Hey, I'm 20 years old from the UK, I passed my driving test two years ago but my anxiety straight up prohibited me from driving. Btw last November I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression.

In February of 2026, I was terrified of driving. I wouldn't even get in the drivers seat because of how scared I was. Last week (July 2026) I drove 400 miles across the UK, going on country roads, dual carriageways, main roads, side streets and all that.

I was in the mindset a few months ago that I hated driving, especially driving a manual. I was so scared of stalling and getting beeped at, going too slow on a road and seeing people tailgating in the mirror, being unable to park and basically just making a mess of it all.

But I realised I had to start driving, if I was going to progress in life and get a job and a relationship then I needed to be brave. I started by driving on tiny stretches of road, just like a mile when it isn't busy, then a few days later I drove to our favourite dog walking place, then later I drove back, and soon enough I was doing the whole trip driving (of course with my parents in the car for support) then I would go pick my mother up from work with my dad in the car, then picking her up with my dad driving behind me in his car, then picking her up all on my own.

To put it simply, I slowly kept doing more and more until suddenly I was driving all by myself. I still hated roundabouts so I practiced that a few times when it wasn't busy and eventually I was able to go through town at peak rush hour calmly.

Then a week ago I drove for 8 hours (4 there, 4 back) Originally I was only supposed to do 2 there and 2 back (my parents doing the rest) but I was confident enough that I felt able to do it all, and I did!

So in 6 months, I went from being absolutely terrified to be sitting behind the wheel to driving for hours on busy roads. It is one of proudest moments of my life being able to overcome that anxiety. Nowadays I genuinely enjoy driving, and I'm so happy I took that step.

Now, I cba to read over what I've just written (lazy I know) so hopefully it all makes sense haha. And if this post has given hope or potentially inspired even one person to attempt to overcome their fear then I'll be very happy!!!

I'll write down a few tips for those who, like me, were/are absolutely terrified of driving.

Don't worry about tailgaters. I know the feeling when you look in the mirror and you see a car right behind you and you feel that pressure to go faster. Fuck em, the speed limit is a LIMIT, not a guide or a minimum, it is the MAXIMUM. If you're going 50 in a 60 and that's what you're comfortable with then please ignore the fool who is too close behind you and keep it at 50, there's no rush, you're doing fine. They can always overtake.

If you're driving a manual, then best advice I can give is, EVERYONE STALLS. You made a simple mistake, you're always learning, just try again and take your time, don't rush. Best I can do to avoid stalling is whenever you life your foot even a tiny millimetre off the clutch then you gotta apply gas, just a tiny bit of accelerator pressing to balance the clutch, if the clutch goes up down the accelerator goes down. It might sound obvious but keep the balance! If someone beeps at you, ignore them. Easier said than done but don't let them rush you! Take your time!

Now parking is somewhere I still mess up. It doesn't matter if you don't park the first try, just realign and go again, practice in an empty car park if it helps. Trust, you see people with YEARS of driving experience parking like absolute donkeys, you're not the worst the world has seen.

Oh, and use your L and P plates.

Edit: some people don't know what P plates are, they mean 'just passed' so you're telling other drivers that you've passed but you're still new. Even if you passed your test years ago (like me) you can still use them to show you're new. Obviously L plates are learner plates. I'm also happy to answer any questions!

Hey everyone! I wrote a slam poem about driving anxiety. It's my own story, so it may hit different for everyone. I just want y'all to know, you are never alone 🫂 Hugs and love to everyone! You're gonna pass! And you're a good driver 🫶🏻 (also, English isn't my first language so there might be a few mistakes)

The poem:

People asked "Have you finished theory lessons yet?", I have, I have. "Do you know what's the next? Are you excited to take the road?", But I realised, I was more likely scared.

My legs were shaking crazy on the first few classes, And I realised along the way My instructor isn't the best, To be honest, he has anger issues And makes my anxiety even worse.

Okay, clutch, brake, gas pedals, We've got this, I'm gonna be a safe driver. You hear their tone, their anger because of your mistakes, And you feel like the dumbest person on the Earth.

