I'm Paranoid about Hitting a Pedestrian. Here's What You Should Do

When you start driving a car, all your subconscious fears may come out. For example, a lot of drivers with less than 2 years of experience confirm that they have that paranoic fear about hitting a pedestrian that suddenly appears on the road. This is a serious concern because it makes you get tension every time you are driving.

If you are paranoid about hitting a pedestrian, it's recommended that you visit a therapist. Psychologists may help you figure out the reasons for your fear. They will obviously help you cope with this. Also, you may try and get more experience behind the steering wheel in different conditions and take a couple of extra lessons with a good teacher.

Here's what I will cover in this article:

• Why do you have a paranoic fear of hitting a pedestrian?
• Is that OK to feel nervous every time you are driving?
• Finding professional help - where should you go?
• Extra training - how to find a proper teacher?
• Can you cope with the fear of hitting a pedestrian on your own?

Let's get started!

Where does the paranoic fear of hitting a pedestrian come from?

First of all, you should understand that being afraid to drive a car on your own is a totally normal thing. You will most likely feel super nervous when you drive for the first time without anyone in the car who can help you.

I knew people who got their first driving license at the age of 30-40. They all were super-scared when driving until they got more or less decent experience. At this age, you understand clearly that your small mistake may kill someone or even you. And this makes the tension even worse.

But specifically, the fear of hitting a pedestrian comes from several things:

• you may have been the witness of a car crash where a pedestrian suffered and was hit by a car;
• you were in a car that hit a pedestrian when you were young;
• your parents told you a lot of dreadful stories about how a person went to prison after killing a pedestrian on the first day of their driving;
• you watched a film or a show where the car crash was shown and your subconscious mind took it for granted;
• your driving tutor or instructor told you a lot of stories about car crashes to make you realize how important it is to learn to drive well.

These are just examples and everyone may have their own situations. Even if you witnessed a car crash when you were a small kid, this could have been hidden in your subconscious mind and is now torturing you when you try to gain some experience in driving a car. This fear may have been hidden deep inside your memory, but now it is activated because you start driving a car.

This is just to explain to you how tangled the reasons are. Something that you saw in a film or a TV show years ago may actually affect your mental condition right now. And it's extremely important to understand where the fear starts and why it is disturbing you from calm and safe driving.

Is it OK to experience fear when driving?

It's completely OK to be afraid to drive and experience panic and paranoic fears when you drive for the first week all alone. But if you continue having that paranoic fear of hitting a pedestrian, you shouldn't ignore this.

First of all, this may distract you from safe driving. You will be stressed at all times and will spend too much energy when driving. Your task is to be attentive and relaxed when you drive so that you can react quickly.

So, if you are afraid of every turn in the first week after you get the driver's license, that's OK. Just keep getting experience and the fears will be gone. Make sure you follow all the rules and are developing safe driving habits.

Whenever you notice that your tension isn't relieved after you have enough experience behind the steering wheel, it's time to get to action. Don't expect that this will be cured on its own after some time. Just do whatever you can to get rid of those problems.

Finding professional help - where should you go?

It doesn't make sense to speak to a parent or friend. They will not help you - they will just slap you on the shoulder and say that you should relax and get pleasure when driving. But this will not help. You will need professional assistance with this problem.

The best idea is to go to a therapist (psychologist) who can dig into the memories and beliefs and find the one that triggers your paranoid fear of driving. This is not easy and you should find a specialist who is experienced enough to succeed in this.

Unfortunately, this is going to cost you quite a lot of money. Sometimes, the insurance can cover at least part of the costs, but not the basic one. Learn more about the prices and the number of sessions you may need because without knowing this, you may get another paranoic fear - the fear of attending a therapist.

Here's what will happen in the sessions:

• the therapist will listen to you and ask simple questions to get closer to the trigger;
• then, the specialist will find the proper techniques that will help you relax when you drive;
• after several sessions, the doctor will be ready to work with your mind and help you get rid of the tension;
• also, several sessions will be needed to make sure that the result is long-lasting.

Yes, it's going to take some time. The duration of the therapy depends on your case. Sometimes, it's possible to deal with everything for one month, but very often, you will need several months to solve the problem.

If you don't want to or just can't spend money, you can find a volunteering organization that offers help and support for people. Sometimes, these organizations may have a psychologist who can spend an hour or two with you and solve your problem at least for some time.

Extra training - another way to get confidence

Sometimes, the paranoic fear of hitting a pedestrian comes from the fact that you aren't experienced enough to feel confident behind the steering wheel. It means you will need to develop more skills and confidence. But how?

For this, you may find a private driving teacher and have several sessions with them. The teacher will explain to you how you can gain more confidence and will show you some tricks on how to deal with your fears.

Here are some important advantages:

• you will be able to close the gaps that you may have after learning how to drive;
• you may ask all the questions about driving and the experienced specialist will answer them;
• you will learn more skills and will work in the situations that trigger your fears;
• you may ask the teacher to have the lessons in the center of the city where driving is monstrously dangerous.

After several sessions, you may feel much more confident and you will drive perfectly when you are alone in the car. Then, just gain more and more experience, and eventually, you will understand that there are no paranoic fears anymore in your head.

This is the cheaper and easier method but it won't help everyone. If you still have a strong subconscious fear, you need to dig it out of your mind and understand it to start changing the patterns of behavior.

Can you cope with the paranoid fear of driving on your own?

You obviously can cope with this fear on your own but this will take you some time and effort. The problem is that we don't know what to fight with and when we start trying to cope with our fears, we are just competing with ghosts.

Anyway, you need to analyze everything and create a new pattern of behavior. Every time you feel that fear is taking over you, you need to relax, relieve the tension, and repeat to yourself that you are driving safely, you don't break the rules, you are watching the road, so everything will be fine.

Tell yourself that you have the full control of the car. Start driving slowly when you feel the fear again. Usually, slow driving gives you more confidence and more time to react if something bad happens on the road.

After several months of consciously dealing with the paranoic fear of hitting a person on the road, you can feel that driving is now much less stressful for you.

Final thoughts

It's hard to tell you if your fear comes from your subconscious mind or from the poor experience behind the steering wheel. You may start with gaining more experience and if nothing helps you cope with the paranoic fear of driving, you should go to the specialist and ask for help.

If you decide to deal with this issue on your own, invest your time and effort in it, because without everyday work, nothing will change and you will keep being tensioned and depressed when driving.