Young Sheldon’s Raegan Revord is opening up about the lasting effects from a scary car crash in January.
The 15-year-old actress exclusively tells PEOPLE that she remembers “every single little detail” from when she and her mother were t-boned by a driver under the influence while going to the set of the CBS sitcom.
“I still have panic attacks sometimes, having to get in the car or [when] someone else who’s driving hits their brakes quickly,” she shares. “You feel your heart speed up and even though you’re fine physically, it just does stick with you.”
She adds: “It definitely does give you anxiety and I feel like that probably will stay for a while afterwards.”
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Revord says she can still recall the moment of impact when the other vehicle hit her mom’s side of their car. “It was that metal on metal and then the airbags going out, all of it just together, that sound sticks with you,” she notes.
According to the actress, the police arrived after the crash — which happened about five minutes from their family’s home — and they later went to hospital to get checked out.
“It was crazy because it was so close by, it was on our way to work,” she recalls. “We drive past there every day and for weeks afterwards you would see little bits of glass from our car on the side of the road.”
“And every time you drive past there, you’re holding your breath. There’s a bit in you that knows there’s no way it’s going to happen again, especially in the spot,” she continues. “But you still hold your breath and you just relive what happened every time you pass it.”
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Since the crash, Revord says she’s been seeing a therapist, which has been “amazing” for her mental health.
“We talk through life, we go on walks and so we talk about what happened and she’s been helping me and giving me tools to use when I get anxious like breathing techniques,” she shares.
Revord — who first opened up about the crash on social media last week — also believes it’s important to use her platform for mental health awareness.
“I don’t want to just show the good aspects of my life and I think there’s a lot of kids who are dealing with anxiety issues and I want to use my platform and normalize that as much as possible,” she explains. “So that’s why I posted about the car wreck because you see such a polished, curated snippet of someone’s life and I wanted to post that and show not everything is rainbows and cupcakes. There are some harder stuff, harder aspects of my life that you have to deal with.”
Last week, Revord — who plays Missy Cooper on Young Sheldon — detailed how the incident impacted filming an episode of The Big Bang Theory spin-off, which follows Big Bang character Sheldon Cooper’s life as a 9-year-old child prodigy living with his family and attending high school in Texas.
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“Tonight’s episode was incredibly challenging for me to film, personally,” she shared on Instagram. “On the way to work my mom and I were t-boned by a driver driving under the influence.”
“The irony here is I’m pretty much in a car for this entire episode, but you know what they say, ‘you gotta get back on the saddle,’” she added.
Revord admitted that filming was “difficult” after the crash, noting that the incident left lasting impacts on her mental and physical health.
“I had full blown panic attacks and PTSD for weeks after the accident and the only way I was able to get through it was because of the most loving and supporting cast and crew,” she wrote. “They checked in with me along the way and never made me feel like finishing filming was a priority, that my well being came first.”
Despite the traumatic incident, Revord told fans that she had still been looking forward to working on last Thursday’s episode.
“When I read the script I remember being so excited to film it and being even more excited to film it with my friend (who was also instrumental in getting me through some of those tough times- love you Kenny),” she noted, referring to actress McKenna Grace, whom she filmed the episode with and tagged in the Instagram photo.
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