Uncontrollable fear and anxiety in learning to drive

[McG]

Thankyou you all for your help. Ive taken onboard all the posts and im very grateful for that.

 

[Mary Terry]

I don't know if this is helpful but when I learned to drive, I understood that my body needs to be about four or five feet from the painted center line of an average width road. If my body was there, then my car was the correct distance from the center line. We've heard of "flying by the seat of your pants". Driving a car is like that to me, driving by the seat of my pants so I always know where my body and car are located in space.

Hope that makes some sense!

 

[Southern_Gentleman]

Hmm, I wish I could offer some intelligent input on this, but it fails me since I took to driving at an early age driving go-carts and then later my mother's car at 14; motorcycles at 12.

My step-brother, however, never learned how to drive. It seemed like the mechanics of it got lost between his brain and extremities. He passed the written test, but for some reason when it came to actually operating a car he couldn't. Negotiating turns, curves, and stops were his greatest challenge. Though not officially diagnosed before he passed, he had all the characteristics of one on the spectrum.

My friends' daughter also has the same challenges. They even bought her a golfcart to learn the mechanics of driving but she has the same problem negotiating turns, curves, and stopping.

 

[Levitator]

Hmm, I wish I could offer some intelligent input on this, but it fails me since I took to driving at an early age driving go-carts and then later my mother's car at 14; motorcycles at 12.

My step-brother, however, never learned how to drive. It seemed like the mechanics of it got lost between his brain and extremities. He passed the written test, but for some reason when it came to actually operating a car he couldn't. Negotiating turns, curves, and stops were his greatest challenge. Though not officially diagnosed before he passed, he had all the characteristics of one on the spectrum.

My friends' daughter also has the same challenges. They even bought her a golfcart to learn the mechanics of driving but she has the same problem negotiating turns, curves, and stopping.

I think the wide variety of traits involved is fascinating, and it's become more interesting upon acquiring a faith perspective, because I'm hopeful that for everything someone can't do, that there's some hidden talent to discover. Also, I hope people don't give up early, because there's a lot of stuff you can learn, and the real problem is that you learn it differently than other people do. Someone who thinks they can't drive, might eventually pick it up by compensating, by making a game out of it and dedicating time to simulations, until they get the muscle memory and visual perspective down. My dad was offended and bewildered that my right-turns were wide, and it never occurred to him to go "Hey, you need to understand visual perspective". It didn't take me long to get it, but it did irritate me that he couldn't see what the problem was, being much older, and with much more experience. You approach learning a different way, and then you do fine at it from then on. I'm sure some people are indeed unable to pick it up, but I do want to encourage persistence.

 

[Kayla55]

Remember and practice: at times we slow but not break...then swirve in direction, that is clearest, away from target you may hit
Then swirve back in opposite direction.

Recollect: instead breaking or swirving all way in a direction....we turn left then right then left again to steady car without breaking

Tips: advanced driving techniques