Feeling nervous about my new car - an automatic

After decades driving a mechanical car, my garage found me an automatic. I had to have one, as I'm finding it increasingly difficult to change gears with my hands being painful. I'm feeling surprisingly nervous, both about the new [second hand] car and driving an automatic. I'm trying to book a driving lesson that should help, but the anxiety remaiins. Like many on here, I dislike change, and driving is already stressful. Your experiences, especially with automatics, would be helpful.

  • I changed from a manual car to automatic several years ago, and I wouldn’t go back to manual.

    It was helpful to me to place my left foot in a comfortable position to the left of the pedals, and imagine it was tied down, before starting the car and driving off. That prevented me attempting to press a non-existent clutch pedal.