Years ago I had a violent experience with a man. I still feel very anxious and vulnerable when I think about it. Its shifted my personal identity and viewpoint of men.

I used to consider myself to be a woman who would stand up for herself in any situation.

I don't want to go into specifics of what happened, but essentially myself and a man (a stranger) got into a yelling match over a driving incident. I feel ashamed to talk about it because I did yell at him and I didn't do anything to deescalate the situation. I remember being shocked by how extremely upset he was. It eventually escalated to him becoming violent and telling me different ways he wanted to kill me. I was angry with this man, but never did my mind go there. As soon as it got violent, I knew I fucked up. There was no way I could defend myself against this guy.

I realized after this experience how naive I was. Some men can be legitimately dangerous and unpredictable when angry. They don't care if you're a woman. I am a 5'6" 125 lb female, if any situation escalated to violence, I wouldn't have the means to protect myself against most men.

I believe that women feel a deep level of vulnerability that men don't understand.

Is there a way to overcome this? I feel lucky because this was my only experience with male violence, but it still weighs heavily on me years later.

Have you ladies experienced similar feelings?