OCD and driving

[Josh21]

Although I have a drivers licence I am petrfied of driving. I have read up on a type of OCD called "Hit & Run" OCD which I feel explains the base of my fears. My fears of hitting pedestrians and other drivers.



Does anyone else have similar thoughts about driving? If so what do you tell people when they ask if you drive? Also how did you overcome it if you did?


None of my friends know of my OCD so when they ask why I dont drive I say I can't afford a car and that it costs too much to run/insure. I get incredibly embarassed that I dont drive and feel ashamed when people ask, especially at work when I have to get lifts off co-workers.

[Davit]

It is still agoraphobia and as such can be cured. What do you do for other challenges?

The fear of hitting someone or another vehicle is a fear of losing your control of the situation, not of the damage you will do. What are the odds of hitting someone and it being your fault. Pretty slim. But if you did control would be taken out of your hands.

As for OCD I don't know how much it would interfere. It doesn't bother you to ride with someone who might hit someone? But then it wouldn't be your control to lose.

[PanchoGoz]

Yeah I have this, I'm constantly checking my mirrors if I hear a bump. Which is ironically likely to be more dangerous if I'm constantly looking back instead of forward. If I do make a mistake and do something either dangerous or just ditzy, I can't stop thinking about it the rest of the journey, but with me it doesn't stop me driving. I'm awful at zebra crossings sometimes I don't see them! Once I didn't notice a lolly pop lady till I'd gone past, I don't know how that happened.

I suppose it's harder to stop once you've started, but starting is the scary bit so I think you just need to do it and see how it goes. Your mindset might change.
It's very rare people get hit by cars and its the drivers' fault.

It's a whole different world driving, people are so different in the driver's seat, flashing their lights, horning, gesticulating and swearing. Imagine if they did that when they aren't behind the safety of their cabs, people would be beating each other up.

But nothing can outweigh the joy and freedom of driving, I don't anything would stop me.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I think this one fits into the Pure O side of Harm OCD.

It is well known though, as is harm OCD in that it can often be about the fear of harming others. You will see your fear mentioned here:

http://www.ocdtypes.com/harm-ocd.php

Is this fear based on intrusive thoughts? If so, it fits to OCD.

If you ask the experts about this they will tell you that people with OCD are very unlikely to act out these thoughts, partly because they find them so abhorent.

I've had harm based intrusive thoughts, which are mostly gone now but I do get the odd one but no longer react with anxiety or even laugh at them. Mindfulness helped me to do this because it taught me to be non judgemental of them.

Reacting with anxiety sends the message to your subconscious that the intrusive thought it sent to the conscious mind was 'valid'. Thats not correct or right, just a 'valid' one. You have to stop the emotional reaction because it then sends back information to the subconscious that states you didn't care and over time it will replace the old pathway for the intrusive image with new ones.

Its important to remember not expect them to go away 100% because studies have shown that all people get intrusive thoughts, they just don't realise it. However, even if they do remain you will find that they won't bring anxiety symptoms with them and you won't react in that way to them either.

---------- Post added at 05:50 ---------- Previous post was at 05:49 ----------

It's a whole different world driving, people are so different in the driver's seat, flashing their lights, horning, gesticulating and swearing. Imagine if they did that when they aren't behind the safety of their cabs, people would be beating each other up.

It does seem to bring out peoples "inner moron"

---------- Post added at 05:52 ---------- Previous post was at 05:50 ----------

It is still agoraphobia and as such can be cured. What do you do for other challenges?

The fear of hitting someone or another vehicle is a fear of losing your control of the situation, not of the damage you will do. What are the odds of hitting someone and it being your fault. Pretty slim. But if you did control would be taken out of your hands.

As for OCD I don't know how much it would interfere. It doesn't bother you to ride with someone who might hit someone? But then it wouldn't be your control to lose.

Its different to agoraphobia Davit in that OCD can be about a need to prevent something from happening based on intrusive thoughts. Many of the drives behind the anxiety disorders share a common ground though, its just they are classified based their themes, although under a main category.

[Davit]

I can see I'm going to have to learn about OCD. I've only ever met one person with it. It was about germs with him.

It would certainly be better if it was agoraphobia. I can't honestly imagine what OCD is like just like I have never experienced depression. So when I'm sad (not an acronym)I look for
something physical. I've had SAD, seasonal adjusted disorder. The light works.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yeah Davit, I agree, its hard to understand until you go through it. Its like before we went through any of these disorders, you couldn't possibly imagine how even doing day to day chores would be making you scared.

A good place to read about OCD, from what I have seen, is Steve Seay's website. I started out with the charity websites but since then I've found his level of detail to fill in a lot of gaps. I've also found that the mainstream sites like the charities do have some gaps e.g. Sensorimotor OCD which wasn't even listed in the types on OCD UK's which this forum recommends.

Its still all fear of fear though, just manifested in a different way. The patterns of avoidance, reassurance and basically sabotaging ourselves are all in there.

OCD is a bit like you don't trust yourself. There is also a lot of mental checking with some of it, which you will see the people on the HA board doing constantly (HA shares a lot in common with OCD and some experts believe it to be a subset from what I have recently read).