Why I Understand This
I am Lee. I have been a driving instructor in Worcester for over twenty years, and I have dealt with anxiety for longer than that.
It started when I was twenty-one. I began having panic attacks, and some of them were bad enough that work once called an ambulance for me. If you have never had one, the closest I can get to describing it is feeling like there is no oxygen left to breathe.
As the years went on the panic attacks eased, but it did not go away – it just changed shape. It became more psychological, more stress than panic. Some days are fine. Some days are a lot harder.
And here is the part people find difficult to understand. On a bad day someone will ask, “What are you stressed about? What have you got to be stressed about?” That is the thing about anxiety – sometimes there is not a reason. There does not have to be one. I have always said I could win the lottery and be the richest man in the world and I would still be stressed.
I have been on medication for most of my life for it. I am still dealing with it now. Some days are better than others, and that is just how it is.
Something else worth mentioning, in case it is relevant to you. I am currently going through an assessment for ADHD. It has been suggested that some of what I have spent thirty years calling anxiety may have been ADHD all along – that was not really something anyone looked for when I was in my twenties, and I am apparently far from the only person of my generation in that position. I do not know the answer yet. But if you are neurodivergent, or you suspect you might be, and you are wondering whether learning to drive is going to be harder for you – I would rather you knew you would be learning with someone who is asking the same questions about himself.
I am telling you all this because when you get in my car, you are not sitting next to someone who has read about anxiety. You are sitting next to someone who knows exactly what it feels like when your hands will not do what you are telling them to.
If your anxiety is affecting your day-to-day life, please talk to your GP. I am a driving instructor, not a doctor, and getting a professional opinion was one of the more useful things I ever did. And there is no shame in telling people you are struggling – saying it out loud is usually easier than carrying it quietly.
My Own Driving Test Went Terribly (And I Still Passed)
People assume that because I am an instructor, I must have sailed through my own test. I did not.
My legs were shaking so badly that the examiner probably thought I had been drinking. I could not get the key in the ignition because my hands would not stay still. “In a bad way” would be an understatement.
But something happened because of how bad I was. I remember sitting there thinking: I am never putting myself through this again. And that thought made me concentrate harder than I have ever concentrated on anything. I focused so completely on what I was doing that I more or less forgot it was a test at all. I lost track of time. It was over before I knew it.
I passed. First time.
I tell my pupils that story a lot, and I tell it for a reason. Being in a state before your test does not mean you are going to fail it. Nerves and ability are two different things. The examiner is watching what the car does, not what your stomach is doing.
What Driving Anxiety Actually Looks Like
It is not always dramatic. More often it looks like:
- Booking lessons and then cancelling them
- Being fine on quiet roads and freezing at a particular junction
- Going the long way round to avoid a roundabout you do not like
- Feeling sick the night before a lesson
- Having passed years ago and not driven since
- Being fine in the car but panicking about the test itself
- Not wanting to learn in front of a parent or partner who gets frustrated
If you have done any of those, you are not unusual and you are not a bad driver. You are one of a very large group of people who mostly think they are the only one.
How Lessons Work If You Are Anxious
Automatic only. There is no clutch and no gears, which removes about half the things you would otherwise be thinking about. For a lot of anxious learners that alone is the difference between coping and not coping. If you have struggled in a manual and concluded you are no good at driving – you may just have been doing a harder version of it.
We go at your pace, not mine. There is no fixed script and no schedule I am working to. If a lesson needs to be forty minutes of quiet roads because today is not a good day, that is a fine lesson.
You can stop. Pull over, have a minute, carry on when you are ready. It is not a failure and it does not waste the lesson. Being able to stop is a driving skill.
You can tell me what is going on. You do not have to explain or justify it. “I am not great today” is enough information for me to teach you differently.
We do the scary thing in small pieces. If Six Ways terrifies you – and it terrifies plenty of people – we do not just drive at it. We look at it, we do one approach, we do it again. I have filmed every approach to Six Ways roundabout lane by lane, so you can watch it from your sofa before you ever drive it.
Coping With Anxiety on the Driving Test
This is the part most people want. Here is what actually helps, based on twenty years of watching people go through it.
The week before
Drive the routes. Not to memorise them – you cannot, and the examiner picks. But familiarity takes a whole category of unknown away. I have written up the Worcester driving test routes if you want to see what you are likely to meet.
Do not take the test before you are ready. Rushing to a date because it is available is the single most common cause of a bad test experience. A test you are not ready for is just an expensive bad day.
Sort the paperwork early. Licence, and your glasses if you wear them. Fumbling for documents at 8am starts the day badly.
The night before
Do a normal lesson, not a hard one. Drive your usual roads with me so the car, the route and the routine all feel ordinary. The aim is boredom, not revision.
Do not cram. Reading the Highway Code at eleven at night has never helped anybody.
Accept you probably will not sleep brilliantly. You will still be fine. One bad night does not undo months of learning.
On the morning
Eat something, even if you do not fancy it. Shaky hands and low blood sugar are a bad combination.
Go easy on the coffee. Caffeine and adrenaline produce exactly the physical symptoms you are trying to avoid.
You get an hour with me before the test. You will not be turning up cold and you will not be sitting in a car park on your own working yourself up. We will have a drive, warm up on roads you know, and go over anything that is worrying you – a manoeuvre you want one more go at, a junction that has been on your mind, or nothing at all if you would rather just drive quietly. By the time we pull into the test centre you will already have been driving for an hour, and the car will feel like it did on any other lesson.
In the test
Nerves are not a fault. There is no box on the sheet for “seemed anxious”. The examiner marks what the car does.
Hesitation only matters if it is undue. Being careful is not being marked down. Sitting at a clear junction for a very long time is a different thing, and that is what we practise.
If you make a mistake, keep driving. Most faults are minors. You are allowed up to fifteen. People fail tests they would otherwise have passed by giving up after one error and assuming it is over.
You can ask the examiner to repeat something. They will. It is not a mark against you.
You can ask me to sit in. Some people find it steadying, some find it worse. Entirely your choice, and you can decide on the day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have a Chat First
You do not have to commit to anything. If you would like to ask questions before booking a lesson, call or text me on 07912 622192 and we will talk it through. Plenty of people do exactly that, and it is a perfectly sensible way to start.
Lee Francis – Grade A DVSA Approved Driving Instructor. Automatic driving lessons in Worcester, Droitwich and Pershore. Also see: Awkward Driving Test Junctions · Book a Lesson