Phobias of everyday activities - Halp!

otm, I was thinking about mentioning hydroplaning and skidding and doing driving lessons but was unsure if it would create more anxiety thinking about it. I once hydroplaned in the mountains in central PA in my early 20s and it had never happened before but I was amazed that I automatically did what I had been taught. My spouse was with me and luckily didn't say a word until I got control of the car.

Sorry to keep framing this via personal anecdote, but the first time I ever encountered black ice was within a year or two of getting my license as a teenager. Came right out of the blue--probably closer to spring than winter. Being the first time, I did the worst possible thing, hit (and probably held onto) the break; spent the next half-minute going from my lane into the oncoming lane, back and forth. Miraculously, there was no oncoming traffic--ended up in the ditch on my side. I think that one experience, 40 years ago, is still there as part of my driving phobias today. (Since I traveled the same roads over and over again for the next 40 years, though, they were basically neutralized; it's only recently, since moving, they've all come back.)

Forced myself to make the two-hour drive home from Toronto at night today (possibly last chance to see a film I'd been anticipating for almost two years).

Wasn't bad at all. A couple of typically insane drivers before I got out of city limits--I actively root for these people to kill themselves in one-car accidents before they take someone with them--but once outside of Toronto, no problem. For much of the way (the 401, a heavily traveled Canadian highway), I stayed on the inside lane behind two other vehicles, one of them a transport, that were driving just like I do, a few km over the posted speed limit. There was rarely anybody behind me--they had the other two lanes to pass.

The biggest difference is getting new glasses a couple of weeks ago.

I think on some level I believe that I had a finite amount of driving luck, and it has now run out and it's only a matter of time until violent vehicular death comes my way.

Came across this old post from Carl today and I still feel this in my bones every time I’m in a car.