Exposure therapy is really intense and isn’t something that I enjoy. I have really bad anxiety and it makes it difficult for me to do things that come really naturally to other people. For example, I struggle with driving on busy roads or on any road where there isn’t a clear spot that I can pull over if things get to be too much. I’m not sure where this anxiety came from, but it really impacts my life and makes things a lot harder than it should do.
I’ve had my license for six years now and I still can’t drive twenty minutes to my boyfriend’s house. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t really upset about that fact. This is why I’ve started doing exposure therapy. It’s been really difficult for me, to the point where I’ve started asking my mechanic to issue me a roadworthy certificate every six months so that I can be sure that my car is as safe as possible whilst driving. It’s an anxiety thing, the need for constant reassurance that everything is going to be okay. Even with that reassurance, I’ve been struggling with driving a lot.
I wish they would start the roll-out of self-driving cars sooner rather than later. I have my license which means I’d be able to ‘drive’ a self-driving car, which is also known as sitting in the car and letting it take you where you want to go without having to do anything. I’d only have to drive if something went wrong, which would be a massive step up from having to always drive like I do now.
My car mechanic in Brunswick told me that he doesn’t expect self-driving cars to be affordable for the public for at least another ten years. That means I’ll have to really focus on my exposure therapy and try driving further and further every day or I’ll never be able to get anywhere.