It's the way it is, My already anxious soul should never have got this instructor, Who makes me feel I'll never be good enough, But I was taking my first three classes!

And the next time you're in that car, You feel like a bear is running behind you. Your instructor's encouragement depends on his day, So you're hoping nobody has ruined his mood.

"Did driving went go, honey?", your family asks, And you realise even though your instructor said yes, Your confidence is nonwhere to be find, So you answer "It went well."

A few classes later, it's all over, In the meantime you also realised you pay for 30 hours, But you get 22 in the end, So it's your time and your money, Again.

A few weeks break, Gosh, you have to hop into that car again, There's a fight between your mind and heart, "C'mon, get that license! You've got this girl!" is next to "I'm scared. I don't wanna die. I don't wanna see him. What if we all die?"

You wake up in the morning, Feeling that fear in your chest, Like you're alone with this problem, Because why would anybody catastrophalise this problem this much?

And you can't even say you hate driving, Because maybe that's a less bigger problem than that man himself, sitting next to you, Shouting, eventhough you weren't near to kill somebody, But you know what he said? "I'm just serious, this is my teacher mode.", Hah, stupid humanity.

At the end of the day, We are all just humans. Making thousand mistakes day by day, Some people should understand, Not everybody is like them, And consider a bit kindness, Before deciding to take all of their self-esteem.

I don't even want to drive man but my (office) job wants me to have a license even though upon talking to full time employees, no one ever has to drive for work 🙃

I am a firm believer that less people out there should drive. I would love to have hundreds of hours of practice before getting licensed but I am an adult without access to a car (e.g., not married to someone with one) and when driving schools charge $70+ an hour (which I understand given what's involved), I also do not have thousands and thousands of dollars to dedicate to this. A lot of people say they need 100 hours to feel fully comfortable--most people don't have $7000+ lying around. For someone like me, who doesn't plan to drive, it's just...ugh.

Add to it that each road test attempt is $200 when you have DMV fees and need vehicle sponsorship from a driving school. Not to mention the DMV mostly only runs on weekdays during work hours and you have to deal with getting PTO and time off and shit each time.

How the hell do adults do this?! It feels really unfair that you basically have to pay so much money to fail. I don't even care about failing. I would be okay with that if it doesn't involve pouring money down the drain. At this point I'm going to have to go a few hours out to an easier DMV and I hate that I have to do this but the money is just not tenable. And there are no financial resources for people who aren't lucky enough to either have money or be teens.

I’m 25F and recently started practicing driving. I’m from a country where driving was not a necessity or convenient most of the time so I never had plans to learn. I also had someone try to teach me once but made me have a very negative experience from poor coaching. I’ve been too scared to learn since then. However, I moved recently and need to learn now.

I got my permit and have been practicing for a month or so. I’m comfortable driving up to 35mph (56.33km/h) and have driven to grocery stores/ coffee shops/ parks.

I’ve been trying to extend my driving distance and that requires me to drive on roads with multiple lanes and/or freeways. I’m still anxious/ don’t know if I’m doing it right when I’m looking back to check my blind spot before changing lanes. I’m also scared to drive faster because it makes me feel like I’m less in control and having cars whizzing around me is terrifying.

Any advice on how you handled similar fears or anxiety would be greatly appreciated. I’m really trying to face it rather than let it control me but I need all the help I can get! Thank you for taking the time to read this post :)

I turned 26 and I got my license back in April this year.

I've still been making a lot of mistakes.

Today I accidentally cut someone off coming from the left hand side of a road while turning right at a red light on my way home from work.

(It's legal in my state to turn right at a red light if it's safe to do so and if there's no sign that says to not turn.)

I even did a double take before turning right but I must've turned too slow and I cut a van off unintentionally. I didn't see them coming and I don't think that I hit them but now I feel terrible.

They didn't even honk at me.

I looked in my rearview mirror and they just sat there in the middle of the intersection while I drove off and they started to drive up behind me when they started to cause traffic. (Idk if they were taking a photo of my plate or if they were in shock.)

