Parallel Parking nightmare
I (21F) have been in 6 car accidents, and 3 of them were in 2025. I was only behind the wheel for one of them and there were different drivers almost every time it happened to me. I have had a severe phobia of driving since my third car accident, which happened during my third time ever being behind the wheel. I’ve been recommended for new types of therapy because of it and have been battling the anxiety for upwards of 5 years.
This summer, I finally felt ready to drive. I am a self employed freelancer so I have spent the whole summer driving to my clients’ houses, pushing myself even when I was scared out of my mind, going on the highway, volunteering to drive at any point I can so I can finally get my license for my last year of college.
Everything has gone well, I’ve been picking things up all summer and pride myself on being a cautious and defensive driver. Except for one thing: parallel parking. I simulated in it my driveway with my BIL, who walked me through a couple times. Today I decided to try it on the road with my dad and I absolutely lost it. I wasn’t doing well, and a line of cars was building up behind me. It threw me into a panic attack and I screamed at my poor dad, said some really nasty stuff and had him drive home while I sobbed in the passenger seat.
When we got home, I told him to go inside and I stayed in the car and just screamed my head off. I was so frustrated and was crying for about thirty minutes. I feel totally lost because my test is on Wednesday and I just want to cancel it. I feel like such a failure and like all my work this summer has been for nothing. I am so scared of an auto fail on the test. I don’t think I’d be able to handle it.
Does anyone have any advice for how to get over this? Any tips or tricks for parallel parking? All I want is to get my license but I feel so hopeless if this is how I react when I’m giving things a try 🤦♀️