Suffering from a serious injury is a terrifying thing. If you or someone you care about has been hurt in a serious accident, it’s likely that you’re experiencing anxiety around your recovery, medical bills, loss of income, and overall future.
While it’s perfectly normal to feel anxious after experiencing a serious injury, it’s also important to know that there are professionals out there who can help keep that anxiety down. For ways to cope with anxiety after a serious injury, read on.
Find a personal injury attorney to advocate for you.
One great way to manage anxiety after a serious injury is to put your personal injury claim in an experienced attorney’s hands. After you’ve been in an accident or suffered serious injuries in another way, there’s a lot to think about.
Depending on the severity of your injury, daily tasks and normal functioning can be a challenge or impossible. In working with an experienced personal injury attorney, you’ll have someone on your side to handle your personal injury claim and answer questions about legal options. A personal injury lawyer can also help with winning a favorable verdict so that you have less to worry about when it comes to future medical expenses and medical bills.
Hiring a personal injury lawyer doesn’t need to be difficult. A simple Google search including the area you live in and the type of lawyer you’re looking for will be enough to point you in the right direction. If you lived in New Orleans, for example, you’d Google “New Orleans personal injury lawyer” and have a great start in handing your legal worries over to someone else.
Meeting with a personal injury attorney doesn’t mean you’re required to enter litigation with a personal injury claim. During your free consultation, you can at least get options and then make a decision on if you hope to become a personal injury plaintiff.
Hire a therapist you trust.
Some serious injuries are triggers for things like panic disorder and overall anxiety that can impact your daily life. If your anxiety is serious, one way to cope with it is to contact a therapist. In therapy sessions, your anxiety therapist will be able to give you tools to cope with fears and other symptoms of anxiety.
For example, it’s not uncommon for someone who’s been in an accident to experience obsessions about driving and travel in general. From nightmares to reliving the accident over and over again, it can be scary to consider returning to normal life after a serious accident. A therapist can help an accident victim to control negative thinking and reduce anxiety overall.
Build a personal support group.
Perhaps the best way to cope with anxiety is to surround yourself with a strong support system of people you trust and can call to talk about your fears going forward. Think about the people who’ve been there since your serious injury or accident and who’s offered to help.
Those are the people to turn to during a panic attack or when you need to talk out negative thoughts or excessive worries. Start by being honest with these people about your anxiety symptoms and go from there. You might be surprised just how many people are willing to listen.
When all’s said and done, no matter how severe your symptoms of anxiety are, you can do yourself a favor by hiring an experienced personal injury lawyer, licensed therapist or psychologist, and building a team around yourself for support. No recovery is perfect, and it’s likely that no matter what you do to reduce your anxiety symptoms, you’ll still have bad days. However, with the right people around you, you’ll increase your odds of having more good days than challenging ones.
