I wish there were a Driving OCD category on here. I’m definitely struggling with this the most right now. Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated.
I get so nervous when I drive. It’s pretty bad in the day, but nighttime is the absolute worst. I hate that it’s so much harder to see, and I especially hate when people who want to go faster will be so incredibly rude and ride my butt or zoom around me. Not only is it rude, but it makes me worry that, because I’m paying attention to them, I’m missing something else way more important (like an animal or person I need to not run over).
Tonight there was someone riding my butt and getting on my nerves. I always try to slow way down and stop for longer at stop signs to sort of teach them a lesson, since there’s no way to tell them I’m about to have an anxiety attack.
I noticed at one of the stop signs, they were about to go around me to turn right. I had had enough, so I turned my car a little bit to the right so they couldn’t get around me (people stopping right next to me (when they don’t need to) is something that’s always made me nervous anyway). After leaving the stop sign, I saw the same car stop for an extremely long time and take forever to turn.
I didn’t think much of it, but now after doing MANY compulsions and causing myself to spiral intensely, I’m fully convinced they were taking a picture of my car / license plate and are going to report me in some way. I’m so worried about what might happen. All I wanted was to keep them from making me feel even more anxious, but I might’ve screwed myself over in the process. I feel like such an idiot and a terrible person.
Sorry this was so long, but thank you for reading if you’ve gotten this far.