While I’m not entirely sure if driving anxiety is a technical term for what I’m about to discuss, for now, we’re rolling with it. I like to think perhaps I’ve coined a new definition for something I personally experience, but perhaps I’m just being hopeful.
Over ten years ago, I was in a rather awful car wreck with my Oma and Opa. We were in a small car and were hit by a pickup truck going over 80km/hour; the truck collided with the driver’s side of the car we were in, and the damage was quite intense. I still don’t know how the car didn’t roll, because it just about did more than once, and by the time we landed in a ditch quite a ways from the site of impact, I knew my grandparents were in tough shape.
I was basically unharmed, aside from a bruised spleen and some minor cuts. My Opa broke two vertebrae in his neck and some ribs. My Oma also broke two vertebrae in her neck, in addition to all of the ribs on one side of her body, and fracturing all of the ribs on the other side, her pelvis, her leg in which the bone came through the skin, and she had a collapsed lung.
I was 16 when this happened, and I had not been driving for too long. I had my beginners at the time, but following this collision, I had no desire to be in a vehicle ever again. It took me months to be a passenger in a vehicle on highways, and highways are still something that gives me tremendous anxiety when I am a passenger. Weirdly, I’m more comfortable when I’m driving, but I think this stems from the idea I am in control of the vehicle as opposed to someone else.
I never would have suspected driving anxiety could affect a person for as long as it has me, but I guess the reason I’m sharing this with all of you is in hopes of providing some reassurance to anyone else dealing with driving anxiety. It does get better with time and self-determination, but it is not easy.
Photo by Deva Darshan on Unsplash
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