Rebecca Meyer
A few months ago, this woman was in a horrible car accident.
After physically recovering, she still suffers psychologically to this day. She has panic attacks when she encounters triggers that remind her of the car accident, which appear to be symptoms of PTSD.
Understandably, she took a break from driving for a while until she felt comfortable to return to it. She has recently started driving again.
“I am confident enough to drive independently, but I keep quite a safe distance from other vehicles. My boyfriend is an ‘aggressive’ driver. He gets road rage if there is a ‘slow’ vehicle in front of him. His definition of ‘slow’ is like driving a bit under 35 miles an hour on a 35-mile-per-hour speed limit road,” she said.
Due to frustration and impatience, her boyfriend often tailgates slow drivers until he has the opportunity to pass them.
Because of the trauma she experienced due to the car wreck, she gets incredibly nervous when she’s in the car with her boyfriend, and he tailgates other drivers or drives too close behind them.
“I always calmly let him know if this is making me uncomfortable. He gets defensive if I voice out my fears and concerns. He will defend himself by saying, ‘You can trust me,’ ‘I know what I’m doing,’ and, ‘It’s not that scary,'” she explained.
Last Friday night, she was in the car with her boyfriend, and he was driving. There was a lot of traffic that night, and they were on a road with a 50-mile-per-hour speed limit.
“He was attempting to change lanes but couldn’t do it because there was too much traffic. He then tailgates the car in front of us. The car literally felt like it was only a few feet away. Mind you, we were going about 35 to 45. I was extremely nervous, and my heart started racing very quickly. I asked my boyfriend, as calmly as I could, if he could please move away from the car,” she shared.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
