AMAXOPHOBIA: SYMPTOMS, CAUSES, TREATMENTS - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The amaxofobia or fear of driving is a specific type of phobia is an irrational fear, disproportionate and maladaptive driving. The first differentiation that we must make is the following: fear caused by lack of confidence in driving vs phobia or irrational fear of driving.

Phobia is a special type of fear and differs from other types of fear in the following ways: it is disproportionate to the demands of the situation, it cannot be reasoned by the person who suffers it, it is beyond voluntary control, is maladaptive and leads to the avoidance of the feared behavior.

Therefore, if the fear or fear that you suffer when you are going to drive the car does not meet these requirements, we are not facing a phobia, but rather another type of less disabling fear, which can be overcome by working on those aspects that can be causative.: lack of driving practice, self-esteem problems, poor adaptation to a new vehicle, etc.

However, if the fear that you suffer when you drive (or simply imagine driving) is irrational and totally disproportionate, things change, since we are facing a specific and very common phobia: amaxophobia.

Possibly with these indications you continue to question whether or not you really suffer from amaxophobia. Well, let's go and see what the symptoms of this problem are to dispel doubts.

Symptoms

As we have discussed, amaxophobia is defined as an irrational and unreal fear of driving. This fear causes a total of 14 symptoms in people who suffer it when they perform the dreaded behavior (driving) or simply when they imagine or think about it.

• These symptoms are as follows:
• Feeling of panic
• Feeling of terror.
• Feeling of unreality.
• Increased heart rate
• Chest pains
• Short of breath.
• Dizziness
• Tremor.
• Sweating
• Anxiety.
• Taking extreme measures to avoid driving.

To speak of amaxophobia, it is not necessary that all these symptoms are present, but it is necessary that the set of symptoms that are experienced are predominated by those that we have just named.

As you can see, this fear is characterized by a combination of:

• Psychological symptoms (catastrophic thoughts, thoughts of fear or anxiety).
• Physiological symptoms (tremor, shortness of breath, and increased heart rate).
• Behavioral symptoms (avoidance of the dreaded behavior).

These three groups of symptoms are the ones that define anxiety as a disorder, and therefore are basic to make the diagnosis of amaxophobia.

So, if when you imagine, think or perform driving behavior you notice these three types of symptoms, manifested in an exaggerated and disproportionate way, it is likely that you have a driving phobia.

It should be noted as the main element to detect amaxophobia, the fact that this fear and these symptoms are caused specifically by driving behavior, and not by other sources.

Statistics

Well look: according to the latest studies carried out in Spain, it is concluded that around one and a half million people suffer from this problem.

So when we talk about amaxophobia, we are talking about a much more frequent problem than we might think, and without a proper therapeutic approach it can be very disabling, since the person who suffers from it may be "forced" to never drive, or to drive with great discomfort due to this pathology.

Regarding the 1.5 million who suffer from amaxophobia, it is estimated that practically one million are women, and around half a million are men. Thus, this problem affects a greater proportion of the female gender than the male gender.

After seeing these data, which are surprising to say the least, let's go look at or search for an explanation of why this disorder exists, and what its causes are.

Causes

Performing a review of the scientific literature on specific phobias, there does not seem to be a single cause for these problems. However, we can comment on a number of factors that seem to be involved.

According to “The Densy Psychological Services”, a group of mental health professionals from the UK, these factors would be the following:

• The phobia could be linked to a past traumatic situation. Usually it is a traffic accident. This, according to many authors, seems to be the main cause of amaxophobia, although it is not the only one. Likewise, not all people who suffer a car accident necessarily develop a phobia of driving later.
• Another factor that could be related to the development of the phobia would be getting lost while driving, and experiencing fear when driving through unfamiliar places.
• Driving at night or in adverse weather conditions. Bad weather can cause excess driver discomfort.

These would then be the three situations that could be related to the development of amaxophobia.

But are these the only causes? Obviously not, since many of us may have suffered from these situations, and we do not necessarily have to develop a driving phobia.

Genetic factors

So are there genetic factors related to amaxophobia?

The answer to this question is yes, there are people who are more sensitive to anxiety, and therefore are more likely to experience certain levels of anxiety in these situations, which could play a key role in the development of amaxophobia.

These data incline us to another question: if I have relatives who suffer from amaxophobia, do I have a greater chance of suffering from amaxophobia?

