Alain Guillot

Life, Leadership, and Money Matters

The Mental Consequences Of Road Traffic Accidents

Road accident victims are not just those who have been involved in an accident on their bodies. Their family members and close friends are the other victims. We need to learn to deal with the disaster. In this first instance, you should look at a top rated local personal injury attorney to assist you. There are plenty of consequences after an accident and one of those is the mental aspect. Therapy may be needed to return to some semblance of normal life. If the whole family has been involved, then there should be some delicate care added to ensure that everyone is overcoming the problem. 

Photo: Unsplash

Family care is essential. It does not matter if the accident ultimately resulted in death, serious injury or minor. The trauma on its side is the wound of the relative who finds himself living with a character who is not, and will live all their life in a heavy feeling of guilt, shame, failure, a sense of anticipation of punishment, a constant fear of further harm and a constant sense of impending disaster.

“Feelings of guilt,” as one therapist claims, “are the hardest.” People talk about such feelings, even though they are not actually guilty at all. They constantly ponder hypothetical questions: Why was he hurt, not me? Why did I let him drive? And I did not drive myself? Why did I send him to a certain place, instead of going to him myself? Maybe I could have prevented everything at all? These questions solve nothing but they need to be worked through well, to ensure they do not haunt the person for many months.

No matter how we look at it, there will be a disruption in family dynamics. A violation of the internal balance between the working persons. Whether the injured person is a spouse or one of the children. No matter what the circumstances of the accident: sitting in a moving car, or injuring a pedestrian. 

When children are involved

The treatment of the victim can be ambivalent: when it comes to a child who has been injured and remains confined to a wheelchair, they will have a hard time deciding how to treat them. We need to understand a parent who nursed their child out of a difficult situation, a few months in the hospital: they will not easily relinquish his responsibility, it will be difficult for them to give this child independence. Parents of the victim tend to give up the pleasures of life. They make disability their main occupation. In some families we can see that one of the heads of the family, father or mother, takes full responsibility for the treatment, while the other head of the family finds a way to escape from reality. Or in other occupations. Sharing this unequal burden will increase the feeling of bitterness and frustration and will lead to conflicts between the child and their parents and among themselves.

A family member who was behind the wheel at the time of the accident, which caused the injury of his loved ones, will carry with them this heavy guilt and will live for years in the shadow of a feeling of anger and shame. Their daily functioning and general feeling will be impaired. Gradually, their attitude towards close people and life in general will change. 

As they move away from the disaster, the social and internal legitimacy of the victims’ suffering decreases and the families of the victims are emotionally isolated from the environment and precisely because of these feelings they do not seek help. They do not allow themselves to admit their weaknesses and difficulties. Society and the immediate environment tend to contribute to good distractions, but really these problems will not disappear without help.  Therefore, conversations about road accidents, even occurring with close friends, should be continued, because they will not occur during social activity. There is also the threatening tangible fear, that in fact it can happen to anyone. The truth is, it can happen to anyone and so you should consider the right help going forwards. Depression and anxiety is common and can lead to job loss or impaired function. You do not want to find yourself medicating yourself for better sleep or anxiety; instead you want to tackle the problem and lead the life that you lived before you had the accident. Take time for yourself and your family and with compensation, you can utilize the money to take time off work or have adequate treatment.