Post-traumatic stress disorder is a serious issue that has been getting a lot more attention in recent years from the medical industry. While many people who are unfamiliar with the causes and symptoms of this disorder may equate it with combat veterans or assault victims, there are many different ways that someone can suffer long-term impacts of PTSD after a single incident of trauma including a car accident or some other type of accident. Simply put, PTSD can be caused by any scary or shocking incident, whether it is a singular incident or if the experiences are ongoing.
The first step towards getting the help you need for PTSD and the related symptoms is by consulting with a therapist or professional, but this additional service can cause additional stress if you are juggling the costs associated with your medical treatment and recovery from the accident as well. The best way to manage the stressors associated with financial issues stemming from an accident is by partnering with a personal injury and accident lawyer who can handle these aspects for you and give you the peace of mind you need to focus solely on recovery.
Read more below to get a brief overview of PTSD from an accident, but the best thing that you can do for yourself is to contact a professional, both for your mental health and your legal issues (not to mention a medical professional for your injuries).
What Is PTSD?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is caused by experiencing a particularly terrifying or shocking experience such as a car accident, active combat, a violent assault, or anything else that causes shock or fear in the individual who experienced the event. After the victim experiences the initial trauma of the experience, they may have flashbacks, nightmares, and other types of extreme anxiety. However, the symptoms of PTSD may not be this overt, which can lead to a lack of appropriate treatment or attention to the disorder.
Another common symptom of PTSD is avoidance behaviors, such as refusing to discuss the event, avoiding people or places associated with the event, or simply acting as if it had not happened at all. These actions can be paired with a negative shift in emotional behavior such as anger, hopelessness, detachment, and difficulty maintaining or establishing close relationships. There are many more impacts that this terrible disorder can have on a victim’s life, as well, but luckily there is a growing body of research that is helping mental health professionals identify a variety of treatment options.
Can a Victim Seek Compensation For PTSD After an Accident?
To someone who is unfamiliar with personal injury cases, it may initially seem that it would not be possible to seek compensation for something as abstract as PTSD. However, that is not the case. Non-economic damages in a personal injury lawsuit are specifically intended for the difficult issue of quantifying emotional suffering in terms of financial compensation, and the impacts that PTSD has on a victim are included in these damages.
In order to reach an understandable dollar amount for these injuries, there are a variety of methods that a personal injury lawyer can use. One common approach to calculating non-economic damages involves a “multiplier,” which involves picking a number along an agreed-upon scale to indicate their severity and then multiplying the economic damages by this number. There are many other methods, though, and your attorney will be able to choose the most appropriate approach to get you what you truly deserve.