Recognising the symptoms of amaxophobia, the fear of driving

There are many factors to consider in understanding amaxophobia as there are almost as many fears of driving as there are individuals. From one individual suffering from amaxophobia to another, the object of the anxiety may be very different. For some, the fear may be triggered by being in heavy traffic, on a motorway with many trucks or on dangerous roads. Others may be terrified that they might be responsible for a road accident…

Fear of driving is an increasingly common phobia

It groups together profiles of subjects with very different histories. This phobia can be due to a traumatic memory caused by an accident or by the fact of losing control of oneself: you fear to make a faint or to carry out a sudden gesture which could cause an accident. If this is the case you may well be suffering from panic disorder. This is characterised by intense, sudden-onset anxiety attacks that peak in intensity within a short time. When this happens, the physical signs you feel are palpitations, a strong acceleration of the heart rate, a feeling of oppression, dizziness, hot flashes, etc.

This fear of panic is particularly central to amaxophobia

If during a journey you suddenly feel a choking sensation in your chest, having difficulty breathing to the extent that you have to stop for a few minutes at the side of the road, then you may have gradually put strategies in place to prevent this from happening again. You then get back in your car and drive slower for fear of it happening again. Your journeys become shorter and shorter, and you pay close attention to any signs that you might feel while driving. You feel more and more vulnerable and increase the fear that the bad feelings will come back.

Fear of losing control at the heart of amaxophobia

But although the physical sensations associated with the panic attack play an important role in the development of the phobia and the avoidance behaviours, it is often the fear of losing control of the vehicle that is central to its development. This constantly imagined loss of control can act as a trigger for the panic attack and can also be seen as its consequence. In a sense, for many cases, amaxophobia can be said to be ‘structured’ around the feeling that one can and will lose control of the vehicle at any moment. 

The amaxophobic subject is in fact obsessed by human error, which is certainly the source of many accidents, but which is then the subject of an inordinate focus compared to the other thoughts and sensations (positive in particular) that driving can arouse. The worst accidents experienced, heard of and even imagined serve to fuel the belief that the driver has no real control over what happens on the road, over his own vehicle and even less over those of others. It is important to realise that in the majority of cases, people who are anxious about driving say that they are not fundamentally afraid of their own driving, but rather of the driving of others.

This is also the reason why it is often still as difficult to be a driver as a passenger in the case of amaxophobia. When someone else is driving, we rely on their ability to control the vehicle and therefore place our personal safety in their hands. But this process is made almost impossible if one is convinced that a fatal mistake can be made at any moment by anyone. 

For the mildest driving phobias, this will therefore manifest itself in anxiety-induced hypervigilance, over-cautiousness on the road which can be dangerous, and repeated urging to be careful as a passenger. The more severe ones prevent people from taking the car at all, as the idea of causing or being involved in an accident becomes the only possible outcome of a car journey.

Fear of driving: a consequence of another phobia

It is also possible that your fear of driving in specific situations may be the result of another phobia. For example, if you are acrophobic, the fear of driving arises on mountain roads; if you are claustrophobic you fear driving in tunnels or getting stuck in traffic. The phobia of enclosed spaces is often associated with means of transport (metro, bus, train, etc.) and the common anxiety denominator of these fears is in the belief that the anxiety will lead to loss of control. It is exactly as if you can see yourself going crazy, screaming and banging your head against the walls. These are irrational fears because these situations or objects are not life threatening, yet you are convinced that you could lose control of yourself while driving.

Ultimately, the fear of driving is often found if you suffer from agoraphobia, claustrophobia, fear of heights, trauma from an accident, a disability (possibly age-related: reduced vision, reduced reflexes, etc.) or if you have an anxious personality. Although it is not easy to identify the circumstances at the origin of the phobia, it is essential to orientate an adapted therapeutic action.