Text and Driving Stop Doing That. For Real.

Text and Driving Stop Doing That. For Real. This weekend I participated in a workshop in Soft Addictions. I expected to focus most of my energy on my sugar addiction, which has been a struggle for me for as long as I can remember. While I did spend some time and energy examining that habit, a different addiction came to the foreground as the weekend progressed: Texting While Driving In the workshop, we were divided into groups of six. When I admitted to them that I texted while driving, one of my group members looked at me with a heartfelt gaze and said, “Stop doing that. For real.” Later in the weekend, I found out that he texts while driving tooâ€"as did every one of the six people in my group. According to the NHTSA, if you’re traveling at 55mph and take your attention away from the road for 5 seconds (the minimum amount of time it takes to check your phone), you will travel the length of a football field without looking at the road! Texting while driving makes a crash up to 23 times more likely. In comparison, dialing makes a crash 2.8 times more likely and talking or listening makes a crash 1.3 times more likely. And while 34% of American drivers say they have texted while driving, I’m sure the number is much higher. In my workshop this weekend, at least two out of 35 participants had been in car crashes which were their fault and had resulted from their texting while driving. And at least one of them did not stop the habit. I started to get real about my own addiction to texting while driving and the true level of risk I’m taking every time I do it. And when it was time to choose one of our addictions and write a “Dear John” letter to the addiction bidding it farewell, I chose texting while driving as my target. Here’s the poem: Texting while driving, you kept me connected. I’m addicted to you. It’s like I’m infected. Despite all the stories of death and of gore, My phone seems to call to me… LOOK AT ME MORE!! Well, starting right now, I choose to connect To my learning brain rather than gadgets electric. I’ve got options â€" like language CDs. Books on tape. That message that dinged me? It simply can wait. I yearn to connect… but for that I must LIVE. And texting while driving? You’ve just gotta give.   Brenda Bernstein, November 14, 2014 On the way home from the workshop, I called a friend before starting to drive. When I hung up the phone, I saw that I had emails and messages I could read if I wanted to. I noted my impulse to pull down the menu that would allow me to read my emails, and, instead of checking the messages, checked the impulse. It felt scary and good. If you are a fellow driver while texting, please take a good look at what you’re putting at risk: not just your own life, but the lives of the drivers and passengers around you. Especially as the holidays are approachingâ€"a time when many of us will be driving to see family and friendsâ€"let’s make a commitment to kick one of our most dangerous addictions, and DRIVE SAFE.