We are often asked questions like: “Amaxophobia is the fear of what?” In this article we will try to fully address this issue. In the endless variety of phobias and fears, motorophobia is far from in last place. It may probably seem strange to many that in the 21st century people are afraid of cars, or more precisely, of traveling in this type of transport. But, oddly enough, this is often what happens, and many people nowadays suffer from amaxophobia and feel an obsessive fear of driving in vehicles.
What is motorophobia?
Amaxophobia (ancient Greek: carriage and fear) is a common phobia these days, which appears when the individual defense mechanisms of the human psyche are highly active before traveling by vehicle, and is also a fear of carriages. Most often it manifests itself in people who have survived an accident, children and witnesses of terrible accidents. Amaxophobia can be either an independent phobia or accompanying other fears, for example, hypengiophobia (fear of responsibility), criminophobia (fear of committing an offense), pyrophobia (fear of fire and fire) or thanatophobia (fear of death).
Diagnostics
Agyrophobia - this diagnosis is made by a psychiatrist after a conversation with the patient
Having figured out the name of the disease, which manifests itself as a fear of going outside, you should promptly pay attention to the alarming symptoms and consult a doctor for help. The diagnosis is made by a psychiatrist after a conversation with the patient. As a rule, diagnosing a phobia is quite simple, but it is necessary to exclude other diseases that may be accompanied by irrational fear. First of all, the specialist must rule out schizophrenia.
Agyrophobia is often accompanied by depression, an inferiority complex, and pathological self-doubt. The doctor’s task is to identify all existing disorders and select the optimal treatment regimen.
On average, a specialist consultation costs about 1,000 rubles. In some regions the price is lower, in the range of 500-600 rubles. Further cost of treatment is determined individually for each patient, depending on the chosen technique.
How to get rid of the fear of crossing the street is determined by the doctor, based on the characteristics of the phobic disorder in a particular patient.
Causes
There are many reasons why a person develops motor phobia. Often, this problem arises after experiencing an accident or when a person witnesses death as a result of a traffic accident. Psychosis or violent fantasy increases the likelihood of psychotrauma.
- The fear of driving a car (phobia) arises due to a person’s premonition that he is in mortal danger. Such panic fear is often groundless, with no objective circumstances for it.
- According to scientists, amaxophobia can be inherited genetically. An individual inherits from his parents or ancestors anxious and suspicious characteristics of the psyche, which can manifest themselves under certain circumstances.
The reason for fear when traveling on transport must be sought in the human imagination. Attacks of fear can be caused by unforeseen circumstances on the road.
Therapy for siderodromophobia
Distancing from the objects of siderodromophobia, in this case, railway transport and its components, does not make it possible to complete the process of extinction of the conditioned reflex - fear when exposed to these threatening factors. Research has shown that the best therapy for combating a phobia is a gradual approach to the threat factor until the conditioned reflex to it is extinguished.
In practice, relations with railway infrastructure facilities should be renewed regularly in small portions. You can start small : walking through railway stations among crowds of passengers, walking along the railway, immersing yourself in the noise of locomotives - immersing yourself in the atmosphere of your fear. The continuation of therapy will be direct contact with the surface of trains, visiting carriages. The final test will be a short trip to the nearest station, and if everything went without the manifestation of conditioned reflexes of siderodromophobia, you should gradually increase the distance of your journey, which as a result will eventually inspire confidence in the absurdity of accumulated fears.
In combination, this is accompanied by preliminary procedures using methods of cognitive behavioral therapy and relaxation - systematic desensitization . The psychotherapist teaches the patient basic relaxation techniques and carries out corrective measures.
Peculiarities
The strength of the shock that a person has experienced may vary. In this regard, the manifestation of amaxophobia may have different signs and be more or less pronounced. A driver or passenger cannot fully control the situation on the road; there are always circumstances that are beyond their control. Unforeseen and uncontrollable events, for example, road accidents, often provoke the occurrence of amaxophobia. Scientists say that the most common reasons are traveling by car in bad weather conditions, difficult highways with busy traffic, and traveling at night. Strong anxiety can be caused by a feeling of responsibility for the passengers sitting in the car. Many drivers get nervous when they have to drive someone else's car.
To the question “Is Amaxophobia a fear or a disease?” scientists answer unequivocally: amaxophobia is not a disease, people susceptible to this phobia are considered absolutely normal.
The car and the first negative experience of humanity
The first accident involving self-propelled vehicles occurred in Paris in 1771. To avoid hitting children on the road, engineer Cugno, driving a homemade steam tractor, was forced to turn and crashed into the wall of an armory.
An accident involving two vehicles (an electric car and a bicycle) occurred in New York on May 30, 1896. The injured cyclist suffered a broken leg.
First car
The first arrest for speeding was also made in New York. The taxi driver who recklessly accelerated to a speed of 19 km/h was detained.
The first accident involving the death of a pedestrian occurred in England in 1831. A woman who unexpectedly stepped onto the road died under the wheels of a car. These events opened a continuously growing list of road accidents.
Symptoms and signs
The mild form of this disorder is limited only by excessive nervousness when driving vehicles. In severe cases, the following may occur:
- Cloudiness in the eyes.
- Shortness of breath just thinking about the prospect of an accident on the highway.
- A person suffering from motor phobia may experience sudden changes in heart rate.
- Body weakness may occur.
