Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Following a serious car accident, most of us are concerned about assessing our physical injuries or those of the people around us. Physical injuries are our first concern because they can be immediately life-threatening. However, even long after physical injuries begin to heal, the emotional wounds of a car accident can affect us in serious ways. Many people who are involved in serious accidents later develop post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
What is PTSD?
PTSD is one common way that the human psyche deals with the intense trauma of a car accident. When we fear that we or those we love will be seriously harmed or killed, it triggers some of our basic survival instincts, and we start to experience extreme stress in ways we would not otherwise. Although it’s understandable that people develop PTSD, this does not mean that they need to continue to live with the disorder.
Mental health professionals have proven methods for helping people work through their traumatic experiences so that they can return to an easier, more peaceful mindset. If you are wondering if you have PTSD, the following list includes some of the most common symptoms:
- Feeling as though you are re-experiencing the trauma
- Invasive memories of the event
- Repetitive nightmares about what happened
- Difficulty eating or sleeping
- A sense of danger being near, or a sense of having a shortened life expectancy
There are other important symptoms as well, and if you are struggling following a car accident, you may benefit from speaking with a mental health professional.
Contact Us
Of course, just like medical treatment, mental health treatment usually does not come cheap. If you were in a car accident and now have PTSD and another person caused your accident through their negligence, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Contact a Des Moines auto accident lawyer of LaMarca & Landry, P.C., at 877-327-2600 today for more information on what we can do to help you.
