Anyone else hate car journeys with others?

I get very anxious when i am in a car with other people as i know i am forced in a social situation for a long time. I hate it when it gets silent and always feel its because i don't know what to say or how to act. This is especially worse when theres only me and another person in the car. Anyone else have this problem and have ways they deal with it?

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Your post reminded me of an event that took place about 13 years ago. I briefly dated a guy that was taking a scuba certification course. We were spending the weekend at the coast, and I was responsible for driving a friend of his to the coast. I had never met this person, and I was completely mute during the drive. I have since discovered, that I have trouble engaging in conversation while I am trying to concentrate on a physical task (in addition to my fear of conversation!) Add to that, I am shy and introverted! I can't imagine what this person thought of me at the time.

I am not sure what you can do to overcome this awkwardness. I guess you can try to prepare for it, and come up with topics to discuss. You don't have to fill every silent moment, and I don't think most people would expect that (unless they are silence phobics). I am horrible at small talk, but even more so if I happen to run into someone. If I have a little time to prepare, then that helps. It may also help to find some common interests.

HyperCat wrote:Your post reminded me of an event that took place about 13 years ago. I briefly dated a guy that was taking a scuba certification course. We were spending the weekend at the coast, and I was responsible for driving a friend of his to the coast. I had never met this person, and I was completely mute during the drive. I have since discovered, that I have trouble engaging in conversation while I am trying to concentrate on a physical task (in addition to my fear of conversation!) Add to that, I am shy and introverted! I can't imagine what this person thought of me at the time.

I also sometimes have difficult talking while driving - but for me I think it's because of the tension I get while driving. If I'm in a safe place that I know, I can talk because I'm not scared of things, but if I'm going somewhere unfamiliar I'm near panic attack levels so... no talking thanks haha...

As for the main question here, well, I guess it depends who the other people are. If I feel comfortable with them, I don't mind. If I don't feel comfortable, well. It's really the same as any other situation, for me... I don't want to be with people I don't like. :p

Never done it before. Longest is going to lunch with co-workers and if I'm driving, I'm not talking much (focusing on driving, my excuse) or if they're driving I'm in the backseat. But I can only image long car rides with others, I'd probably be listening to music and that.

Yep, they want he music on then want to talk. Or they want to listen to music. i like to be quite and see the scenery when travelling just about anywere.

I'm very talkative when I'm driving...alone. With other people not so much. There's really no one I'm totally comfortable driving with. I also become self conscious of my driving.

Hate to be the nerdy one in the thread but there's a scientific reason for it. Introverts are mostly right-brained, meaning visual, and a car drive evokes the brain into a state of creative euphoria which left-brained dominant people aren't easily carried in to. When one's right brain is active, the tasks which require thinking (eg, calculations, memory, etc) are difficult to perform.

That makes a lot of sense. I always liked to look out of the window in journeys and enjoy the view rather than talk, and found it harder to concentrate on the conversation.

I don't mind them actually, there's usually enough things to talk about on a short journey and periods of silence are expected on longer ones, the later also tend to be for an exciting enough reason to make conversation easier.

What I hate is bumping into somebody I know moderately well on public transport (ie they're not somebody I can ignore but not somebody I'm comfortable with) as there's no way out and people sitting nearby listen in to your conversations.