Sara Evans Opens Up About PTSD And Anxiety After Being Hit By A Car

Sara Evans is opening up about the day she got hit by a car when she was only eight years old. The country singer revealed details on the near-death experience in her new memoir Born To Fly, which was previewed by People this week.

On June 29, 1979, Evans was crossing the highway to get the mail by her family's farm when she was was hit by a car. The singer suffered a severe concussion and was unconscious for about two days before finally waking up in pain.

"The last thing I remember was a flash of blue," Evans writes in her new memoir. "I woke up in a cold room and then came the pain. I was terrified. Both of my legs were in casts."

"My mom told me that when the car struck me, I landed 80 feet off the road," she continues. "When they found me, I was curled up in a ball with my left leg mangled and twisted and almost severed in two. They all thought I was dead."

Evans continued on to explain how after being rushed to the hospital, her mom was told they needed to put pins in her left leg immediately, but couldn't put her under anesthesia due to the serious concussion.

"They would numb my leg and use a hand drill to get the pin into my knee. I remember the nurses holding me down," she details. "Every time Dr. Breedlove brought the drill close, I cried out, 'Wait!' Imagine someone drilling into your leg while you're wide awake. Dr. Breedlove finally just told the nurses to hold me down so he could get it over with."

"For six agonizing weeks, I remained in that hospital bed,” Evans continued. "I’d have a sudden, overwhelming feeling of pain and panic consuming me. 'I want out of this!' I’d scream, thrashing around till someone held me down and calmed me. I felt like I was being buried alive."

This was when Evans' battle with anxiety, PTSD and claustrophobia started, though not much was known about mental health at the time.

"I had severe PTSD and anxiety, but it was the '80s, and I didn't have a name for it,” Evans shared with People. "I don't think my mother even thought, like, 'Maybe I should take her to therapy.' I thought I could handle it because I'm tough."

In 2005, the singer says she really "succumbed to extreme anxiety" after marital problems with her ex-husband, Craig Schelske. Evans recalls being on the way back to her tour bus in Pennsylvania when she had a debilitating panic attack.

"I couldn't get a grasp on who I was," she wrote in her memoir. "It's a feeling I've struggled with my whole life anytime I am stressed. I think it's PTSD from my car accident. I have this feeling of 'who am I?' It tends to creep up on me after I've had to do a lot of interviews and be on and play the part of 'Sara Evans.' I don't even like writing about it because I am so afraid of having this feeling."

Shortly after that incident, the singer saw a doctor in Nashville who prescribed her anti-anxiety medication, which, she says, "saved" her life.

"It calmed me down," she shared. "Taking it also made me realize you're not going to be this way forever. I always tell my kids, 'The toll that anxiety takes on your body and on your mind, I think, is so much worse than if you have to take [medication] to calm down.'"

Fans can get more details on Evans' experiences with anxiety here or by reading her new memoir. Born To Fly is due out September 8 but can be pre-ordered now.

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