I went out with a guy for a few months and he broke up with me because I have social phobia and driving anxiety and I wasn't able to drive to his place. (He visited me, or I would meet him halfway between us) We stayed friends and talk online every day. He lives about 45 minutes away (which is out of my driving comfort zone), and can't understand why I'm not familiar with the local roads even though I've lived in my town for most of my life.
The reason I have trouble driving is because I was raised from birth by my grandparents, and my grandfather died when I was 14. My grandmother never had a license. From age 14 - 18, we had to rely on taxis or family friends for transportation. When I was married, my husband did most of the driving. When I separated and came back home, I was still not comfortable enough to drive longer distances on my own. Recently I got a GPS as a gift, but it doesn't help me adapt to situations on the road like merging into traffic on a busy highway.
When I try to talk to my friend, he is very critical and says I give up too easily. He also makes comments like 'if you need a GPS to learn 2 or 3 roads you might as well quit driving and pay someone to take you somewhere'. Any driving I try is never good enough and he considers it failure if I didn't make it to a destination and had to turn back.
Most of my friends are online buddies, so I don't have many people to talk to or go places with. The addition of social anxiety holds me back from working outside the home and making new friends.
Sometimes I feel like it's better to have critical friends (or friends I rarely ever hear from) to talk to than not have any at all.
How should I handle this situation? I'm running out of statements to defend myself with!