Getting into a motor vehicle accident (MVA) can be traumatic, and sometimes this causes
symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These symptoms can include poor sleep,
nightmares, intrusive thoughts, high anxiety, and stress, avoiding thoughts or feelings related to the MVA, fear of driving or being a passenger in a vehicle, as well as fear of getting into another accident on the road. These symptoms can make life more difficult, especially if it affects whether you are willing to get into a vehicle again. Each person is unique and has different coping tools available to them, but for those people who are not coping well with their MVA, there are tools that may be beneficial.
Coping with PTSD symptoms tends to be about facing fears. Being able to sit with that difficult emotion and truly experience it, and at the same time trying to maintain a relaxed state with your body. This can be achieved with various exposure exercises such as systematic desensitization or flooding. A big difference between these two methods is how much information is being processed at one time – systematic desensitization is used in imagination over time, while flooding is a real-life experience with the feared object or situation. Both can be effective, but in any case, the relaxation component is important. If your body feels relaxed, then this feeling tends to be incompatible with high anxiety and stress. So, being able to find that state of calm makes coping with PTSD symptoms a little easier, and you can self-soothe more effectively when you are feeling an intense emotion related to your MVA. It is also important to differentiate between real and imagined threats.
After an MVA, it might seem like everything on the road becomes a threat to you, and this brings on anxiety due to feeling triggered by sights, smells, and other reminders of the MVA. When coping with PTSD symptoms, those intense feelings you had during the MVA itself might stick with you, and so, each time one of the triggers sets you off, you might feel those same intense feelings even if there is no real danger. This is where processing and sitting with those uncomfortable feelings comes in, rather than simply trying to avoid them. Being able to manage those feelings more successfully and recognize whether that feeling of being threatened is real or tied to the MVA can be helpful in reducing those intense feelings overall. How you talk to yourself makes a difference as well. Using positive self-talk that includes encouragement, inspiration, and motivation is also effective. If you are constantly telling yourself that driving is too dangerous and that everything is a threat, then it becomes hard to see through that negative lens and find hope for change.
To summarize, some people experience PTSD symptoms after an MVA. These symptoms may result in the avoidance of driving or being in a vehicle. These symptoms also result in fearfulness that is not easily dealt with and causes distress. These symptoms can be reduced by using relaxation tools, desensitization or flooding exercises, processing emotions vs. avoiding them, and changing mindsets about perceived threats. If you have been in an MVA and these things sound familiar, then perhaps seeing a therapist will help you to navigate these difficult feelings and get you back in the driver’s seat.
Written by: Laurie Roberts, Registered Psychologist