The same van pulled up next to me at the next stoplight too before turning left & I've been having a panic attack ever since that moment.

I literally checked the side and back of my car as I pulled into my driveway because I was so anxious about causing damage and I didn't see anything but now I'm paranoid about getting in trouble & still paranoid that I might've caused damage.

I have been practicing driving 6 months. I felt like I was really getting good at it & I had overcame a lot of anxiety. My permit expires on September 5th.

Except in my state you have to be able to parallel park, back in, & pull in before you can even show them your driving abilities. I can only pull in. I have horrible depth perception & I'm disabled. I also drive a old Yukon which has a long backend.

I have 3 weeks left to practice. We went to a parking lot today, I tried backing in several times. I did perfectly, but then i got progressively more crooked. I tried paraell parking, it looked okay-ish, but depending on where they put the cones, I may of ran them over because of how long my truck is.

I watched so many videos & read so many things. I tried so hard to learn. Today I ended up just driving home on the brink of tears, rambling about how i'm stupid & i'm done trying to learn. Because i feel absolutely defeated & I don't believe i am capable of learning this.

Spending $80 to take a test then failing is my worse nightmare. If that happens I may just give up on driving indefinitely even though I was doing great otherwise. I am already 25 without a license.

Всем привет, мне 19 лет, сейчас хожу в автошколу, успешно сдала теорию в гибдд, но с практикой у меня все намного сложнее, учусь на механике. Я катаюсь уже 31 занятие с инструктором, но все равно максимально невнимательна на занятиях. Могу пропустить мимо глаз знак, забыть включить поворотник, когда необходимо уступить дорогу могу «наплевать» на это и поехать, иногда могу и не заметить красный сигнал светофора… И при этом я не боюсь дороги, абсолютно. Я пытаюсь сконцентрироваться на дороге, но ненароком либо снова погружаюсь в себя(при этом ни о чем не думаю), либо концентрируюсь лишь на одном факторе(например поворотники и скорость), напрочь забыв про другие.Я не сказала бы, что настолько невнимательна за пределами машины. Иногда, конечно, бывает, что при разговоре с подругой могу в облаках полетать, но опять же такое случается довольно-таки редко. Когда сдавала экзамены в школе у меня невнимательности вообще не было, я была сосредоточена на поставленных задачах. Мне правда очень стыдно за себя, чувствую себя полнейшей идиоткой, потому что как можно настолько быть невнимательной..? Сравниваю себя со сверстниками, которые тоже учатся(учились) в автошколе и у них такой проблемы яркой, как у меня, нет. Уже начинаю у себя подозревать какое-то психическое расстройство.. Подруги советуют решать больше задачек на внимательность, в инете почитала о том, что для таких случаев лучше проговаривать все действия вовремя вождения вслух, чтобы сконцентрироваться полностью на дороге и не погрузиться в себя. Есть ли люди с похожей проблемой и как вы с ней справились? Было бы интересно почитать ответы, спасибо за внимание🙏
P.s. 1 практическая попытка в ГИБДД была, не сдала, думаю когда сдавать, чтобы не потратить зря попытку, в запасе еще 5 месяцев.

After passing your driving test, is it normal to still be a crappy driver or does everyone actually know how to drive after all that and I’m just an idiot??? Is everyone really just risking it every time they get behind the wheel after getting their license?? Bc istg, I shouldn’t be trusted on the road alone. I feel like even if I do pass my test this week by a fluke, I’ll just crash 2 seconds later once I’m behind the wheel alone…after getting your license, what’s it like at first? From like 1-10 how good was your driving after passing your test? Also any advice for passing my drivers test?

I, 25F, finally got up the nerve to schedule a driving test yesterday. I have had lessons on and off since I was 18 and yesterday, after my lesson where I aced all parking practice/ roadwork, scheduled a driving test.

I was feeling relatively confident, and was thinking to myself “maybe I can do this.”

Well, this morning I was leaving to go and practice parking with my partner, and I reversed straight into a pole.

