I have a bad tendency to go crazy while driving. What are some ways I can stay calm and collected?

Greetings, how are things at home? There was a lot of money spent on your car, obviously not by you. This makes me wonder.

I'm going to 'project' a little bit, but ought to be quite accurate. There is a component of your driving style that can be attributed to other areas of your life.

You are seeking instant gratification, a catharsis. It will have an ugly outcome.

1) Worst-case your life is over, and whoever bought you that car will never be the same, living with unimaginable guilt, wondering why it had to happen to you. 2) Medium-case you have a criminal record, which depending on the severity can determine your lifestyle for the rest of your life! Not by your decision per se, but from a lack of restraint and understanding of the severity of the repercussions. 3) Best-case scenario, you will never wreck, no one will ever get hurt, whoever bought you the car does not have to witness your early funeral, the car will never even get a scratch..but you will still feel your hot head, heart pounding, with a dark, greasy feeling about your lack of control that cannot be washed away. Only pacified by more reckless driving, or other typically unsavory behaviors. Lack of awareness, and lack of action in an effort to control that feeling is often how people's lives go off the tracks (or freeway, more appropriately).

Calculated, high-risk behavior like: combat sports, sky diving, racing on a track, etc. are all positive outlets, and will constructively enrich your life, and make you a better person in many unexpected ways. Poorly calculated, high-risk, hasty behaviors, on the other hand, like: snorting heroin, raw-dogging strangers, driving recklessly, etc. are all GREAT until you decide to pull your blind fold off to see what a mess you've created. This is where most people decide to put the blindfold back on for a little bit (ahem, addiction). If you are ever unhappy enough to experiment with drugs for the wrong reasons you will find that compulsive driving offers the SAME feeling as getting high, before and after unfortunately.

I was the 16-year-old with a new (at the time) V36 G35 sedan with rims, grill, tint, exhaust, stereo, and ego to match. It was the tool with which to exact my revenge on all the injustices I felt happened in my life, I just didn't know until years later. The minor traffic infractions by everyone else were just a catalyst, an 'excuse' to act up. Right now as I'm typing this I'm realizing that I never had another, healthier, way of expressing myself during those years. I thought everything was just fine.

My apologies if this is completely off-base, read it a couple times to make sure it couldn't apply to you. "Your mess is your message" and I have been there and done that, much love.

/r/cars Thread