{"id":433,"date":"2020-10-01T23:51:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T23:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/?p=433"},"modified":"2020-10-29T22:31:02","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T22:31:02","slug":"ptsd-after-accidents-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/01\/ptsd-after-accidents-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"PTSD After Accidents \u2013 What You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Paul Hendrickson \u2013 PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) is not\nrestricted to military men and women who have been involved in intense\nsituations on the battlefield or people working in high-stress fields such as\nlaw enforcement. The shock, confusion, and intensity of being in an accident\ncan cause negative psychological side effects, some of which may lead to\nlong-term PTSD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What is PTSD?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychiatry.org\/patients-families\/ptsd\/what-is-ptsd\">PTSD<\/a>\nis a psychiatric\ndisorder that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic\nevent such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act,\nwar\/combat, rape or other violent personal assault. It was first identified by\nmedical professionals working with soldiers returning from WWI and WWII and was\noften called \u201cshell shock\u201d or \u201cbattle fatigue\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What are Some Symptoms of PTSD? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PTSD impacts people differently. There are a variety of possible\nsymptoms, but you may experience only one or two after an accident. Keep in\nmind the number of symptoms you experience does not dictate the level of\nseverity. The frequency and intensity of your symptoms play a greater role in\ndiagnosing the disorder. Here are four common symptoms that an individual\nsuffering from PTSD may experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Flashbacks<\/strong> &#8211;&nbsp; Negative, persistent memories of the accident\ncan flood the conscious and unconscious mind of an individual suffering from\nPTSD. They may become consumed by thoughts of the accident multiple times a day\nand have nightmares about it at night.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Avoidance<\/strong> \u2013 Some people with PTSD will go\nout of their way to avoid the area where the accident occurred or take extra\nprecautions to avoid a similar scenario that led to the original accident. For\nexample, if the accident occurred on a bridge, they may avoid that bridge in\nparticular or avoid all bridges in more severe cases.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Self-Destructive or Risky Behavior<\/strong> \u2013\nDepression, substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts can be signs of PTSD.\nSufferers are sometimes unable to distinguish between risky behavior and\novercautious behavior. They may take risks where they haven\u2019t in the past or\nseem careless when it comes to their health and well-being. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Unusual Emotional Responses<\/strong> \u2013 PTSD\nsufferers may suddenly respond to certain situations or people differently than\nthey have in the past. They can become distrustful of others and want to\ncontinuously blame people for creating the situation that led to the original\nevent. Some will have to work to control their anger or sadness, if the\ndisorder becomes more serious. They may also experience intense feelings of\nguilt or a general lack of happiness. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Don\u2019t Take Chances with Your Health \u2013\nGet Help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is common to focus on your physical healing after an accident, but\nyour mental health is just as important. Your body can heal itself over time\nwith help from medical doctors, but your mind needs that same attention. If you\nhave been in a serious accident and have the slightest thought you may be\nsuffering from PTSD, let your doctor know right away. He or she should be able\nto refer you to a local mental health professional who has experience dealing\nwith the disorder. For more information on symptoms and possible treatments,\nvisit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ptsd.va.gov\/index.asp\">National Center for PTSD<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Paul Hendrickson \u2013 PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) is not restricted to military men and women who have been involved in intense situations on the battlefield or people working in high-stress fields such as law enforcement. The shock, confusion, and intensity of being in an accident can cause negative psychological side effects, some of which <span class=\"readmore\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/01\/ptsd-after-accidents-what-you-need-to-know\/\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paBBVc-6Z","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/paperbackdragon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/car-accident-2307383_1920.png?fit=1920%2C1920","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435,"href":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions\/435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paperbackdragon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}