A significant percentage of the millions of people involved in car or truck accidents in Louisiana and nationwide each year suffer severe emotional consequences. Truck accidents are known to cause more severe injuries and more fatalities when collisions include passenger vehicles. Sometimes, emotional damage continues long after physical injuries have healed.
Signs of emotional trauma in the days after an accident
It is not unusual to have trouble believing the crash happened, and the person who was driving might experience guilty feelings. In some cases, shock leads to anger toward the person who caused the accident. Uneasiness, fear, worry or nervousness are natural emotional consequences of vehicle accidents. Furthermore, everything that happened often plays over and over in the mind of a crash victim.
How to recognize post-traumatic stress disorder
Most accident victims who experience any of these feelings manage to overcome the trauma after a short while. However, in some cases, the feelings remain and interfere with the victims’ ability to live their lives as before the accident. For those people, the emotions become even more overwhelming. When that happens, it could be a case of post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is not a condition that should be left untreated because it will not go away without the help of therapists.
Red flags that typically indicate PTSD
The following thoughts and feelings occur when it is no longer shock-related emotions but post-traumatic stress disorder instead:
- Continuous feelings of general uneasiness
- Excessive anger, worry and irritability
- Anxiety about being a passenger or driving a vehicle
- Avoiding medical procedures or tests
- Disconnected feelings with people and events
- Trouble sleeping and repetitive nightmares
- Inability to control or stop ongoing memories of the crash
People living with PTSD often feel that their lives will never be normal again, but long-term therapy can help victims overcome the disorder. However, mounting medical bills could exacerbate the stress. Fortunately, past and future financial losses and emotional damages might be recoverable. If the car or truck accident victim can establish negligence on the part of another party, he or she can file a personal injury lawsuit in a Louisiana civil court.