Let me preface this by saying I've been driving for half my life now and have been fortunate enough to not have any major issues. But recently a few things have triggered some driving anxiety for me.

 First, I was in a bad accident the week of Christmas in my hometown, I was taking a left, car didn't see me so made no attempt to stop, my car completely destroyed, I was taken by ambulance and miraculously had no injuries. The other driver was completely fine and did not need an ambulance. If that car had hit me two inches closer to my seat, I would not be here writing this right now. So anxiety has been increased since then. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, we are in our family vehicle, stop at a red light and person behind us hydroplanes into the rear, they saw the light but weren't able to stop. We get out, assess, no damage to either vehicle, family is okay, we move along. But the sound of that car hitting us was so loud and scary.

Then last week and we had a very horrible tragedy in my hometown where two young men were in a fatal accident. My family knew them and it's just so heartbreaking to think about. 

Now the other day I was driving in my hometown and saw an accident, the car looked pretty bad. I heard there were 3 ambulances called but no fatalities. 

So all of this has seemed to have caused a chain reaction of anxiety in me. I'm horrified to drive, but can't avoid driving either. The route where my big accident was, is literally unavoidable. So I have a reminder everytime I drive by, I still see shimmers of glass from my car. I don't know, I guess I don't know how to process all of this. I do have a therapist and we did touch on it, basically saying that the first accident was traumatic and the others are triggers for the trauma. It makes sense, but I somehow have to get through it. I'm having nightmares at this point.