Crying every day since my accident and feel stupid about it — is this normal?

You are not being dramatic. Not even a little. I was rear-ended at relatively low speed two years ago and I was an absolute mess for weeks after — couldn't sleep, jumped at every car noise, cried in the shower every morning. The body goes into this weird shock mode and your nervous system doesn't care how fast the other car was going. It only knows something terrifying happened to you. Give yourself actual permission to feel bad right now.

Please don't brush off what you're describing. Concussions are legitimately traumatic brain events — even mild ones can cause mood instability, emotional dysregulation, sleep disruption, and heightened anxiety for weeks. Your brain is literally injured and trying to heal. The crying, the flinching, the inability to sleep — that's neurological, not weakness.

Also, the medication question is really important. Don't just wait a week if you're feeling unsafe or confused about your prescriptions. Call your prescribing doctor's nurse line, not just the front desk — tell them you had a concussion and you need guidance on your current meds NOW. Most practices have a triage line for exactly this kind of thing.

I just want to say — the "at least you're okay" thing people say after accidents is so well-meaning and so unhelpful at the same time. You don't have to be grateful you're alive in order to also be really, really messed up by what happened. Both things are true. Be gentle with yourself right now.

One thing I'd mention on the practical side — make sure you or whoever is helping you is documenting ALL of this. The sleep problems, the anxiety, the days you couldn't leave your apartment, the crying, all of it. Write it down daily even if it's just bullet points. Insurance adjusters love to minimize psychological and emotional impacts because they're harder to "prove" than a fracture. Your lived experience right now is part of your damages and it matters.

Not legal advice, but what you're describing — the emotional distress, the disruption to daily life, the aggravation of a pre-existing mental health condition — those are real and compensable components of a personal injury claim in most places. Don't let anyone, including an adjuster, make you feel like your suffering only "counts" if you have broken bones. If you haven't already talked to someone on the legal side, it might be worth a free consult just so you know where you stand.

Stop waiting on that follow-up appointment for the medication question. Call the doctor's office tomorrow morning, tell them you have a concussion and you're unsure whether it's safe to take your psych meds, and ask for a callback from a nurse or the prescriber. You shouldn't be white-knuckling your mental health for a week because of a scheduling gap. That's what nurse lines are for.

When you say you're scared to take your meds because of the concussion — did a doctor actually tell you not to, or is that something you're worried about on your own? I'm not dismissing the concern at all, I'm just wondering if you got specific guidance or if you're in a kind of information vacuum right now. Because those are two really different situations.