4 minute read
Accidents can happen to anyone, anytime and anywhere. When you get involved in an accident resulting in personal injuries, it may cause significant emotional trauma. Some victims suffer from physical pain and financial losses. But it’s challenging to cope with the distress brought about by personal injury accidents without guidance or something to look forward to.
This is why it’s a good idea to hire a personal injury attorney in San Francisco when involved in an accident resulting in injuries. Specialists recommend understanding the psychology behind this kind of incident is essential for long-term recovery.
In this blog post, we’ll provide insights into various aspects related to the psychology of personal injury. The following section will help you be equipped to understand yourself or someone near you who may have gone through an accident and its aftermath.
The Five Stages of Personal Injury Grief
Loss may refer to losing someone close after their passing and to a drastic change like getting involved in an accident that alters your life already planned earlier. This could manifest as five distinct stages – shock and disbelief, anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Shock and Disbelief
The victim is often left traumatized after being involved in an incident that leads to severe personal injuries or mobility changes unimaginable before the event happens.
Anger
After the shock subsides, victim experience anger feeling powerless over what happened, and enduring infuriating emotions towards anyone trying or responsible for changing their lives irreversibly.
Denial
This comes up next, with victims fearing and avoiding traumatic experiences again, shutting out any memories resulting from the last incidents.
Bargaining
Often stems from guilt relating to how similar incidents would’ve been diverted if steps were taken differently, hoping something better would come out as opposed to unpleasant outcomes encountered.
Depression
It’s normal at instances where survivors realize they won’t reclaim their old life hence upsetting them severely contributes towards self-destructive feelings. Dealing with these five stages of grief might take longer, but getting professional help from a therapist or psychologist speeds up the retrieval process needed for full emotional recovery.
The Emotional Distress Injury Symptoms
Physical pain is only one part of the casualties’ mental rebuild journey in cases involving personal injury accidents. The unpleasant emotional distress symptoms come with unexpected trauma affecting not just the victim’s life but their loved ones. Some of them include:
– Anger
– Anxiety
– Depression
– Panic attacks
– Stress and hyper-vigilance
Most of these adverse effects are usually long-lasting; this highlights why seeking help from professionals as much as legal issues should be prioritized in these personal injury cases.
What Can You Do to Cope with Personal Injury?
Coping mechanisms differ depending on each person involved and the kind of accident. Getting professional advice that considers individual circumstances for optimal results is important.
Mental health support groups may be set up expressly to help those affected recover after an incident, like those injured during extreme outdoor sports, gathering useful data on tips to quicken victims to return to normal routine following severe incidents. While such groups don’t provide immediate solutions, it’s considered therapeutic merely to be around people sharing the same traumatic experience reminding one that they’re not alone.
Taking care of oneself is also essential when coping with injuries sustained due to an accident. Proper self-care includes staying hydrated appropriately, eating nutritious meals recommended by a licensed nutritionist, and getting enough rest to help rebuild both physical and mental energy depleted during stressful times endured after incidents occur. Also, minimizing anxiety that often aggravates stress levels increase the chances depression may recur in the future.
