The Driving Anxiety Institute

Who We Are

The Driving Anxiety Institute was founded by the author of the widely used Driving Fear Program as a single source for all information related to the fear of driving, driving anxiety, or driving phobias and disorders.

You can learn about your fear of driving and anxiety, what treatment options are available, where to find support, and everything else you need to know in order to successfully get on the path to overcoming your fear and taking back your freedom.

Please remember that the information on this site is for educational purposes only and is not meant to be a substitute for professional treatment or advice. Please work with your therapist or physician to find the best course of treatment for you individually. Also, please be sure to click here to learn about our recommended treatment for anxiety and fear about driving.

Treatment Options

The first thing everyone with a fear of driving wants to know is how to treat and overcome it and get back to a life without unnecessary anxiety. Below we discuss several of the most common and effective treatment paths, along with specific suggestions regarding selecting a credible self-help program and information about professionals who specialize in the treatment of driving disorders and driving anxiety that may be in your area.

Self-Help

The most common approach to treating driving anxiety is via a self-help course or program. This can mean many things, including buying a book on anxiety at the bookstore, reading information you find online, or using a course or program tailored to overcoming a fear of driving. Let’s look at the pros and cons of all these paths:

General Book on Anxiety or Panic Attacks

Walk into any bookstore, or perform a simple search on Amazon, and you’ll come across dozens, if not hundreds of books devoted to anxiety. Like everything else, some are better than others, but most have elements of good advice to be found within their pages. In addition to books, there are medical and professional journals, magazine articles, and more that can be researched to broaden your knowledge and understanding of what anxiety is and what steps you can take to combat it.

However, the largest negative to this approach is the sheer volume of information to go through in order to discover the foundation of properly treating your anxiety. You could easily spend months if not years reading and researching different perspectives to find a course of action that would be appropriate for you to take to conquer your fear of driving. Not to mention that the mere act of reading a viewpoint doesn’t mean that the approach is best, safe, or recommended while driving. While there are virtually limitless books on anxiety and panic, there are sadly very few books or resources on overcoming the fear of driving specifically, although as we’ll discuss in a moment, that is changing.

Non-Authoritative Online Information

Similarly, there is almost nothing that cannot be found online given enough time and effort, and much of it is very good and informative. However, the ease of information distribution online is also one of its greatest flaws. Anyone can put anything they wish on the web, and it can be incredibly difficult to impossible to validate the accuracy of what is being stated. A simple Google search will yield 473,000 results as of this writing devoted to whether or not unicorns are, in fact, real.

The time necessary to read, research, and validate the information found across all the available books, articles, professional journals, and online make it an approach that we feel simply isn’t the best for most people struggling with a fear of driving, although broadening your personal knowledge base on anxiety and gaining alternative perspectives is never a bad idea in addition to a more effective primary approach.

Keep in mind, the above references non-authoritative information about driving anxiety and phobias found online such as personal blogs and forums. This is certainly not to say that anything found online is flawed or lacking credibility. As you’ll discover, our most recommended treatment program, The Driving Fear Program, can be found online and was authored by the administrator of the Driving Anxiety Institute.

Self-Help Programs

Self-help programs for anxiety are a wonderful alternative to starting yourself from scratch. The beauty of a comprehensive program is that the author has put in the necessary time and effort to research and evaluate the information prior to assembling the course, so you are left with accurate and beneficial information to use to conquer your fear as quickly and easily as possible.

Some programs are purely informational in nature, and others are actual step by step systems to overcoming your fear. Some are downloaded online, others are sent to your home. Some consist purely of written material, some are audio components you listen to and learn from, and still others may include video tools. Your choices are many and you should select a program that you feel is best for your preferred learning method and individual fear.

Additionally, most self-help programs offered are very cost effective. From your own home or automobile, you can spend hours with an instructor via the program material, for what breaks down to be a very small per hour charge. For instance, if you were to select a self-help program for driving anxiety that was $600, and it took ten hours to read through and digest the material, that would come to an hourly rate of only $60 hour, far less than a traditional therapist would charge. Although some of what you may read will be similar to what you would be exposed to an individual therapist’s office, it would cost you a fraction of the cost, and you can refer back to any area you like whenever you feel it’s necessary.

Some individuals who can afford the increased expense and inconvenience of an individual therapist do enjoy the person interaction that you don’t necessarily have as much of with an in home self-help program. An individual therapist does give you a certain amount of accountability and personalized support that a self-help program has a difficult time duplicating. However, professionals that specialize in the treatment of driving anxiety are exceedingly rare, and the chances that you live in an area where one exists is remote. While there are certainly many therapists and professionals who treat general anxiety and panic, in our opinion, the unique considerations posed by a driving phobia require someone who has a deep level of knowledge in that particular area of anxiety, and unfortunately, there are only a small handful who meet that criteria in the United States.

Similarly, there are many different self-help program’s for general anxiety and panic attacks, but very few that are tailored specifically for the fear of driving, which as we said, makes an incredible difference in the programs effectiveness. The self-help program that is almost certainly the most widely used for the treatment of driving anxiety, by both individuals and professional clinicians, is the Driving Fear Program developed by our founder Rich Presta. Rich Presta is known as one of the pioneers in the treatment of the fear of driving, and likely the most respected and influential authors on the subject of driving anxiety anywhere in the world. His Driving Fear Program is one of the very few designed specifically for the fear of driving and earns our highest recommendation for its remarkable effectiveness, easy of use, and cutting edge therapeutic techniques and innovation. The overwhelming success of his program is partly due to the great lengths taken to ensure that it meets as may needs as possible, and removes many of the limitations found in other self-help programs. It includes both written material in the form of manuals, reports, and workbooks, hour upon hour of audio material, and even video material, so whether you learn better through reading, watching, or listening to the material, you will find what you’re looking for in the course.

The Driving Fear Program is also a step-by-step program, which shows you precisely what to do, and in what order, to fully conquer your fear. It’s the closest thing we’ve seen to being with an actual therapist, without the drawbacks of individual therapy.

It is available in either convenient downloadable or Print and CD format, so whichever you are more comfortable with is easily available to you. You know that you can trust the program by its sheer volume of worldwide use, but it also includes an exceptionally generous return policy and 100% money back guarantee.

Lastly, it is far and away the most cost effective treatment we’ve come across. The Driving Fear Program can be yours for as little as $67 and includes FAR more high quality material than any other solution we’ve come across. We highly recommend that anyone with a fear of driving start with obtaining a copy of the acclaimed Driving Fear Program.

Resources and Help for People Struggling With the Fear of Driving or Driving Anxiety