Managing Your PTSD After a Car Accident

 Posted on June 19, 2018 in Car Accident

There are many, many ways you can be injured in a car accident, and not all of them are physical. Following an exceptionally traumatic car accident, you can experience post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition characterized by debilitating anxiety surrounding a specific event. You can suffer from PTSD after a car accident regardless of whether you were physically injured.

PTSD is treatable. If you experience one or more of the following symptoms after being involved in a car accident, discuss them with your doctor to get appropriate treatment.

PTSD Symptoms

Sometimes, PTSD symptoms are difficult for the victim to recognize. This is true with many mental conditions, like depression and anxiety. When an individual suffers from PTSD, he or she can experience:

• Anxiety;
• Irritability;
• Social isolation;
• Self-destructive behaviors;
• Mistrust of others;
• Hostility;
• Hypervigilance;
• Insomnia; and
• Emotional detachment.

In many cases, a victim's loved ones recognize his or her PTSD symptoms before the victim does. Often, it is easier to recognize a behavioral change as a third party.

Treatment for PTSD

You can receive appropriate treatment for your PTSD from a psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist. PTSD treatment typically involves two components, psychotherapy and medication.

Psychotherapy, also known as talk therapy, comes in a few different forms. These include cognitive behavioral therapy, therapy that focuses on helping the patient recognize harmful and ineffective patterns in his or her life and developing strategies to change those patterns, interpersonal therapy, therapy focused on recognizing emotions and expressing them in a healthy way, and supportive therapy, therapy focused on encouraging the patient to become his or her own resource for improved self esteem and social functioning. An individual's treatment plan can involve only one of these therapy strategies or it can involve two or more used together.

When medication is prescribed for PTSD, it is generally a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), a type of drug also used to treat depression.

Seeking Compensation for PTSD Damages

Treatment for PTSD can be expensive. So can losing job opportunities and suffering from the emotional weight of living with PTSD. When PTSD is one of the injuries you sustain in a car accident, you can seek compensation for these damages in your personal injury claim. Your lawyer can help you obtain and effectively use evidence to support your claim for PSTD-related damages compensation.

Work with an Experienced Libertyville Car Accident Lawyer

Never assume that you can only recover monetary compensation for your damages related to the physical injuries you sustain in a car accident. You can recover compensation for your emotional injuries as well, including PTSD. To learn more about pursuing compensation for these damages as part of your personal injury claim, contact our team of experienced car accident lawyers at Newland & Newland, LLP today to set up your initial legal consultation in our office. We serve clients in the Arlington Heights, Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Libertyville, Mundelein, Buffalo Grove, Schaumburg, Elk Grove, and Itasca areas.

(image courtesy of Rene Bohmer)