Emotions are incredibly strong and hard to control. They have an effect on everything we do, including driving. Even someone with a lot of experience behind the wheel can feel angry, frustrated, overly excited about an upcoming event, and too focused about their own thoughts.
When we talk about distracted driving, we always put the blame on smartphones or new technologies in general, but strong emotions are a powerful distraction too. This issue causes a lot more accidents because the law can step in and limit smartphone use when behind the wheel, but nobody can ban our thoughts or emotions.
How to Deal with Pressure or Excitement
Positive or negative emotions have different outcomes when it comes to your driving style and how you would react, but they have a similar effect. You’re still taking your mind off the road and you’re still less willing to share the road with someone else. A bad day at work or a fight with someone important will make you drive more aggressively, and you’ll find yourself reacting with anger to every little thing before you know it.
Receiving exciting news or celebrating a happy event will make you feel a lot of excitement and before you know it, you’ll find yourself driving faster, taking more risks, and acting like you own the road. Keeping the roads safe is every driver’s job, so using awareness and recognizing what you feel is the first step you should take. There are several ways to do so.
Acknowledge What You’re Feeling
Recognizing negative emotions before you act irrationally is essential. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed to the point that you’re unaware of what’s going through your mind in a specific moment, but taking the time to recognize what you feel will allow you to understand what’s causing those feelings and how to stop them before you find yourself in trouble.
Thinking About Consequences
If you’re unable to calm down even after the initial process of acknowledgement, move your mind to the possible consequences. A car accident can take away many things, it’s not worth it to be injured or killed because of a bad or an exceptionally good day.
Taking a break from driving is also a good idea when you’re feeling overwhelmed, as sitting quietly and thinking about every negative thing that might happen because of your mood will certainly stop you. Remember that what you’re feeling is temporary, an accident will most likely have consequences that will last forever.
Stop Focusing on Your Problems
If you have a problem that’s weighing on your mind, it’s useless to focus so much on it as you most certainly won’t solve it behind the wheel. Constantly having many negative thoughts will only attract more of them.
Being Involved in a Car Accident
Even if you’re able to effortlessly control your emotions, there are many drivers who are unable to do so. Emotions and bad behaviors are contagious, so you must avoid people that provoke you at all costs. If you find yourself dealing with a car accident, there are many legal issues that will take place, and it’s impossible to deal with them without an experienced car accident attorney.
You don’t want to be considered on the same level of someone who provoked an accident just because he was frustrated. When in court, all evidence will be examined and your attorney will do everything in his power to make you receive the compensation you deserve. If you didn’t act irrationally when the accident took place, you’ve just made his life and yours a lot easier.
Remember to always focus on having a helpful and good attitude, as you’re not the only one who’s having a bad day, but you can be one of the few who have a positive outlook even in difficult situations.
