Zero driving, a survival guide for those who panic at the wheel

Crossing the Gobi Desert on the back of a camel, down the Niger River in a bunker… Roxanne, 45, has done just about everything. A professional traveler, she experiences the tourist circuits and their extreme apocalypse experiences. But something mundane is missing: driving a car. “I know, this is crazy. yI am an independent woman who loves snow riding. Nothing scares me but that. »

Roxanne is not an isolated case. Like her, thousands of French people don’t drive, or drive cars as little as possible. Sweating hands, palpitations, tremors or muscle stiffness, nausea, and sometimes panic attacks – these are symptoms of driving phobia. It has nothing to do with the legitimate apprehension one can feel when they take the wheel in fog or under snow – the unhealthy fear, it’s disproportionate and irrational.

According to some studies, it may result from a physiological abnormality called the visual vestibular. “The sensations that indicate our position in space come from three different sources: the eye, the vestibule (a small organ in the inner ear that is sensitive to body movements) and receptors called ‘sensory cues’, which are found in muscles and tendons,” Psychiatrist Roger Zombrunn explains in his book “Don’t Panic While Driving!” (1) An essential book in understanding and overcoming fear of driving. But for some, visual sensations take over. They no longer have