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My introduction
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cherrypopwizkid
1

Hello everyone. I just found this place and did not hesitate to register. I am so glad there is a forum for people suffering with this issue!

 My anxiety is apparently even higher than I imagined, because just the fact that I\'m posting here means I\'m planning to do something about my fear, and the thought of facing that is scary.

 Well lets see. I do drive. My primary fears are driving on interstates and in cities but sometimes driving in the county gets me anxious as well. I also have a fear of being lost, and sometimes I get nervous about not having a lot of money in my account and breaking down (what if I have to be towed?? What even happens at that point??)

 I was never the guy in high school who was into cars. Frankly, I wish we didn\'t live in a country where we basically HAVE to use them! I don\'t know why anyone likes them! They are polluting, their deathtraps, and frankly, what scares me more than anything is everyone else. I NEVER trust anyone else on the road, and I drive like they are all four wheeled terminators out to kill me. I have all sorts of bizare strategies. For example if I am on a four way stop (and there are two on the way home from work) I try to time it so that I go at the same time as someone entering my side of the street so that we block eachother from at least 50% of the danger each on the other side.

 I miss out on a lot of things, and I bum rides whenever I can. My best friend recently moved closer into the city and I only get to see him when he comes to my house because I can\'t stand the thought of trying to drive to his.

 What also boils my blood is that for some reason in this state, and as a child I lived lots of places and I swear this isn\'t how it is everywhere, people are OBBSSSED with the stupid interstate and with the stupid city. I live right out of Richmond VA which is hell on earth imo. Anytime you want to get anywhere here and you ask directions, even if its three minutes walk by foot without fail you\'ll be told which exit ramp to get on *rolls eyes*. Merging to me just seems like a retarded concept. basically so that the Jones\'s communte will be thirty seconds shorter we created the "hurry up and die" system, more commonly called merging, where we rocket ourselves like bullets out of a narrow lane where its entirely tabu to stop even for safety reasons into hundreds of other bullets whose only thought is "everything I do is so important that if I don\'t go 20 over I\'ll be punished by god or something."

 I also don\'t right turn on red and get honked at a lot, another concept that is stupid to me. Why even have a traffic light?? People expect you to go with the smallest possible gap and honk and cuss and give you the finger when you wait for it to turn green. I could be mistaken but I don\'t think right on red is MANDATORY.

So I know this first post sounds like a lot of complaining and justification. But I wanted everyone to know where I was at as we try to help eachother (and hopefully not justify eachother which I hope isn\'t what I\'m doing.)  


Awkward123
2

dear cherrypop-  I completely agree with you about driving as a means to get around.  Its a really insane undertaking if you actually think about it- which I guess most people don\'t do.  I also can relate to right on red.  One day I was at a stop light and I was going to wait for it to turn green, but the woman behind me honked at me and I panicked.  I started to turn, when out of nowhere (I guess he was in my blind spot) this big van almost hit me and had to avoid me.  I was so upset.  My fear was made worse and I was angry at the dumb B*** behind me who couldn\'t wait 10 seconds for the frigging light to turn.  I also used to get tailgated a lot, I would always drive at exactly the speed limit, but it seems like everyone wants to go 90 in a 55 and they have no patience for people who A) don\'t want to get ticketed and B) don\'t want to lose control of the bloody car!  To make matters worse, I got into an accident on a rainy night on a long, winding country road.  Thank god I only crashed into a ditch!  My car hydroplaned around a turn.  I was so traumatized.  And I had to get my car towed out at great expense.  For some reason I\'m not that afraid of merging.  I think its because I like being on the hwy.  No lights, no intersections, no stopping, and people do usually make space for you to get in.  So far I haven\'t experienced a problem, although I thought it would be the scariest part of driving.  

What is REALLY hard for me is city driving.  I live in Seattle now.  I just moved here and I don\'t know my way around and everything is pretty confusing.  City driving sucks because there is so much going on that I have trouble sorting out all the information at the same time as trying to figure out where the He77 I am going.  I have nightmares about driving all the time, I\'ve had them since I was a little kid.  Soon I will have to start driving down town for interviews and work, and as if finding a new job weren\'t stressful enough- I\'m shaking in my boots about driving there, parking etc.  I\'m still a new driver.  I\'ve only had my license for 6 months.  I\'m not great at parking.  And anytime I have to drive somewhere new I make my bf take me on a dry run first.  Sometimes it helps but its embarrassing to have to constantly fight off crying and panic attacks in front of him.  I\'m afraid to have passengers because I feel they wont be safe with me.  I have things to do and I worked too hard to get my license to let the fear mess everything up now, so I ordered that driving fear program.  We\'ll see how it goes.  I just hope I get it soon!  

Thanks for sharing your story and for reading mine! 
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