Amaxophobia, or fear of driving, can result in anxiety attacks that occur as soon as a person is faced with this situation, or even in anticipation. People affected by this obsession with driving often use avoidance strategies, for example by taking other types of transport when possible. Doctor Nicolas Neveux, psychiatrist in Paris, believes that the best way to overcome this type of phobia is to follow psychotherapy.

Etymologically, amaxophobia is a portmanteau word formed from ancient Greek, “amaxo” designating the vehicle and “phobia”, dread, significant fear that can appear in certain given situations. In fact, the phobia refers to “an unreasonable fear provoked by an apparently harmless circumstance“, Reports the psychodio.com website.

The word seems recent: “Lots of new phobia names are being invented, and I didn’t know this one!“, Indicates doctor Nicolas Neveux, psychiatrist-psychotherapist in Paris, in CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy) and TIP (inter-personal therapy), also author of the site www.e-psychiatrie.fr. If he did not know the term, this phobia of driving, he knows it well since he happens to treat this type of patient. “The principle, as in all phobias, is that in addition to this anxiety of confrontation or anticipation, people also exhibit avoidance behaviors.And, thus, the person affected by amaxophobia will make living arrangements, such as asking someone to drive in their place.

«The fear of driving is not really unfounded“, Also points out Dr. Neveux. He specifies : “We really have a vehicle weighing several hundred kilos in our hands, we can kill someone very easily and we can kill ourselves too.It is therefore a legitimate fear, at the base, in the sense that it is positive that the person is aware that there is a potential danger. On the other hand, the problem is in the exaggeration. Fear is there to indicate that there is potentially a danger, and leads to precautionary measures such as not driving while drunk or tired. But amaxophobia reveals a fear that takes on excessive proportions.

Women are more often affected by amaxophobia than men: Dr. Neveux favors, among other things, to explain it, the hypothesis of societal weight according to which women are considered not to be made to drive. For him, by dint of using the expression “woman at the wheel, dead on the turn“, We end up conveying the idea!

A phobia reflects anxiety when the person is confronted with the distressing situation, or in anticipation: the symptoms are physical, such as tremors, sweating, acceleration of the heart, a feeling of balls in the throat, difficulty in breathing. In addition, the person is full of distressing ideas on the subject of his phobia: I am afraid to get in the car, I am afraid of causing an accident, I am afraid of killing someone… In some cases, there may be a contraphobic object: for example, having a cell phone near you can give enough courage to get behind the wheel.

Amaxophobia is sometimes explained by a trauma actually experienced: someone who has suffered a car accident, whether injured or not, may present this type of phobia. Often, too, amaxophobia goes hand in hand with panic disorder. “Without saying that panic disorder is the cause, because it is very risky in psychiatry to speak in terms of causes and consequences, believes Dr. Neveux, this fear of driving can be linked to the fear of not being able to flee: when we are driving, if something disturbs us, we will not be able to flee!If asked why they are afraid to drive, some will say they are afraid of an accident, of speed, others that they are afraid of hitting someone, or that driving is a huge responsibility.

How to overcome this phobia? For Doctor Neveux, “CBTs are extremely effective: psychotherapy has proven to be effective in treating phobias“. In psychopathology, the problem of people with phobias is linked to dysfunctional cognitions: they have a mental representation of the situation that is far too disturbing, far too focused on the notion of danger. The danger is, therefore, seen as far too great. Cognitive distortions overestimate the likelihood of danger occurring.

In some, other psychiatric co-morbidities can be added, making the treatment more complicated. Thus, someone who, in addition to his phobia, is very depressed, and therefore not very proactive in reacting, will have difficulty in becoming aware of his cognitions: there is then a greater risk that psychotherapy will not work. 

To achieve that people drive despite amaxophobia, CBT is effective because it will help the patient to get behind the wheel despite the fear: indeed, the psychotherapeutic work will help him to do so in a satisfactory emotional context. People are thus led to become aware of their emotions and especially of their dysfunctional cognitions. “There is not much need to get them to realize that they are phobic, generally they are aware of the phobia: what is needed is to make them question the cognitive patterns that lead to the phobia. emotion“, Considers Nicolas Neveux.

Regarding hypnosis, relaxation or mindfulness meditation, they help the person to be less anxious in general, “but it is not scientifically demonstrated to be effective on the phobia itself“, Reminds Doctor Neveux. 

As for anxiolytics, “they can help, but I don’t recommend them, especially since they are addictive, and dangerous, for the most part, to the driving itself“, Says the Parisian psychiatrist. “They can and should be used to soothe large anxiety attacks, but should always be accompanied by psychotherapy: this is what will do the job.«

An interesting avenue: that of internships or tailor-made modules, set up in certain driving schools.

Avoidance behaviors represent all the adjustments that a person makes in their life in order to get around their phobia. For example, instead of driving, she will take the bus, plane, train, metro, tram… Is it disabling? It all depends of course on where you live… This may not be so in certain contexts, for some inhabitants of city centers who can do without a car… But for most people, this phobia is crippling. Either they will make arrangements and manage not to have to take the car. Either way, they will suffer because there will be no way around.

A correlation, that is to say the notion of a cause or a consequence, must always be approached with caution in psychiatry, as we have seen. Nonetheless, there will very often be other phobias present in someone who has a phobia in question, whether it is driving or another. And Nicolas Neveux to insist: “Whatever the theme of phobias, the general principle of CBT psychotherapies is always the same!«