Significant and long-term psychological problems are often seen after motor vehicle collisions, including quote driving anxiety.” And full-blown post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD.
Driving phobia for fear of driving can be a significant problem in which the victims of personal injury experience difficulty, or total inability, in driving. People with a fear of driving may experience trembling, sweating, increased heart rate and intense anxiety, including startle reactions when faced with a traffic situation similar to that which caused the collision with injuries.
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can also result from exposure to the motor vehicle collision. PTSD is a trauma related stress disorder, which results in the victim reexperiencing or reliving the event with nightmares or daytime dreams or thoughts involving an intrusive memories or flashback of the event. It involves hyperarousal symptoms and 10, in many instances, be moderately to severely disabled. The symptoms of PTSD do often do not manifest themselves until weeks or months later. In most cases, symptoms of PTSD are not recognized by primary care or other health care professionals. A recent article in the Journal of the American family physician reports that the lifetime risk of being a certain exposed to a traumatic stressor is very high, 60.7% for men and 51.2% for women. The Journal article also reports that 8% of exposed men and 20% of was women develop PTSD. In fact, motor vehicle collisions have become the leading cause of posttraumatic stress disorder since the Vietnam war.