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Anxiety and Stress Can Hinder Driving Abilities

By HERWriter
 
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Driving can be stressful and can cause anxiety, especially when you take into consideration how many car accidents and bad drivers there are.

However, there is a point when the stress can be too much, and the fear of driving can lead to negative consequences.

For example, a new study from the Queensland University of Technology found that anxious drivers became distracted and unfocused. The anxious drivers had slower response times and inattention, which could lead to an accident.

This brings up the question: what is making the drivers anxious? Sometimes driving itself can make a person anxious, or outside circumstances can make a person anxious and then the person drives.

Amy Serin, a neuropsychologist in Peoria, Ariz., said that the harmful effects of anxiety while driving depend on the severity and type of anxiety. For example, if someone is having a panic attack or hyperventilating, this can obviously hinder driving abilities.

“I would encourage people experiencing that to go seek psychological help so they don’t have those episodes while they’re driving,” Serin said.

She said that even if a person has an anxious state of mind and is tense, this will probably affect their driving.

“If there’s a large amount of anxiety, that person might be more impulsive in their driving and also be quick to anger in their driving and also not make the best decisions,” Serin said. “Moderate levels of anxiety can help performance in situations like that, but if it gets to be severe, then it can be incapacitating.”

She said she has patients who come in with anxiety for many reasons.

“It’s not so common in my experience to have somebody who just feels anxiety while driving, but if there’s a phobia involved, a certain fear that’s exacerbated from driving, then you treat that the same way you would treat the fear or the anxious feelings during any kind of activity,” Serin said.

Phobias and anxiety can be treated by exposure with response prevention.

“You have the person expose themselves to what they experience the anxiety during and then you teach that person how to not experience the anxiety while they’re doing that thing,” Serin said.

One type of anxiety disorder that can affect driving is obsessive-compulsive disorder. On a VH1 show, The OCD Project, I remember seeing a woman who constantly had to check while driving to make sure she wasn’t running anyone over.

“That certainly can be one of the things that can impair somebody during driving,” Serin said. “If they’re checking the rear view mirror a hundred times and their eyes aren’t on the road because they’re too busy checking, then that certainly would impair somebody’s ability to drive safely.”

Mathilda Canter, a psychologist in Phoenix, Ariz., said that anxiety can interfere with intellectual efficiency.

“As your anxiety increases, you are less able to focus on the task ahead,” Canter said. “If you’re not focused on your driving as well as you might be, you can see that it would interfere with your ability to drive well.”

She said she’s had patients who have become anxious after a car accident.

“It’s almost like a post-traumatic stress issue, where they relive the accident or are frightened that it will recur, and this is an understandable concern that they have,” Canter said.

If the person caused the accident, they will probably have feelings of guilt and insecurity as well, especially if other people were harmed.

“I would say that when people are very anxious about driving, they really should not be driving,” Canter said. “They become hazardous on the road.”

There are desensitization procedures that are used to help people with anxiety relating to driving, including phobias, but it depends on the individual, she said.

“Some people are so anxious that nothing can be done occasionally,” Canter said. “They are so blocked, but very rarely.”

She said therapy, antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication can also help.

“It’s so often a matter of dealing with the fears and working with them to overcome those fears and helping them to set limits that they know themselves and they can recognize when they shouldn’t be driving,” Canter said.

Although women are sometimes associated with bad driving or fear of driving, she said it really depends on the individual, the situation, how she learned to drive, and the amount of self-confidence.

“If you have, for example, a woman with a husband who is constantly downplaying her driving, is critical constantly, she may not have the self-confidence,” Canter said, as she would driving with someone who is supportive.

Sources:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002140.htm
http://www.physorg.com/news194590973.html
http://www.slashcontrol.com/free-tv-shows/the-ocd-project/3610844009

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We value and respect our HERWriters' experiences, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice, although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.