Have you ever seen the movie or read the book The Blind Side? If so, you know the opening monologue shows just how quickly quarterback Joe Theismann's career came to a devastating end after a horrific sack which broke his leg (if you haven't seen videos, watch at your own risk - especially if you can be a bit queasy. His leg goes in a direction it shouldn't). The tackle happened so fast, there was no way to have seen it coming to change directions. In the opening monologue of the movie, the speed at which it happened it analogized to a car accident.
Last week, I was in my first car accident. It was the scariest moment and, like Sandra Bullock says in the movie, happened so fast. Yet, it all felt like slow motion right after the impact. I experienced a lot of thoughts upon impact and it felt like forever, but in reality was probably about five seconds.
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1. Whoa, what is going on?
It took a microsecond for it to click that the noise I just heard was the sound of another car hitting mine.
2. Stay loose.
A friend of mine was in a car accident a few years ago and had remembered from years past learning that drunk drivers do not often get hurt because their bodies are loose. The natural instinct when you can see an accident about to happen is to tense up. Thankfully, I did not see mine coming, but in the moment I tried to remind myself to stay loose so I would hopefully not get hurt (and thankfully, I did not).
2. Stay present.
This is the trauma therapist in me coming out. During a trauma, it is so easy for your brain to dissociate and not in the moment (hence the phrase, an "out of body experience"). Dissociation can lead to gaps in memory, and can make your brain's recovery even more difficult.
3. Am I hurt?
Once the car came to a stop, I looked around and could not see anything. My airbags had deployed and covered the windows, so I could only see out the windshield. At that point, my car was facing the back of a building, so I did not see anybody else. Once I realized my car was stopped, I looked down and scanned my body to see if I was hurt. Thankfully, I was not (and I later found out the other people involved were not hurt either, which was a huge relief).
4. Now what?
Honestly, your brain is so focused on surviving that the logic and reasoning part is turned off. Because of that, it is difficult to turn that back on to make sense of what is happening and what should be done next. Once I realized I was not hurt, someone else had walked up to my car to check on me, and I called 911.
Like I said, these thoughts all happened in a span of probably five seconds. When you experience a trauma, your brain goes into survival mode and will do whatever it needs to do to keep you alive and as safe as possible. It is amazing what our brains can do in a matter of seconds, and also how your life can change in that amount of time, too. Life is precious, so be sure to enjoy it.
