Invisible Injuries Research Paper

The Invisible Injuries Of An Automobile Accident: Understanding The Psychological Impacts And How To Cope

Car accidents change lives, but in different ways for different people. Even if you're not physically hurt, you may have sustained psychological or invisible injuries that can destroy life as you know it. Here's how to understand what's happened, so you can cope with it effectively.

What These Invisible Injuries Are And How They Change Your Ability To Function

From the outside, you look completely normal and no differently than you did before the event, yet on the inside, it's a completely different situation. Your ability to conduct yourself under the most ordinary circumstances may have profoundly changed.

The traumatic event itself
Under normal circumstances, stress alters the function of your nervous system, but only temporarily. You might feel nauseous, have the shakes and tend to panic for a short period of time or until the source of stress is resolved or gone. However, when you've been psychologically injured or traumatized, the symptoms associated with stress do not subside and your reaction to the situation may seem grossly exaggerated. When you're suffering with traumatic stress, the following changes will likely be present in your personality:

You now react more quickly to stressful experiences. You now are stressed out more often, perhaps feeling so most or all of the time. The stress feels more threatening, even triggering your "fight or flight"
Addressing Your Invisible Injuries Legally

While the psychological trauma associated with a violent accident may not be as visible or obvious as a missing or broken limb, the law does acknowledge psychological injures as real. What this means to you is that you are eligible for compensation to help you get through, even if your symptoms will eventually disappear, such as with Adjustment Disorder.

Following an accident in which you have no physical injuries, however, you might be inclined to shake the incident off, thinking you don't need a lawyer or other assistance. This reflex is natural, since you're grateful to be seemingly unscathed and looking to move forward, but it's essential to your quality of life both now and in the future to talk with a lawyer, discover your options and to keep them open until you're fully aware of the situation.

Nobody really knows the consequences of a traumatic event until they begin to unfold. Maybe you will be able to cope on your own, but if not, you're going to need help. Avail yourself to it from the onset, taking it from