On The Road Again: How To Overcome Your Fear Of Driving After A Trucking Accident

Are you the victim of a truck crash? Although any motor vehicle accident is understandably traumatic, trucking accidents cause more fatalities and more serious injuries than do crashes involving passenger cars. Because trucks weigh up to 25 times the average passenger car, they are capable of great physical damage. However, they can also create serious emotional trauma to victims of these crashes. After all, if the last thing you see before impact is a monstrous 18-wheeler hurtling toward your windshield, it's no surprise you are afraid to get out on the road again. You want to get back behind the wheel again by yourself, but face anxiety so crippling you have others drive you where you need to go. How do you overcome your fears and get back out in the flow of traffic again?

Am I just edgy or could I have PTSD?

It's hard to imagine that anyone who survives a truck accident could emerge without anxiety about being on the road again. In fact, about 10-45% of car accident victims develop what can be clinically diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly known as PTSD.

Common symptoms of PTSD include

• flashbacks (vividly reliving the trauma)

• nightmares

• marked emotional distress when reminded of the event

• heightened startle reflex

• lack of interest in usual activities

• hopelessness

• angry or aggressive outbursts

• constantly feeling 'on guard' or unable to relax

• self-destructive behavior

• insomnia

If you have some of these symptoms, you should see a counseling professional, such as a psychiatrist or psychologist, for proper diagnosis. PTSD may be grounds for compensation in your personal injury case.

If I have PTSD, will I ever be able to drive again?

Post traumatic stress disorder poses serious challenges to your emotional health. Certainly getting out on the road again by yourself could trigger an emotionally upsetting situation. However, a very successful PTSD treatment called cognitive therapy can be used to help you overcome your fear of driving.

Exposure therapy, which involves gradually exposing you to aspects of the situation that trigger your anxiety, is the type of cognitive therapy that best applies to overcoming the fear of driving after a crash. The therapist will first help you identify what aspects of driving trigger anxiety; these triggers were probably present the day you were in the crash. For instance, maybe driving in heavy rain makes you panic. Perhaps it's driving next to a tractor-trailer or hearing car horns. Once you've identified the triggers with your therapist, you will talk about how they make you feel. Then, using relaxation techniques, you will learn to master exposure to the triggers while still in the safety of your therapist's office. Finally, you will gradually head out on the road, using the relaxation techniques whenever a triggering event occurs.

You may experience struggles and setbacks, but don't quit; persevere. Each time you head out on the road it should become a little bit easier to do so without anxiety. With the help of an experienced therapist, you can overcome your fear of being out on the road again.

Overcoming post-traumatic stress disorder requires intensive therapy, of which exposure therapy for driving anxiety is just one aspect. Regular therapy appointments are expensive, as are any antianxiety or antidepressant medications prescribed by the clinician. Talk to your trucking accident lawyer about adding your emotional damages to the personal injury case you are pursuing against the trucking company.  

You've got a lot of life left to live now that you've survived this traumatic accident. Don't give in to the fear that tries to keep you at home. Get back in the flow of traffic once again.