So I (20 m) just failed my driving test. Most of my friends got their licenses when they were 17/18 and while I tried to learn to drive then, I had a really bad experience and developed a fear of driving and didn’t start trying again till i was 19, just before I turned 20 (Im about to turn 21).    

I really put a lot of effort in to overcome my fear and anxiety and even managed to overcome being crashed into again in January. I booked my driving test and about 20 days before my test, I was having panic attacks, nightmares and just anxiety every night. 

And now I’ve failed, people don’t understand why I’m so upset, telling me to chill out and that so many people fail first time. But they don’t seem to understand I’m not upset about failing, I’m upset that I’m now going to have go through all of that anxiety again leading up to my next test. I’m not a bad driver, and my instructor only gave me one critical failure (over a misunderstanding on my part) with no minor failures, but tbh I’m thinking of quitting just because of the anxiety.

Anyways I just needed to rant to some strangers on the internet who might understand .