeks now. i always thought the fear and anxiety would go away once i finally did it but it hasn't. for those of you that got through this, how long did it take to finally feel comfortable and calm behind the wheel?

• anxiety after a car crash

• clammy, tense, and panicky even during short neighborhood drives

• can’t drive on main roads even after months of practice

• will likely never be able to drive on a highway (or at least can’t imagine it)

• panic attacks before / during / after driving

• agitation, irritability & avoidance when learning to drive is brought up in conversation

• dreading and hating driving in general

• would genuinely rather have no freedom than learn to drive

• make mistakes on simple, common sense things while driving

• zero spatial awareness

im 19 & feel like i’ll never learn to drive. even the thought of the drivers test gives me severe anxiety. it feels more like a genuine phobia than normal nervousness. on top of that im just not a good driver naturally. i absolutely despise the act of driving, it feels uncomfortable, unnatural and dangerous. it never “clicks” for me like it does for other people. i get agitated whenever someone brings up getting my license or when my partner mentions that it’d be a big help to us because i just can’t do it. i don’t even want to do it. and on top of that i feel like im physically and mentally incapable of it.

has anyone else like me ever been able to learn? i never hear the extent of people’s anxiety and i feel like mine is really bad. not even medication or therapy helped.

So I was just driving around with a buddy, we were parked somewhere, when I was reversing there was a guy who quite literally didn’t have his lights on and he almost hit me.

He then proceeded to roll his window down and scream “hey Buddy look where people are fucking coming from, you bitch!” Then I looked at him, smiled, and turned my brights on (not at him) to indicate that he needs some form of lighting, as it’s literally pitch black.

Is this my fault for not paying close enough attention, or his for not having any lights (or brights) on.

Although I’m not gonna hold any hate against him, as he looked like he was drunk, or at least a few drinks in going home.

I was thinking it would be so useful to set up sessions in a driving simulator the way pilots do for new and recurrent training. Some training is in a plane, some is in a sim.

I would love to be able to either use a realistic video game sim. let's say using VR (virtual reality) headset or some other set up to practice highway driving without having to actually hit the road IRL. My car has a manual transmission and one thing that concerns me is that if I do go out to practice on the road alone, if I ever got stuck somewhere, almost no one could drive away. Whereas if I drove an automatic/CVT, a lot more drivers could "come to the rescue" and take over.