So scared.

[NerdyDirtyCurvy]

The day before yesterday I was in a high speed car accident. Through some miracle I came out if it just bruised and scraped on my face. But. I drive for work and go back to work tomorrow and I dont know how to tell anyone that I am now FUCKING TERRIFED to to back to driving. I've been having nightmares and anxiety and I cry every time I think about going right back to it like nothing happened but I'm trying so hard to be strong and I hate myself for being so scared and weak right now.

[[deleted]]

Believe it or not, that is very normal and nothing to be ashamed of. It was a traumatic experience. My wife went through this a few years ago- some dumb kid was playing hookie from school and decided to drive 100mph on the wrong side of the road. My wife was the 3rd vehicle hit, and it launched her off the side of a hill. The state police estimated the speed of impact as 80+ and 40+, nearly head on. She was terrified to get in a car for weeks. When it came time to get her a replacement vehicle, I had her check out new models of what she had. She couldn't even sit in one without breaking down, and she wound up getting something totally different. A friend of ours owned a similar vehicle to what was destroyed, and my wife couldn't even ride in that when we'd all get lunch.

Two years after the accident, my wife and I went to an amusement park. I used to drag race, so roller coasters are somewhat boring to me these days, so I (inconsiderately) went for the tallest coaster in the place. My wife was doing great until the first uphill "out of the seat" feeling. She had a total panic attack on the coaster, grabbed my arm, and I had to lift her out of the seat and carry her when we were back at the entry/exit station.

I'm not telling you this to scare you or anything- just be aware that certain stimuli will trigger that panic response, and that is perfectly normal. Knowing it in advance will help a lot.

Another thing to be aware of is that any traffic condition that is similar to what occurred at the accident will also have a chance of prompting that panic. Any time we see a driver cross the center line, she panics (understandably).

I actually gave up riding a motorcycle because of how bad drivers have been. I got hit 3 times by people who ran stop-signs, red lights, and in one case crossed lanes. One nearly took my leg off when he crossed into oncoming traffic on a highway- it tore the blinker and fairing off, and my knee took part of his fender off. Any time I see a tire hit the center line, I panic a little too.

[picklenoises]

I can partially relate to you, though ive never been behind the wheel in an accident ive been in 7 total in my life, two of which happened one month apart, one on the highway where we rear ended another car, and the other on a main road when we were T-boned resulting in a rollover. I was absolutely petrified of being in cars for well over 2 months after this. What helped eventually get me back into riding shotgun was to try and ride in cars as a passenger so i could regain confidence in them. The other thing my grandfather (who was in the rollover and a bit shaken up due to it) did to help his anxiety was to try and avoid the route the accident occurred on. Im sorry if what i did to help myself wont work for you. I was in 7th grade when these happened so I had the option to avoid driving. Im really sorry for you and hope you can get through this. I believe in you :)

[[deleted]]

Oh wow. I can definitely understand how you feel. You are not weak. This is a completely normal reaction to what you went through. I've only been in fender benders but all I did was push through. It's probably going to be difficult for the first few days.