Dealing With Emotional Trauma After an Accident

Right after an accident, your most pressing concerns are usually related to the health and safety of everyone involved, dealing with the medical insurance companies, and worrying about how the accident will affect you financially. Once you’ve secured your Toronto injury lawyer to help with the financial aspects, you’ll need to begin collecting all receipts for medical bills related to the accident. People don’t always realize in the early stages that they might benefit from speaking with a counselor or therapist until much later, when the claim is settled, and the time to submit medical expense reimbursement requests has passed.

Accidents involving a death or severe traumatic injury can have a profound emotional effect on everyone involved, but even smaller accidents that may or may not result in a physical injury can still affect your well-being. Feelings of guilt, shame, anger, blame, and remorse are common as a person reflects on events that transpired; these feelings and thoughts can remain present, or even build in prominence over time if they are not taken care of.

Someone has to pay

If the accident is the apparent fault of another person or business entity, feelings of anger, spite, frustration, and even victimization are perfectly natural in the days and months after the event. Working with a professional legal team can give you peace of mind that you will be fairly compensated for the hardship you’ve endured, but more subtle matters may also be at work. If you’ve had times in your past when you’ve felt taken advantage of, helpless, or treated unfairly, the residual emotions from past events can often magnify our experience of any new events.

Therefore, constantly taking a mental baseline of your emotions is important to gauge your chronic stress levels through the claims process. If you’re constantly feeling angry, helpless, or frustrated during the process, there could be some deep-rooted issues bubbling up to the surface from a lifetime of troubles that need to be worked on for your well-being.

Why didn’t I just…

Many people sink into a repetitive self-blame that plays over and over, day after day. Regret, guilt, and shame never seem to go away, and each time the case is mentioned, each time you get a new letter or notice in the mail, those feelings are triggered all over again. This may be another indication that in addition to processing the trauma of the event, a person is potentially harboring a lifetime of guilt and shame over past “transgressions” that still need examination and healing.

He/she always does this!

If feelings of vindictiveness or spite are welling up inside of you directed at a spouse, parent, child, or other family member, and you feel the event was consistent with a pattern of behavior, this is a crucial time to talk to a therapist. It’s common for relationship issues to blend in with the trauma of an accident, and, if left unchecked, these issues can derail the relationship to everyone’s detriment.

In many ways, how we handle adversity dictates our future success or failure in life. If you find yourself stuck in a rut of guilt or anger that simply does not abate over time, know that seeking emotional help is just as critical as seeking medical attention. If you hear a friend or family member repeatedly verbalizing these kinds of emotions after an accident, gently plant a seed of advice for them to seek help as well. All wounds, visible or invisible, must be addressed and healed. Taking the time to do so not only benefits you directly, but displays an example of healthy self-care to your entire family and sphere of influence.