Thanks all!! Some very good ideas here ... I have printed out this thread to ponder offline. Some clarification: I can drive myself around town, though big-city driving (especially on big highways!) is frightening for me. (I'm also scared of big bridges, which is actually a problem for me now, since we live north of San Francisco and you can't get into the city from where we are without going over one of two very large bridges. Oh, well, one phobia at a time!) As for the driving with someone else, it is frightening for me to be either the driver or the passenger, though being the passenger is worse. It occurs to me, though, on thinking about it, that there are actually two different experiences for me ... when I am the driver, I think it is mostly social phobia -- I feel like the other person is judging me and that I am going to screw up royally as a driver, and either incur their wrath, or completely screw up driving and get us both killed. (I know, this is not very rational or likely, but that's the feeling I have.) When I am the passenger, I feel totally out of control and panicky. I feel that I am totally at the other person's mercy, and that even if they don't actually do something horrible to me, that they will really judge me and despise me because I'm such a ridiculous wimp. (Okay, written down these aren't very scary! LOL! But it's different in the car!) Trust issues? Who, me? Just some eensy-teensy ones, maybe ....

But I have had good luck with progressive desensitization before (while using my trusty friend Xanax) so I think I will try that route again. You folks have given me some good ideas on how to proceed with that! Thanks so much!

~ A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.... Emerson