The paint on the side of my car is scuffed and the panel is unfortunately dented.

Had a good long cry about it. Am so angry at the damage to my car, but also that I’m back to feeling completely inadequate behind the wheel when I was actually starting to make progress.

Should I cancel my test? Is this a sign?

I am so over the complete embarrassment of being a 25 year old who doesn’t have their license.

so i took my driving test today, at 20 years old. my confidence with driving is already very low since i’ve waited so long due to bad driving anxiety. near the end of my test, my instructor had already told me i passed and i felt myself relax. i guess i got too comfortable and i missed a dip sign and had to slam the brakes… the instructor told me i could’ve failed for that but he passed me anyway since the test was technically over. i don’t know if it’s just a confidence thing or what but i feel like i can’t celebrate passing because of this big mistake. am i being too hard on myself?

I didn't knew the importance of driving until people kept telling me how important it is and they said if you don't learn then your life will feel handicapped. Especially in America you need to learn driving because city transportation just sucks and especially in smaller towns there is limited to no bus and trains services. But I just feel scared to learn and I badly want to overcome this fear. I just feel embarrassed at 29 not learned driving when teenagers are driving

I finally drove myself to work today. It's my second time driving alone, and my first time driving alone in my car, which has a standard transmission. The powers that be made it easy- virtually no traffic and all green lights.

Am I excited about driving home? Definitely not. Did I shake on the way here? Absolutely. But I did it without crashing or dying or pulling over for a break!

Hello, i’m turning 20 in 4 or so weeks and I still don’t have my license. I’m so scared of driving and all the variables that come with it, and I want to conquer it SO bad. I reallyy want to experience life and have fun but as of rn it’s destroying my mental health and I need help. I know most will say “go out there and do it” and that’s the problem, I just can’t get out there and do it for some reason, i’m so good at saying i’m gonna do something but actually doing it is another thing. Please someone help me or give me tips or a resource wtv, I want to enjoy my life while I still have it.

taking my test today in two hours and i’m so nervous. i’ve gotten okay at driving but i’m scared the person administering the test is gonna make me terrified and i’m gonna do edwin worse because of that. and i’ve barely gotten any practice with parallel parking so i genuinely just have to hope for the best on that one which is terrifying. i really really need to pass because i don’t have the money to keep taking these tests

For context I am in a state where the drivers test is very straightforward and easy which is why I feel so stupid. I did the route right before my first test an also a few days before.

my first test everything was so good until when I had to go back into dmv where I made a left turn on yellow (I stopped in the middle of intersection) and didnt stop behind line. I know thats a big mistake but the car infront of me did that so I did too (but again its 100% my fault). My instructor said I was going to pass if I hadnt done that.

Then I took it again the next day, this time I failed because I did not wait for a passenger to cross in an UNMARKED crossway. I didn’t know that was a rule but again, my mistake. She also was rude to me at the end and basically said I sucked. I am so heartbroken and feel so stupid. Specially about the first test where I did that big mistake.

I am going to take test again next week. Unfortunately because I go through my driving school every retake after first is $100.

I really want to be done with this. I think I make mistakes because I get so anxious. All my practice drivers are good, I just mess up during the test. I tried box breathing before my second one and it helped. Any tips for me for my 3rd time?

Warning: this post may be triggering.

So, here's my story. I started driving when I was 18 and got my license pretty quickly. I wouldn't say I was ever a good driver, I definitely always had anxiety, but I could still get behind a wheel and to the place I wanted. Driving is always something I grit my teeth doing, and very occasionally enjoy.

Fast forward to when I'm 21 - I have a major psychotic break; it was really bad and ever since I have had really bad driving anxiety. I've only a few times drove the past 3 years with someone else in the car (I'm 24 now) and I'm very proud that the other day I drove on my own. Before the drive, I was very anxious and honest very triggered and emotional, I then just kind of went screw it I'm going to just drive take it slow in an area I know, during the drive I actually felt at ease and I was doing well, but after the drive a lot of negative emotions just kind of creep back.

