Car wreck trauma affects hundreds of thousands of people every year. The glass shattering, metal crunching, and tires squealing are memories that often are difficult to get out of the head for a long time after the day of the accident. There might be physical injuries, but there are also invisible ones.
Some people develop long-term conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The car crash trauma can lead to:
- avoidance of driving
- nightmares
- anxiety
- hypervigilance
- depression
This is because getting into an auto accident is a frightening experience and often comes unexpectedly. Recovery is possible with time, but it requires the right type of support. What should you be doing
Acknowledge your feelings
One of the best places to start is by acknowledging your feelings. Trying to suppress them could lead you to feel stressed longer and make recovery more difficult. Try to talk about your experience with trusted friends or a support group. Verbalizing what happened and how it felt to you can reduce isolation and improve your perspective.
Get compensation if you’ve been harmed
You should also go to a car accident injury law firm if you’ve been harmed. Often, lawyers can recover money for you for the physical injuries that have been done to you and for the mental disturbance or anguish that another party caused. There’s no reason why you can’t get support for your mental health to the same extent that you can for your physical health.
Limit re-exposure
During the early phases, it’s also a good idea to limit re-exposure. Getting back on the road straight away or reliving the accident in your mind can be harmful and further increase the damage it causes. Many people get around re-exposure by investing more in their hobbies, art, or journaling. Engaging in whole-brain activities like these is useful when unwanted memories start to intrude.
Gradual exposure
At the same time, you will want to gradually expose yourself to being a passenger or a driver again, simply because it’s such an important part of life. Fear of driving or riding in cars is a common fear known as Vehophobia. If left unaddressed, the symptoms can worsen over time.
The best way to get around this problem is to become a passenger in a safe, familiar area with a driver you trust. You can build confidence and practice in safe environments like empty roads or parking lots. These small wins will help you relax and shut off the body’s fight-or-flight system. Eventually, you’ll get to the stage where you can challenge your negative thoughts. You can remind yourself of your driving habits before, and how the vast majority of journeys were safe for you.
Go to evidence-based professional treatments
Finally, you might want to explore various evidence-based professional treatments that are available for people with a phobia of being a passenger in a vehicle. For example, you could go for:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Trauma-focused CBT
- Prolonged exposure therapy (where you can gradually confront your trauma in a safe environment within the clinic and deal with the mental aspects of it there and then)
- Rapid eye movement desensitization and reprogramming (EMDR)
So there you have it, some strategies you can use to overcome autoerotic trauma. Which will you use?
Top photo by Mike Bird via Pexels.