I'm 20 years old and over the last couple of months I have developed a driving phobia. I have had my license since I was seventeen and never had much of a problem with driving for several years. I used to drive every week for 2 hours from my college to my parents going over mountain passes in bad weather without any problems. Anytime I felt spacey or dizzy I just shrugged it off. Starting in january things started to change. I was driving home one night during a snow storm. It was only about twenty minutes from the community college I was attending at the time to my house. When I was going up a hill on the freeway the mustang in front of me suddenly stopped. I was able to stop in time but since my truck only had two wheel drive I spun out when I started to drive I ended up having to abandon my truck on the side of the road. Since then my anxiety has gotten progessively worse. I was no longer able to tolerate driving at night and stopped going to school for a quarter as a result. I was only able to drive long distances if someone else was in the car with me. My job was only ten minutes from my house so I could drive there fine. Around the end of june a doctor put me on prozac to help with the problem. About a week into taking it I experienced a major panic attack on the road and have barely been able to drive since. I can drive alright enough with a passenger, except on crowded freeways. I especially hate stopping at red lights in interesections because I feel like I'm gonna accidently roll out into the road and get side swiped. I have basically started to get rides everywhere which I hate because I feel like I'm a burden on other people. I'm gonna be moving into the city in a couple of weeks and probably won't need a car but I still want to overcome this fear because I am worried it will follow me my entire life. Any suggestions?

I use to love driving in snow storms (not near other cars of course!) because I loved plowing through the snow and ice. Then I ended up getting a little 2 wheel drive car and was driving carefully to work one day and someone came over in my lane which made me have to slide over and my tires caught the snow and I fish tailed and ended up spinning out on the freeway sliding into the ditch. After that any time I was in bad weather I would start having a panic attack because I was worried it would happen again. I was only bothered in bad snow weather though never any other time. Since then before the next winter I got a 4 wheel drive, and just got a new vehicle thats all wheel drive because they do better in the snow. They are big and better for bad weather and I feel safer in them and now I am no longer bothered by the snow and enjoy playing in it again. I am not saying it will help for you but would it be possible to maybe get some 4 wheel drive vehicle or something bigger or something you would maybe feel safer in?

Good luck overcoming your fear and welcome to Ofear!

It seems like this has escalated quite a bit since the original incident. It sure seems scary (The first accident in the snow) and I know travelling in general can be a bit harrowing for me. I think getting a large 4-wheel drive vehicle might be a fantastic idea for you. Good luck. Hang in there!