Totaled my car a few weeks ago and can't stop replaying it — is this normal?
I've been lurking here for a bit and finally feel like I need to just put this somewhere.
About three weeks ago I hit a patch of black ice coming off an overpass and spun out into the guardrail. Nobody else was involved, no other cars, just me. My roommate was in the passenger seat. She walked away fine, I walked away fine — physically anyway. My car is a total loss.
Here's the thing though: I can't stop thinking about it. Like I'll be in the middle of making dinner or trying to sleep and my brain just goes there again. The sound of the impact, the way everything kind of went sideways in slow motion. I keep running through all the "what ifs" — what if there had been a concrete barrier instead of a guardrail, what if another car had been next to us.
My roommate seems completely over it. My family keeps saying "at least you're okay!" which I know is true and I'm grateful, but I also feel like I'm being dramatic for still being shaken up weeks later.
On top of the mental spiral, I'm now bumming rides to work and the insurance process feels like a second job. I had no idea how much of my daily independence was tied to having a car until it was gone.
I guess I just want to know — did anyone else feel like this after a wreck that was "minor" by accident standards? How long did it take before your brain stopped treating it like an emergency? And does the insurance stuff ever stop feeling so overwhelming?