Trauma Dumping

What is trauma? Well, according to Google. Trauma is an emotional, psychological, or physical response to a deeply distressing or life-threatening event that overwhelms an individual's ability to cope. From the Greek word for "wound," it can manifest as lasting mental distress, physical injury, or changes in brain function, often resulting in feelings of helplessness, fear, and shattered safety. Trauma can stem from a single one time event or chronic exposure to stress. 

Trauma can cause recurring flashbacks, anxiety, depression, and nightmares. Most importantly trauma causes PTSD. Everyone’s trauma is different, everyone reacts to events differently..

Now that we got the teachings out the way, let me tell you about my trauma. 

Unfortunately, I developed PTSD from car accidents. I know, I know it’s just a little accident. How do I have PTSD? Relax, I'm about to tell you exactly when this PTSD started. I will NEVER forget this story or ANY detail of it. 

It all started March 05, 2022 around 9 pm. I was in Memphis, Tn and we had just got off Sam Cooper Blvd. I was the passenger. What I remember leading up to the accident was me talking about my day at work. I happened to look up and there was a Camaro in the street, it looked like he was doing a u-turn, honestly i have no idea what he was doing. Anyway, after I saw him the driver slammed our brakes and right before impact I looked over and saw a cop. After that, I remember hearing “Janelle get up” and getting pulled out the car. When I got out of the car, the fire department was already there. I was in shock, I hadn't processed what just happened. I immediately thought “ I need to call my mom”, my mom lives in another state. I’m talking to my mom, and the firefighters are asking me if I'm okay and I'm like yeah of course. Except.. I wasn’t, all I heard was “ where are your teeth”? GIRLL my teeth got knocked out!! Me still being in shock, I’m joking about it like omg my teeth gone hahaha. Fast forward to the next day, reality hit. I had no teeth and from there, the depression and ptsd started. 

I won’t go fully into detail because then we’ll be here forever. I did get my teeth fixed. The process took almost two years. I was in and out of the doctors, having multiple surgeries, and spending thousands of dollars. Since March 05, 2022, I have been in four accidents/fender benders. Some days are harder than others, I am extremely fidgety in cars still. If I see a car going too fast I completely shut down and also rain is a trigger for me in cars. That’s another story for another time. Having trauma due to a car accident is the most inconvenient thing ever, I literally need to be in the car in order to go anywhere. Anyways, thanks for letting me dump. Ttyl. <3