Driving and OCD
Hi, I am new to this forum about OCD and I am so excited I found it! I have been with my boyfriend for 5 years and he suffers from OCD. It wasn't until just recently that I discovered he had OCD. The signs were always there but he never told me about OCD and that he had once been told he had it by a therapist.
5 years ago, just after we started dating,when we were 16, my only parent, my mother passed away from breast cancer and we were both there to see her dead. Ever since this traumatic event he h started having driving problems. Because of the living arrangements we then lived 30 miles apart from each other which made it even more difficult. When he first told me what he was thinking when he was driving I didn't know what to think. He told me that when he went through cross walks he thought he hit someone and he would have to turn around and check. This happened almost every day and it got to the point where it was too difficult for himto drive. Family began transporting him where he needed to go and this was an obvious problem and no one really knew what it was. The things you said worried you about driving were exactly the same in my boyfriend and he decided to go see a therapist. I don't think she did much for him because he suddenly stopped seeing her. He then became so frustrated with the problem that he started forcing himself to drive again no matter how much he would hav to go back and check he would still do it.
After many headaches and not understanding he started getting a little better and everytime soeone was with him in the car he had to have tem reassure him everything was ok. He has never gone back to a therapist but because he forced himself to keep driving and so often he helped himself. It is 5 years later and I just found out this is OCD so I have been researching like crazy and I am so amazed to hear that other people have the EXACT same problems.
He still encounters these problems but much less than he use to. When he backs out he often drives away a few feet then stops and turns around to make sure everything is ok and asks me to reassure him everything behind him is ok. I agree with the other reply that you have to find the courage to pickup driving again and start out with someone with you and just remind yourself these are just thoughts that do terrify you and because you are much more observant now of pedestrians you are constantly looking and there is no way you would miss something. You would feel it , see it, or hear it if anything hit the car or you hit something. While I don't know how this feels first hand I completely understand because I have lived with someone with these same problems for 5 years now. I hope you find the courage and are able to regain the "normalcy" in your life again, you are not alone!!
My boyfriends parents also did a test for him, he had the car in the driveway and they hit the car with their hand in different spots at diferent pressures so he could see what it sounded like if something rally did hit the car, also they would talk or yell witht he windows down and up and with music on so he had another sense of what it would sound like...just some tips that may help.
