Sarah's fear - a true story of how Sarah overcame her fear of driving and passed her driving test first time
Sarah's story | Sarah's training | Sarah's driving test
"How did it all start? Why am I afraid of driving? Why am I afraid of anything?" Sarah thought.
Sarah grew up in a normal family household. She has two brothers, a sister, mother, father and grandparents. Her home was an average sized family home with the usual comings and goings you would expect.
No member of her family appeared to fear anything in particular, so she could not see where her fear of driving came from. She thought maybe it came from her school friends, who always seemed to be afraid to do anything new or adventurous, but she dismissed this idea because they always looked on the negative side of anything. This made her not really take notice of their ways.
Sarah then worked it out for herself. It was not anyone in particular that caused her fear, it was her environment in general. Her social upbringing, her love of watching to many 'television soaps'. From this reasoning Sarah realised she was ok about driving. Until the morning of her first lesson, then she started to get 'Butterflies' in her stomach.
Her driving instructor, Malcolm arrived on time and after checking her provisional driving licence and eyesight, drove her to a very quiet safe place for her first driving lesson.
Sarah immediately felt at ease, her 'Butterflies' were going.
Before they got into the technicalities of driving the car, Malcolm explained that her fear was perfectly normal. When we as humans are about to do anything we have never done before we are more nervous than frightened. It is the unknown that causes us to be on our guard in case anything should go wrong. It is perfectly natural.
Sarah looked at this page on nervous students before she booked her intensive driving course
When we are first born into the world we come with only two fears - the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. The other fears that we have, come from our environment of family, friends, school and television plus a few we create for ourselves by usually asking
"What if....?"
As a baby you are fearless, even of cats, dogs, spiders, snakes etc. As a child some of these fears start to build up inside of you. Suppose you are quite happy about spiders as a young child and your best friend suddenly screams because she has seen a spider, you may well join her in screaming since the peer pressure on you might be very strong that you do not want to be different. If you are stronger in mind than your friend, you could then reverse the situation and make her fearless of spiders.
A question you might ask now is, 'Why was my friend frightened in the first place?' She had probably seen another friend, adult or television programme that put that fear into her and so it gets passed on, to you if you let it.
Malcolm then explained to Sarah that because she had never driven before she should concentrate on his instructions and notice the presence of other road users, but not be distracted by them. Malcolm could see Sarah was a considerate person but that could be dangerous when applied to the driving of a car. Malcolm was considerate also, but he also knew how to apply this courtesy when driving. Sarah would not have that skill yet.
"When you learn to drive a car in the UK you are on public roads," Malcolm told Sarah.
He went on to say.
"That because you are on public roads and other drivers seem to be flying around and you seem to be crawling. This puts pressure on you, if you let it, to drive faster than you can cope with, at this stage in your driving career. Do not worry about it though, becuse you have your 'L' plates on the car and we will only be on quiet roads until you become confident and can keep up with the traffic. I want you to grow into the part of becoming a safe confident driver and to do that first of all you need to know your car controls and how they operate."
Sarah's first lesson begins....
Sarah looked at this page on nervous students before she booked her intensive driving course
Comment
When you fear or are nervous about driving a car, choosing the right driving instructor is one of the most important tasks you need to undertake. To do this is almost impossible unless you have a friend who can recommend a driving instructor. Leaflets, newspaper adverts, looking at driving school cars in your area are the ways most people choose a driving instructor.
From these 'media' new drivers are usually tempted by special offers of first lesson free, or half price for the first five lessons. This is perfectly natural, since we are all consumers and love a bargain. It is not until you have started your driving lessons would you ever find out the type of driving instructor you have.
I wish I could help you choose, but I do not know of a guaranteed way to get it right. Perhaps the internet is the way forward. Look at any driving school website and see which ones are designed by the driving instructor themself. That will give you a good idea since their personality will show through their website. Hope that helps
Sarah's story | Sarah's training | Sarah's driving test
