Moved to a big city, facing big problems
Hey guys, manual driver here.
So here I am, in my full grace. Got my driving license 5 years ago after tremendous, years lasting fight that took approximately 4 years to get straight in my head and 6 driving exams in total.
For years, I was just driving in my very small town somewhere in my home country in Europe, but I preferred to avoid rush hours, because from the beginning, my fear of driving is terrible. Had a couple of almost in accident situations, the worst being a truck driving in the opposite lane suddenly starting an attempt to get pass another truck from his lane, which almost ended in a terrible crash as he went straight into my driveway, what saved me was fast thinking and knowledge of the terrain near me - if I did not take a sharp turn into the grass, I probably wouldn’t be here.
But what is my new issue. Recently, I moved to another European country with much more developed infrastructure - there are trams, multiple lanes, roundabouts with more than one lane, tons of traffic lights and even more traffic jams, bus drivers that literally glue on your rear and other unpleasant and unpredictable situations just like bikers (I hate you, old lady who ignored stop sign and drove your dumb bike right under my car, I also hate you two who on a serpentine road that is situated in a way that nobody could see you through a big rock drove your bikes in a way that one of you went straight into my lane and we almost collided if I did not slam the brakes) and other things that are in big cities.
My issue is that I have the skills, but I get so anxious that I can’t even change the thing on my manual in a way I would not make my car jump. I am so anxious that I tempt to get tunnel vision. I am doing my best to learn to change lanes but I got into such situations that I did not know if they’re letting me go or no, even had another person to go way over the speed limit almost hit me when I tried to change lanes. My biggest enemies are the lanes and trams. Trams make me anxious because they’re huge and I seem to hate that idea of crossing its road, even if I have to.
Do you have some tips on how do I stop getting so bad I get tunnel vision? I figured out that talking out loud what am I about to do helps me a lot, so does music. Yet when something that stresses me happens, I literally start panicking and this causes me to do absolutely terribly while driving. As my fiancée, who teaches me claimed, I am a good driver, it is all just in my head. I know he is right as there were situations when a particular bad driver made me to start driving to work by myself - I was terrified of my own life with her in the car.
Do you have any tips? Thank you for reading through this and I hope I made sense to you - English is my second language, which is why I sometimes may not be so good at explaining, but I tried my best!