I had bad PTSD with vehicles - in most cases, I still do. This was due to me being in several accidents (I was never the driver, to clarify).
Genuinely? I solved it by learning how to drive. I'm not suggesting you drive, but I did and it helped me learn "discipline".
Previously, when others drove, I didn't want to get in the car. In some cases, I HAD to, like for appointments or for school. I would duck whenever we'd make a turn, I'd even yell and stomp my feet on the ground (as if I was pressing some kind of brake.) I would even get out of the car shaking and crying. Obviously, I could only drive with people who knew of my PTSD and my behavior, because it's dangerous to get in some car with a driver who isn't prepared for me to randomly yell or make sounds by accident. It was pretty bad.
Even when I was learning how to drive, I still had panic attacks. I had to get a driver instructor so he could control the vehicle in the passenger side, and he even told me that I should never get behind the wheel again, because some people are just not able to drive, and that I was one of them. And I get it, too. Every time I drove with him, I couldn't go above 30mp/h (48 km/h), I would have to pull over often just to cry my eyes out, and every time I saw a car on the road with me I would have to pull over into some kind of grass area. I was a nightmare, and for the longest time I didn't show any signs of improvement.
I think it might've been the stress of my instructor, because he would constantly yell at me while I was driving, which made my already nervous ass more nervous. I mean, I deserved to be yelled at, don't get me wrong. But still. After all of my lessons were finished up, and I failed the driving exam to get my license, I told myself that I needed to try again.
So I just drove my family member's car out at night, super late at night where I was the only one on the road. And I kept doing it until I felt comfortable driving with the car. Then I taught myself the rules of the road, and eventually I felt comfortable enough to go the DMV and take the test again. And I passed.
My driving instructor didn't help me too much in regards of the guidelines of the road, but he taught me that no matter what was happening in the passenger seat, I had to stay focused on the road and driving, not trying to listen or think about what was happening next to me. It taught me a lotttt of discipline and it made me driving from there on out easier. I don't agree with everything he's said, but he did teach me important things.
Now, I have the highest driving score, I've taken several defensive driver tests and passed all of them with perfect scores, and I keep my driving book up to date so I'm always reading the recent book.
I know this story sounds corny, but it's the only way I got over my PTSD. If I was going to drive, I was going to be the safest and best driver I could be.
I still have PTSD. Not in the manner that I used to, but that sometimes I see a car coming and I can feel my heart drop to my ass. (lmfao). But, I still drive safely, and I haven't gotten into any accidents ever again now that I'm the driver. I can provide a lot of value to my friends who are too scared to drive by driving them to places, as they say they feel safe with me.
You cannot get over this fear, if you have no reason to. I never had to learn how to drive or learn to get over my PTSD, until one day I had to. For my family. I had to learn to benefit my household, and I knew that I wouldn't give up for them. You don't need to do it for someone else, I think learning to drive and getting over the fear for yourself and to improve your mental health is the best reason you could do it.
