Being involved in a car accident can leave long-term emotional scars on a person. Whether you’re the one who caused it, or you were a victim of someone else’s lack of attention and driving skills, suffering physical and mental injuries can haunt you for years. Depression, nightmares, terrifying flashbacks, intense emotional or physical distress and withdrawal from society are just some of the symptoms that will indicate a car accident has had mental and emotional effects on you. Aside from those, there are also a few other ways in which a car accident can affect you.
High Anxiety Problems
One of the common side effects of extreme stress, such as that experienced after a car accident, is anxiety. While you’ll most likely feel anxiety when you sit in the car for the first time after you’ve been in an accident, you can also experience it in other situations too, such as feeling panicky at a store, scared to leave your home, or being short-tempered with loved ones. Anxiety also has a tendency of manifesting when the person thinks about driving the car, sitting in a passenger seat or simply when they go near the accident site. One of the best ways to overcome your anxiety is to talk to someone. Be it a friend, a family member or a professional therapist, when you realise that anxiety is becoming too much and preventing you from living a normal life, it’s time you sought help.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
If even after approximately three months after the accident the symptoms of your anxiety don’t subside, or even worse they heighten, you might be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While PTSD is mostly associated with soldiers who’ve survived many wars and battles serving the military, it can also be triggered by an extremely traumatic event. Along with the symptoms of anxiety, PTSD can cause you to experience intense, recurrent memories of the crash while awake, possibly causing blackouts. Passing the site of the accident or seeing anything that reminds you of it, like the signs of physical injuries you suffered, can cause you extreme emotional distress. If you have suffered physical or emotional injuries in a car accident that was the fault of another party, you will most likely be able to claim car accident compensation. By hiring expert superannuation lawyers, you’ll know for sure what sort of compensation to ask for and make up for at least a part of your suffering. The intense feelings of anxiety can further result in you becoming severely depressed and eventually withdrawing yourself from your friends and family.
Depression Is Likely To Occur
If you do start feeling melancholic, lose the will to get out and constantly stay at home completely excommunicating yourself from everyone, it would be a good idea to talk to a therapist about your issues. Those are all the first symptoms of depression along with staying in bed all day, not taking care of yourself by not eating or showering and constantly being troubled by the thoughts of the accident. Don’t let this unfortunate experience ruin your life, by making you lose your career, but instead take action and sign up for counselling. A professional therapist will help you overcome your troubling thoughts. Even talking to someone who’s been in the same situation may have a positive outcome for you.
You Might Experience Sleep Problems
One of the major problems that car accident victims deal with are sleeping problems. Experiencing terrifying nightmares when you finally manage to fall asleep can cause even more distress and despair. Whether the nightmares are related directly to the accident, or they are completely unrelated to the event, they will upset you greatly and prevent you from having peace of mind. While most of the night terrors tend to go away on their own as time goes by, it would be good if you talked to someone about all of your troubles, meditate or even practise yoga to clear your mind and start feeling less stressed out.
You Might Experience Physical Pain Too
It goes without saying that most car accidents will involve some degree of physical pain. But when this physical pain is ongoing it can start to affect your mental and emotional health too. Daily pain can make you feel depressed and no one should have to put up with that. Seeking help for continued pain will help in all ways, and visiting a Chiropractor in Snellville will help you on your path to full recovery.
Having experienced a car accident, one is very likely to start living a completely new life filled with occasional anxiety and intermittent fear. However, you shouldn’t let that one event define the rest of your life, but make sure you find help and deal with your problems with the aid of an expert.
Author Bio
Diana Smith
is a full time mom of two beautiful girls interested in business and marketing related topics.
In her free time she enjoys exercising and preparing healthy meals for her family.
