So… I got my diver’s license as soon as I turned 18. It was a very stressful period of my life, and I hated everything about driving. They promised me freedom, but I got shackled.
Passing the exam as a nightmare (took me 3 attempts) and even during the lessons the professor saw how horribly tense I was. I got sick just by thinking about the car.
Once I passed, my family decided that I’d get over my fears by forcing me to drive, every single day, for weeks, with the whole family in the car, yelling, mocking me…
I had several panic attacks that were dismissed as lack of maturity, and I stopped driving. It’s been years.
But now I’m going to have to get better at this due to circumstances, and I’m scared.
I feel that I can’t focus on all the elements of the road, I have a very hard time calculating distances because I’m very short (edit: 1’50m, if that is relevant) and barely see above the wheel, I have to move the seat so close to the wheel that I fear that if one day the airbag jumps, I’ll suffocate. My blind spots seem infinite.
My car is automatic, so no stick to worry about.
If you have read all I wrote, I’ll greatly appreciate any advice or encouragement. Thank you
Many others here have good advice, but one of the things I’ll also mention is to do some practice with a friend in the parking lot. Have them stand in your blind spots and try to work with your mirrors to reduce them. Get used to driving around them at low speeds and they can call out to help you navigate.
Knowing the size of your vehicle is super helpful for managing it in traffic and knowing how close people actually are relative to your own car.
Another one is finding a large enough space that you can get your car going around 15-30 mph and do some hard steering and braking so you know how the car will react. You shouldn’t need to go much faster to get a good feel of how the cars suspension handles under load. If you can’t get comfortable making quick corrections in a controlled space, you won’t be prepared in an actual emergency.
Practice is everything and knowing your limits is just as important.
To add to this, if your car doesn’t come with those electronic blind spot indicators, go to a local car wash and see if they have a shop that sells small blind spot mirrors. They take up a small part of the mirror, but allow you to see the blind spot angle at a glance.
I would also recommend a defensive driving course. We had one here down at a motor speedway that took us through driving on wet roads, how the car reacts to loss of traction, understanding how the car handles, etc.
Thank you1