EFT for Fear of Driving

Fear of Driving is a Phobia

Fear of driving is one of many kinds of seemingly exaggerated fears that people have. Most people who experience fear of driving acknowledge that their fear is more intense than is normal given the realities of driving. Sure, there’s some danger involved, but most people aren’t terrified to drive, and so we could say that their fear is “exaggerated.” Such exaggerated fears are also called phobias, and people with an exaggerated fear of driving have a driving phobia.

Common Treatments for Driving Phobia

There are several commonly used methods to deal with phobias: systematic desensitization, exposure therapy and virtual therapy. Although these methods have proven to be effective, they have their pros and cons. Exposure and virtual therapies expose a person to what they’re terrified of, sometimes in a very intense way and sometimes gradually. Either way, the experience can be very painful and sometimes re-traumatize a person. All three are behavioral therapies, which deal with the behavior but may not get at the source of the problem.

EFT for Phobias

EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), also called EFT Tapping, is a method that is very effective in helping people overcome their phobias. An EFT practitioner helps you discover, for example, how and when the phobia started, whether it’s emotionally related to other painful events in your life, and what your exact experience is, of the phobia. Together, you begin focusing on these various experiences and the emotions that arise when you think of them. This can be done gently or more directly, as is comfortable for you. At the same time as you’re focusing on specific parts of the experience, together you use EFT Tapping on specific acupuncture points. This may sound a bit strange, but it is often very effective quickly to move you through your fears and drain the emotional charge out of them.

EFT for Driving Phobia

EFT Tapping is often effective in relatively quickly easing fear of driving. Here’s how it works. Often fear of driving first begins when you’re involved in a car accident (even if the accident doesn’t cause injuries), having someone close to you be severely injured or die in a car accident, or it can begin years later during a time of stress that brings back a feeling similar to the one you originally experienced. There are several ways to go: together with your counselor, you might first remember the various things that happen in your body and emotionally when you’re driving and the phobia takes over. You would focus on one of these things as you’re remembering and simultaneously tap on the acupuncture points. Most people notice that each emotion and each body feeling they focus on calms down very quickly. Another approach might be to focus on each specific part of the accident and the emotions that occurred-and are occurring right then as you remember the accident. You tap on the acupuncture points as you focus on each part. Again, most people notice that the charge around each part clears very quickly.

It could be that another event, or events, is related to the fear of driving. The way to discover this is to ask if, in the past, you have ever felt the same way you do when you’re driving. You might feel trapped, you might feel that things are going too fast, you might feel at the mercy of others-any number of emotions. When you ask yourself if you’ve ever felt this way in the past-often it’s a familiar feeling from childhood when specific patterns of events happened-tapping on what appears can help clear the driving phobia.

Fear of Driving Can Be Helped

Although a driving phobia can be crippling for years and seem intractable, you can get relief so that you can move forward, no longer afraid.