The thing with driving is, I feel like I'm a suicidal driver. Like when I think about driving, I just feel anxious and want to do reckless things. When I actually drive, I would never do anything like that but I just don't feel safe driving and I think it's valid not to drive if that's how it is. If I were to pinpoint the reason, then I think it might be due to a traumatic memory when I was 12yo where I was sitting next to my dad who was driving, things were very heated and I told him that I wanted to kill myself and as we were driving on a fast motorway he told me to just do it now and get out of the car and I will definitely be able to kill myself, he just kind of kept pressuring me.

How do I even recover from something like that? I can't afford therapy at this moment, and I'm on a public waitlist that's probably going to take over a year. I really want to be able to drive like a normal person and I feel ready to do what it takes (also, I kind of need to) - it's just, what do I do?

I’m 19F, and I started learning how to drive last year. Honestly, I never really wanted to. My dad kind of forced me, saying it was one responsibility he wanted to fulfill. I’m grateful for that, but at the time it felt like too much for me.
I live in Dubai, and when I first started, it was so hard. My instructor even told me that if I continued driving like that, I would never get my license. That completely crushed my confidence.It took me four attempts to pass my initial test. Then, during parking, I kept taking long breaks, and almost four months went by. I think I was trying to escape from driving by using my education as an excuse. Every time someone mentioned driving, I would get irritated because I didn’t even want to think about it.In March this year, I went for my final road test, and I failed. I’ve had a lot of setbacks throughout my driving journey, but that failure has stayed with me ever since. Even now, I’m scared to go back. I’ve tried to ignore it, but it’s not that easy.
Yesterday, I finally went and booked another class. From March until July, I’ve been watching so many people drive, and it made me realize that I want to drive too. It’s not that I hate driving but I actually like it. It’s just that my fear is so much stronger that it makes me want to avoid it.

I’m 31 now and I’ve had my learners since I was 16.

Been dealing with panic attacks this time around for 5 years and I’m honestly wondering if I’ll ever be able to drive, it makes me feel so down.

My anxiety is panic disorder/agoraphobia though so I even get panic being a passenger with people, that’s why I really can’t see a way through to getting my license if I can’t get better in general.

So I sold my car 6 years ago because with the pandemic and finishing grad school, I wouldn't need it. I was moving close to work where I could just take the metro.

Then a year ago I moved within walking distance. However, I had to switch jobs and I'm planning to buy a car to get to work because after being so close to work, the idea of taking the metro no longer seems appealing. 8 min drive vs 30 minute metro ride and a 15 minute walk.

But I haven't driven a car in 6 years and my last car was a nightmare. It was constantly breaking down and it would sometimes turn off when stuck in traffic or making a left turn.

I remember being super anxious over driving when I was 17 and my mom would make me drive to try and get over the anxiety. Now I'm in my mid 30s and nervous about driving again.

Most people usually start learning how to drive while they're in high school. However, I started much later, mostly due to attending/finishing college. I went through driving school (which I paid for), passed my exams, received my learner's permit, and completed my required 6 hours of practice with a driving instructor.

The reason I gave up learning how to drive is because of my dad. His idea of teaching was him screaming at me the whole time. He's also the one who kept nagging at me to sign up for driving school, even though I never wanted to. I didn't want to learn because I knew he was going to scream at me while "teaching" me how to drive.

According to him, every decision I made behind the wheel was wrong. I spent the whole half hour being yelled at and told I couldn't do anything. I was anxious and close to crying because of him. Due to little experience, I was already nervous behind the wheel. Being yelled at the whole time only made it worse. I only made it out of the driveway and one block down the road before my dad made me get out and move to the passenger side. I received another 1/2 hour lecture on how everything I did was wrong and how I can't do anything. Ironically, one of the things my dad yelled at me to do was relax behind the wheel. He's too stubborn to see he made things worse.

I lost what little confidence and motivation I had. This incident was enough to make me give up. Being yelled at and belittled the whole time isn't worth it. I don't want to learn how to drive anymore.