- Limbs go numb.
- Nausea, vomiting, incontinence, problems with urination.
- Profuse sweating.
- A person may cease to understand where he is at the moment and lose orientation in space.
- The world around us can become unnatural in the eyes of the possessed.
- A person may have the feeling that life is leaving him.
Varieties
This phobia can be individual in nature or be part of larger mental illnesses.
Types of amaxophobia are divided into:
- Fear of traveling, getting into an accident;
- Fear of certain specific types of transport - trolleybuses, cars, trains, etc.
- The inability to travel in cars that have a specific distinctive feature, for example, a car of a certain brand or a certain color.
- Experiences of a social nature. Fear of driving cars that can damage a person’s image.
Machine of horror: what is fear of transport
In March 2010, when Muscovite Anna was thirteen years old, she was at the Chistye Prudy metro station when a terrorist attack occurred at the nearby Lubyanka.
— When they blocked the red line, I found myself in the thick of the crowd. Our train was stopped and everyone was told to get off. A wild stampede began. Oddly enough, my only thought at the time was that I was terribly late for algebra! When I finally managed to get to school an hour and a half later, the teachers greeted me with the words: “Wow, wow: you’re alive!”
As Anna says, after the incident she continued to treat the subway calmly for some time. The first panic attack happened only in the summer.
— I was returning after a walk with friends. As usual, I went into the subway, but soon I felt something very strange. Everything before my eyes became terribly bright, my hands went cold, it seemed that everyone in the carriage was looking only at me. Then it became very hot, there was not enough air, as if something was squeezing me from all sides. I wanted to quickly run out of the subway. I was very scared then and decided that I was dying, that my heart would simply stop. Although what kind of heart problems can you have at the age of fourteen?
Anna returned home on the verge of hysterics, but found no one there: everyone had left for the dacha. Then she called her best friend, and he tried to calm her down for an hour and a half. However, the next day the panic subsided, and a new attack occurred only in the fall.
“If I had started treating this when I was fourteen, then everything would be different now.” Then I limited myself to an ordinary sedative. I saw an advertisement on TV, bought and took the course. The attacks stopped and I stopped treatment. For several years fear did not make itself felt.
By the time I entered university, the attacks resumed. Anna recalls that one day she was traveling from a friend’s place, and the train made a stop between stations. For some time nothing happened, the train did not move, and Anna was overwhelmed with animal fear.
“I thought I would scream and start grabbing the hands of the people sitting next to me.” I was almost shaking with fear. At the next station I got out of the car. I really wanted to go outside, to the surface. I understood that I was far from home and would not get there without the metro. So I boarded the next train and, with my eyes closed in fear, reached my station.
Anna says that her family and friends did not take her problem seriously. Nobody understood the girl, and because of this she felt terribly awkward.
“My mother advised me to just close my eyes and go into the carriage.” It was impossible to prove to her that for me all this was not a children's attraction that was fun for three minutes. Grandma thought I was getting seasick. The older brother chuckled until a month ago, when he himself had a seizure on the subway. Then he called me and asked for forgiveness.
At the end of her first year, Anna stopped taking the subway and traveled by minibuses, trams or on foot. All this took a lot of time. However, soon attacks began to occur in any transport, in elevators or university classrooms.
“At some point I realized that I didn’t want to live like this anymore. I turned to a psychologist from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, but did not receive the help I needed. There were only conversations, but the phobia needs to be treated differently. I went to appointments for about a month, but then I realized that I was wasting my money. There were no improvements.
Then Anna decided that she could cope with the phobia on her own.
“We could no longer turn away from the problem.” I understood that it would not be possible to avoid the metro forever. I decided to go to the university by metro. Then, after several trips, I realized that I was able to get back by subway. Now I have almost overcome my fear. I take the subway and hope that in five years I will completely get rid of the discomfort.
But how to learn not to be afraid to drive a car, how to get rid of a phobia?
For motor phobia, therapy consists of the patient independently (without hospitalization) taking psychotropic medications prescribed by the doctor. The drugs effectively stop the attack and block its development to a critical state. Medicines are then taken for several months to prevent relapse. Properly selected medications will ensure a positive result in a short time. The person becomes much calmer, signs of the presence of a phobia disappear. Some people practice psychotherapeutic methods.
To the question of how to stop being afraid of driving, psychology has its own solutions that can be applied without the use of medications. There are a large number of techniques that can make a person overcome fear.
Rational fear of driving
A physical disorder in which a person is afraid to drive a car or use public transport. Historical facts say that the first self-propelled structures appeared at the end of the 18th century. Self-propelled technical means have changed greatly and are so firmly rooted in human life that it is impossible to imagine the modern world without machines.
Living in a metropolis, employment and social activity force people to use a personal car or public transport every day.
Despite the fact that self-propelled vehicles have not been a curiosity for a long time, a technical device can cause anxiety in a person, and sometimes severe fear - amaxophobia.
Self-treatment
On the Internet you can find a lot of literature on how to deal with fear as a novice driver. Meditation and various spiritual practices help well. Psychologists also recommend using visualization to solve problems. Visualization is a mental simulation of a situation that is bothering you, in this case you need to imagine how you are driving a car and try to gain control over the situation in your thoughts. We are often asked the question: “I’m afraid to drive a car around the city, what should I do?” The best solution in this situation may be to go to a psychologist.
