Car Accident Lawyer Virginia Beach
Motor vehicle accidents are often traumatic, frightening events with long-term or even permanent consequences. For most survivors, their physical wounds heal over time, but psychological injuries can take much longer. A serious mental health condition, post-traumatic stress disorder often develops in those who have witnessed or experienced a horrific event. In fact, motor vehicle accidents are a leading cause of PTSD.
Undeniably traumatic experiences, car crashes often activate a victim’s fight-or-flight response. Fortunately, for many, these feelings dissipate in the days or weeks following an accident. For some accident victims, however, the sense of anger and dread grows stronger as time passes.
If PTSD arising from a car accident is interfering with your ability to live and enjoy your life in the same way you did before the incident, you should consult with an experienced Virginia Beach car accident lawyer from Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp right away.
What is PTSD?
Severe PTSD can be triggered by a car crash due to the extreme fear and total loss of control victims experience. The seriousness of their injuries, witnessing others sustain severe and potentially fatal injuries, along with the constant strain of dealing with the aftermath of the collision can all worsen emotional trauma.
PTSD isn’t just feeling scared or stressed. It is a complicated medical condition that can profoundly affect a victim’s life.
Symptoms of PTSD typically include:
- Nightmares: Distressing dreams related to the traumatic event.
- Intrusive memories: Vivid, involuntary recollections of the traumatic event that can occur unexpectedly.
- Hypervigilance: Always being on alert, easily spooked, and having a hard time relaxing
- Flashbacks: Feeling like you are reliving the event at any given moment
- Negative feelings and thoughts: Constant negative thoughts about the future, the world, or yourself.
- Avoidance: Purposefully avoiding activities, people, or places that remind you of your accident
- Heightened irritability: Feeling impatient, angry, or easily annoyed
- Difficulty concentrating: Having a hard time remembering, paying attention, and focusing
- Loss of interest in activities: Decreased enjoyment in once pleasurable activities.
- Feeling disconnected: Feeling detached from other people or emotionally numb
- Sleeping problems: Experiencing restless sleep or having a hard time staying asleep or falling asleep
The effects of PTSD on your day-to-day life can be extremely disruptive. PTSD can interfere with your ability to do your job, maintain healthy relationships, and even your overall health and well-being. Victims who develop PTSD often have a hard time trusting other people, experience extreme mood swings, and struggle with sleep. It is important to be able to identify PTSD symptoms and actively seek professional help if you find yourself struggling.
How is Car Accident-Related PTSD Treated?
The most critical step in fully recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder is getting professional help. Therapists who specialize in treating trauma victims can offer invaluable support and guidance. Some common PTSD treatments include:
- Supportive Therapy: Offers coping strategies and emotional support
- Prolonged Exposure Therapy: Exposes victims to incrementally greater trauma-related situations and memories
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Recognizes and challenges negative thought processes
- Cognitive Processing Therapy: Concentrates on learning about and understanding the complex relationship between thoughts and feelings about the incident
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Uses eye movements and other bilateral stimuli to process distressing memories.
All of these therapies can play an important role in helping victims process their traumatic memories and learn how to create and use various coping mechanisms.
Usually, the ideal PTSD treatment will combine medication and therapy. Some prescription medications commonly prescribed to PTSD victims are:
- Sleeping pills: Prescribed to improve the quality of a victim’s sleep
- Anxiolytics: Can help to reduce panic attacks and anxiety
- Antidepressants: Prescribed to help manage symptoms such as sleep disturbances, depression, and anxiety
In order to determine the best possible combination of treatments for your PTSD, contact a mental health professional.
What Are the Impacts of PTSD on a Car Accident Claim?
An automobile accident can take a huge physical and psychological toll on your daily life. It can also impact your ability to perform your job and participate in activities and hobbies you once enjoyed. If you develop post-traumatic stress disorder after an accident, it can lead to additional complications in your legal claim through:
- Challenges in pursuing a claim: Common PTSD symptoms, such as an inability to concentrate, anxiety, and memory problems, can make it extremely difficult to understand and successfully navigate the personal injury process.
- Additional damages: Victims who develop PTSD often experience a wider spectrum of damages that extend well beyond their bodily injuries, such as reduced earning capacity, decreased quality of life, and emotional trauma.
- Long-term care costs: PTSD treatments, like medications and therapy, can be ongoing and quite costly
- Impact on earning capacity: If your PTSD restricts your earning capacity or prevents you from going back to work, it could impact the total amount of financial compensation you obtain
Insurance carriers and other liable parties will try to minimize your PTSD or simply deny their liability. This makes it vital to demonstrate a direct connection between your car crash and the onset of your PTSD. Expert testimony, therapy notes, and medical records are all essential pieces of evidence in motor vehicle accident cases involving PTSD.
All We Do Is Injury Law
The skilled Virginia Beach car accident lawyers at Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp know first-hand the profound consequences a motor vehicle accident can have on the rest of your life, such as PTSD. We use our knowledge and experience to help our injured clients collect the financial compensation they need and deserve. Our experienced attorneys can help you collect strong evidence and build a convincing case for damages, including those associated with the psychological trauma resulting from your accident. For example, in one case, we successfully obtained a $235,000 settlement for a woman who was struck and badly injured by a careless driver just a few weeks before she was to be married.
If you were injured in a car accident due to someone else’s negligence and have since developed PTSD or any other form of psychological trauma, schedule a free case review by calling us at (833) 997-1774 or by filling out the contact form on our website. Our offices are located in Virginia Beach, Hampton, Portsmouth, and Norfolk.