The answer to this question is somewhat more complex. According to the researchers Fyer et al, there is a higher prevalence of specific phobia in those people who have a first-degree relative who suffers from a specific phobia.

However, there seems to be no specifics in the transmission regarding the feared stimulus.

That is: if one of your parents suffers from amaxophobia, you are more likely to suffer from a specific phobia, but it does not have to be a driving phobia like your parent, but it can be a phobia of any other specific stimulus (animals, heights, blood, etc.).

Therefore, we could not affirm that there is a demonstrated genetic transmission in the phobia of driving in a particular way, but in the transmission of specific phobias of different types.

To end with the causes of amaxophobia, I would like to comment on a series of personality traits, which according to the II Report on Amaxophobia, prepared by the FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE Road Safety Institute, are prototypical of people who suffer amaxobia.

According to this study, some of the traits would be the following:

• Responsibility.
• Perfectionism
• Self-demand.
• Need to have everything under control.

Likewise, insecurity, fear due to lack of control, depression, the presence of other phobias (such as claustrophobia or hematophobia), or exposure to prolonged states of stress, could also be related.

Treatment

According to Dr. Alan Eisenstat, amaxophobia begins with the thought that you may have an accident. The more you think about the possibility of having an accident, the more anxious you will be, and the more characteristic symptoms of amaxophobia you will experience.

Likewise, the more you think about the possibility of having an accident and the more anxious you are, the greater the avoidance of the dreaded situation (you will avoid driving). Avoiding the situation reduces anxiety in the moment, but maintains driving anxiety in the future.

So one thing is clear: to overcome your fear of driving, you have to drive. Without getting into a car and grabbing a wheel, it is impossible to overcome amaxophobia.

Now, when you suffer from a driving phobia, you cannot jump into a car suddenly and start driving, since at those times the anxiety you will feel will be maximum, you will not be able to control it, and you will not be able to drive without discomfort, so that your phobia will increase.

To properly treat a phobia, it must be done through the 3 components that we have mentioned above: The physiological, psychological and behavioral components.

Let's see how it's done:

Physical component

The most effective and widely used technique are relaxation techniques, especially those that control breathing, such as diaphragmatic breathing. The psychotherapist teaches these techniques to the person suffering from amaxophobia, so that they are able to control their breathing.

By controlling breathing, the level of body activation decreases, and therefore all those physical symptoms that you suffer when you have anxiety, such as trembling, palpitations and sweating decrease.

By reducing these bodily symptoms, the feeling of anxiety and discomfort of noticing these alterations in your body decreases. Learning to control these symptoms through relaxation is essential so that when you get into a car, you dominate your anxiety, and it does not dominate you.

Psychological component

The patient is taught how to reduce the tendency to think that he is going to have an accident. To do this, an effective technique is Socratic interrogation.

This technique consists of the psychotherapist asking you questions, so that in the end the patient runs out of arguments to defend the phobia. It should be remembered that phobia is an irrational fear, so this technique tries to reveal the irrationality of phobic thinking.

Through Socratic interrogation, an attempt is made to change the idea that you are going to have an accident with total probability. However, it is done in a rational way, and the possibility of suffering an accident is maintained, since it exists. But the overestimation of having it is eliminated.

Behavioral component

In this one, you have to get in a car and start driving. This intervention is not usually carried out before the two previous ones have started and is carried out through a professional rehabilitating driver.

When you start this intervention, you are already minimally able to control your anxiety when you get into the car through relaxation techniques. The goal is then to drive and experience first-hand what happens when you drive.

By repeating driving behavior and witnessing no accidents, eliminating the idea of ​​safely having an accident when driving will be maximized. Also, resources are provided to handle difficult situations on the road.

Currently, in Spain there are a large number of specialized driving schools for the treatment of this problem, as well as psychotherapists specialized in phobias and therapies and courses through the Internet.

So, if you suffer from amaxophobia, you should seek these types of resources, since through proper treatment, you will overcome your fear of driving.

References

1. Driving Phobia. DENSY PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES. Ltd Densy House, 2 Tower Square, Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 5AA.
2. Eisenstat, A. Fear of Driving: How Psychologists Can Help. Fleming Vigna Balmer - Registered Psychologists.
3. Fear of driving (driving phobia). Road Trauma Support. City West Lotteries House, 2 Delhi Street, West Perth WA 6005.
4. WJ Koch, Ph.D., Patient Handout for Overcoming Driving Fear and Avoidance. ABPP