About this quiz
Fear of Driving Severity Quiz
This 2-minute test uses a clinically validated severity scale to score how much fear of driving affects your daily life. You'll see a 0-5 rating and what each band means. Bia uses this score to personalize your recovery program.
About the scoreWhat your fear of driving score means
SMSP severity bands (0 to 5)
- 0 – 1Minimal: your phobia rarely affects daily decisions or quality of life.
- 2Mild: noticeable in specific situations but not yet shaping major decisions.
- 3Moderate: actively limiting choices around work, travel, eating, social life, or sleep. Most Bia users start here.
- 4Significant: meaningfully disabling. Structured daily exposure work is the evidence-based path forward.
- 5Severe: dominating daily decisions. Bia's structured program is effective at this severity; therapist-supported use is recommended.
Common questions about fear of driving
I still drive, just not on highways. Is that really a phobia?
It can be. Most people with a fear of driving do still drive; the phobia shows up as the roads, times, and conditions they have quietly stopped using. If your routes are planned around fear rather than around where you need to go, the same exposure approach applies, and it usually starts closer to home than you expect.
Do I have to drive on the highway during the program?
Eventually, if that is one of your goals, yes. Bia gets there gradually: words, images, and videos first, then short real-world drives you choose and pin on your map, each one slightly beyond the last. You set the pace, and nothing is scheduled for you.
Fear of driving is a specific phobia of being behind the wheel. For some it centres on highways, bridges or merging; for others on traffic, rain, night driving, or being far from home with no easy way to stop. It often starts after a crash or a panic attack while driving, and then grows the same way every phobia does: each road avoided makes the next one feel more dangerous, until the radius of comfortable driving has shrunk to a few familiar streets. The fear is real, but the danger it predicts is not proportionate, and that gap is exactly what exposure closes.
Common signs of fear of driving
- Avoiding highways, bridges, tunnels, or merging
- Panic or dread while driving, especially when you cannot pull over
- Only driving familiar routes, in daylight, or with someone in the car
- Fear of causing a crash or losing control of the car
- Anticipatory anxiety the night before a drive
- Depending on others for rides, or planning life around the roads that feel safe
Our clinical approach: graduated in-vivo exposure along a route hierarchy