Edit: thanks everyone, I think you're right that I'm at the overthinking stage, but also - I did 2 big drives in 2 consecutive days so I was really challenging myself. I drove around my local town today and it felt like a absolute piece of cake after all that, so... Now I'm actually feeling better! I think what I'll do is try to squeeze in a couple of repeats of each of those two long challenging drives to get more practice at the specific challenges in them. Then I'll feel more like I know what I'm doing, maybe?!!

I drove to a far away town yesterday, and today I drove in a main city centre. I'm 1yr 3mths taking lessons and practicing a much as I can in between lessons. I'm very comfortable in familiar situations or places where the challenges are similar to my local area. I'm absolutely flummoxed when I get into a big town or a city and it's so complicated trying to figure out which lane I need to be in at any moment, I feel like I'll never understand it unless I go drive the same big journeys repeatedly until it's drilled into my skull... But I don't seem myself affording the fuel to do that lol

The more competent I get, the more gaps I can see that won't be filled in during my driving lessons in my own smaller town. I feel like once I pass, I'll only ever be able to drive in my area, and will need my husband to accompany me everywhere else.

I genuinely feel like I'll be a danger on the road because there's only so much stuff a person can teach in a limited area. I'll be taking motorway lessons after I've got the test done, but I don't see myself getting good at driving through cities and busy towns with crazy lane structure, even though sometimes I'll need to do that.

My mind has started playing imaginary scenes where I fail to see something/someone and crash, because I still miss details like what the speed limit is, an aggressive taxi pushing into my lane, occasionally I'm late seeing a red light though I only ever once ran one and it was in a very early-on lesson on a less-familiar multilane stretch of road...

Idk I just feel like my fear went from decreasing to increasing, like I feel as if I'm going to need lessons for every possible scenario before I can be a safe driver except I know that's not possible.