Fear of Driving
Fear of driving (amaxophobia) is an intense fear of being behind the wheel, often focused on highways, bridges, heavy traffic, bad weather, or driving alone. The fear response is disproportionate to the actual level of danger posed by everyday driving. Unlike ordinary caution, a fear of driving leads to significant avoidance: turning down jobs, depending on others for rides, planning life around the roads that feel safe. It often follows a crash, a panic attack at the wheel, or years of gradually giving up routes. With evidence-based treatment, recovery is highly achievable.
Individuals with phobia often recognize that their fear is excessive. This awareness alone does not make phobia something that can be 'toughed' out. Phobia is a disorder that requires thoughtful, intentional treatment in order to reduce safety and avoidance behaviors and replace them with new behaviors.
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
Recovery
Research shows, you can take your life back from phobia. The same mental process that causes phobia can be used to unlearn it. You deserve a life free of fear.
Research shows phobia can be overcome in small, incremental steps.
Recovery with Bia
Bia's mission is to make phobia recovery accessible to all by lowering the barrier to getting started and encouraging follow through. You are in full control of the pace and order of your journey, from the comfort of you own home. With Bia, you will learn essential concepts - why phobias form and how they can be unlearned, and practice new skills in a safe environment.
If you are currently in therapy, Bia can be a great tool to help you apply your skills and track your progress. If you are not in therapy, Bia is an easy way to start on your journey and explore what is possible.
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.
Resources
Here are some other resources that might be helpful: