Stay there on your own. I'm leaving home to settle our relationship. "That's how retired Neusa Theodoro, 53, said goodbye to his car, a Palio zero-kilometer, before sitting on the couch by psychologist Cecilia Bellina, last week. It is the third car Neusa has in its 23 years of qualification. It is also another attempt to grab the steering wheel. A decade ago she lives in neutral, suffers from a disease that affects thousands of people in big cities: a driving phobia. Neurosis began to be studied in the early '70s and is now treated in clinics and self-specialist schools. It is spreading at the same rate of increase in the fleet of cars in cities. "It is a serious problem and should be treated," ensures psychologist Neusa.
Eyeing the market of neuroses, Cecilia rode for three years a training center in Sao Paulo. Since then the business has expanded and now surpassed the one thousand students, or rather patients. She does the sessions in the car: the first stage in an automobile driving school, in the second in the patient car. Most of the customers, more than 90% are women. "Men do not dare take," guarantee. In clinical psychologist at Sao Paulo owned by Salomão Rabinovich, also specializes in people with driving phobia, the clientele has grown 20% a year. Rabinovich never sat as a therapist in the driver's seat in the car of their patients. "He needs to do everything myself," he argues. In recent times, has received proposals to open the clinic in northeastern states.
First step in treatment: to discover the reason for the trauma. Next step: to improve self-esteem. Who does not drive is considered inefficient and a laughingstock. "People do not understand how I prefer to take buses and subways to face the wheel," says the doctor Silvia Gaspar, 44, whose routine includes three jobs. "The car has always been my enemy." Silvia has started up in therapy and want to get rid of the nightmare. It happened with Noel de Oliveira, 40, an office clerk who spent a year in treatment. I was afraid of being called names by other drivers. "I overcame shyness," he says. Now he faces all aboard a Corsa, without shyness.
Joao Luiz Vieira
Fears classic
The main causes of head trauma
• Receiving criticism from other drivers, be offended or insulted in the streets.
• Losing control of the car suddenly.
• Raise or lower slopes.
• Overtaking trucks and buses in cities, and any vehicle on the highways.
• Driving in the rain or in fog.
• Forget the path and get lost in the city. |
