Someone hit my car nearly 2 weeks ago.

[NewPlumCat]

Hi,
Someone ran their car into the back of me when I was stationary at the traffic which were red. The person said he got distracted by the passengers in the back and said, its just an accident. I was really upset and was trembling with shock and said, well you nearly killed me. He called the emergency service for me and I called the police. My car was totally smashed up from behind. The emergency services came and examined me and took me to A&E where I had scans done and the doctors said I've suffered muscular injury. The man admitted liability to his insurance and I have been given a courtesy car which I haven't drove for nearly 2 weeks. I am going through extreme shock and distress imagining all sorts of worst case scenarios as I've never been hit like this in the 25 years of driving and now can't ever imagine ever getting into a car again and driving because I keep thinking it will happen again and this time it will kill me.
My car has been deemed as a total loss. I need some advice?

You need to talk to someone about it. It’s understandable but quite an extreme reaction. I’m sorry.

@MrsChristmasHasResigned it took me many years to realise my (often complete) overreaction to certain circumstances was a sign of my poor MH. I eventually got so unwell I had to give up work. But there are so many things that can help. I still take medication. I’ve done CBT and have lots of strategies to help. I wish I had done it years ago but at the time I really didn’t think anything was “wrong”.

You do sound like you are catastrophising. And gently, I need to ask if you have some sort of health-related trauma, because what you are going through is not shock, unless you were diagnosed with it and shock lasts hours, not days or weeks. So it sounds like you have a health related trauma going on.
Incidentally a few months ago someone hit me from behind at a red stoplight. She was doing around 10mph over the speed limit and was distracted by the kids in the back of the car (remarkably like your case) and although we exchanged phone numbers and insurance details, I didn’t go to a&e (because the wait is stupid) and instead waited until normal GP opening hours to find out that the accident had given me a broken rib and bruised my heart (not good with my history) by shoving it against my rib cage so hard. I also had a gash on my head and a couple of decent cuts to my chest that I dealt with at home using butterfly sutures.
The reason I say this is (not meant to be nasty at all) because I’ve just come off a call from a Trauma Therapist to discuss the accident, but they’ve said there’s nothing to worry about, because I’m fine and they’re correct.
Do you have some kind of anxiety? Maybe it’s a good idea to ask for Trauma therapy as it sounds like that would benefit you greatly.

Yes, that has been my experience - that people resist the idea that anything about how they respond to things is wrong until things get so bad that they literally have some kind of crisis or collapse. I fear OP is heading there, given her extreme defensiveness in her answers and her resistance to any idea that her reaction is over the top. Its so hard to see, because you can see how people are making their problems worse, but they are not open to hearing it. I am sorry it got so bad for you, but glad to hear you have found some things that help you.

@ToffeePennie OP has started numerous threads about having extreme health anxiety triggered by menopause but won’t take any meds that might help because of said health anxiety (and fear of weight gain). I said this upthread, I don’t normally link threads but sometimes it’s helpful for people to have context when advising an OP.

Oh dear, then yes, OP really needs to ask for trauma therapy counselling and medication for health anxiety!!