How to Get Over A Car Accident Trauma

Car acci­dents are an unfor­tu­nate real­i­ty in the bustling streets of Rich­mond, Vir­ginia. With major high­ways like I‑95 and I‑64 inter­sect­ing our city, the risk of phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal injuries looms large for many res­i­dents. In 2022 alone, Vir­ginia wit­nessed over 122,000 crash­es—that’s one every 4.3 min­utes. But for the sur­vivors, cross­ing the thresh­old of phys­i­cal recov­ery is only half the bat­tle won. The psy­cho­log­i­cal impact of these inci­dents can be equal­ly, if not more, dev­as­tat­ing. This psy­cho­log­i­cal impact can affect your men­tal health, com­mon­ly in the form of anx­i­ety, pan­ic attacks, trau­ma, or post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der (PTSD). For­tu­nate­ly, trau­ma ther­a­py is one way that car acci­dent sur­vivors with trau­ma can find relief. 

Mental health after car accident

Long after phys­i­cal scars have healed, the emo­tion­al trau­ma of a car acci­dent can per­sist. You might be star­tled by a truck­’s horn or par­a­lyzed with fear at the thought of dri­ving.

Rac­ing heart, sweaty palms, trem­bling hands, insom­nia, and night­mares are every­day expe­ri­ences for many sur­vivors.

Com­mon stress reac­tions after a car acci­dent include:

• Flash­backs or intru­sive thoughts about the acci­dent
• Avoid­ance of dri­ving or rid­ing in cars
• Height­ened anx­i­ety in traf­fic
• Dif­fi­cul­ty con­cen­trat­ing or sleep­ing

These effects can be crip­pling, forc­ing you to hate dri­ving or quit­ting it alto­geth­er. That’s not ide­al — par­tic­u­lar­ly for your friends and fam­i­ly who dri­ve you every­where.

If you’re expe­ri­enc­ing these symp­toms, you’re not alone. Many sur­vivors grap­ple with anx­i­ety, depres­sion, sleep dis­tur­bances, and even Post-Trau­mat­ic Stress Dis­or­der (PTSD).

These psy­cho­log­i­cal injuries can sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact your qual­i­ty of life, con­stant­ly trig­ger­ing your body’s fight-or-flight response and leav­ing you men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly exhaust­ed.

Rather than become an incon­ve­nience or stay dom­i­nat­ed by fear, you can try trau­ma ther­a­py — the treat­ment of psy­cho­log­i­cal injuries from a car acci­dent. Not every car acci­dent sur­vivor needs trau­ma ther­a­py, but for those who do, going through it can be life-chang­ing.

How to deal with trauma after car accident

Trau­ma ther­a­py is a spe­cial­ized form of psy­chother­a­py designed to help indi­vid­u­als process and over­come trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ences. For car acci­dent sur­vivors, it offers a healthy path to recov­ery and a renewed sense of safe­ty.

Two wide­ly rec­og­nized forms of trau­ma ther­a­py are:

Cog­ni­tive Behav­ioral Ther­a­py (CBT) — This approach helps indi­vid­u­als iden­ti­fy and change neg­a­tive thought pat­terns and behav­iors relat­ed to the trau­mat­ic event.

Eye Move­ment Desen­si­ti­za­tion and Repro­cess­ing (EMDR) — EMDR uses bilat­er­al stim­u­la­tion to help the brain process trau­mat­ic mem­o­ries and reduce their emo­tion­al impact. As a per­son­al favorite, I’ve found EMDR to be par­tic­u­lar­ly effec­tive for car acci­dent trau­ma, often work­ing faster than CBT and not nec­es­sar­i­ly requir­ing detailed recount­ing of the acci­dent.

Between 77% to 100% of sur­vivors who try trau­ma ther­a­py see improve­ment in the symp­toms of trau­ma. In Rich­mond, local ther­a­pists report sim­i­lar suc­cess sto­ries.  I have seen remark­able trans­for­ma­tions in haunt­ed car acci­dent sur­vivors. Many who once strug­gled to think about dri­ving or dri­ve are now con­fi­dent­ly dri­ving again, thanks to trau­ma ther­a­py.

Trau­ma ther­a­py is a col­lab­o­ra­tive process between the ther­a­pist and the client. While there are a num­ber of strate­gies that can help with trau­ma, CBT and EMDR have shown to be effec­tive. CBT ses­sions typ­i­cal­ly involve dis­cussing the trau­mat­ic event, learn­ing cop­ing strate­gies, and grad­u­al­ly fac­ing fears asso­ci­at­ed with dri­ving or rid­ing in cars. EMDR ses­sions involve a less con­ven­tion­al approach. The ther­a­pist uses a device capa­ble of acti­vat­ing both sides of your brain while you recall the mem­o­ry of the acci­dent. As the ses­sion con­tin­ues, EMDR helps you process the emo­tion­al hurt of that mem­o­ry, first desen­si­tiz­ing you to the hurt before repro­cess­ing the mem­o­ry so that it los­es its inten­si­ty. After EMDR, you’ll be able to remem­ber the acci­dent with­out feel­ing stressed or trig­gered.

The dura­tion of treat­ment varies, but many indi­vid­u­als see sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment with­in 8–12 ses­sions. Ther­a­pists also teach tech­niques like deep breath­ing, mind­ful­ness, and cog­ni­tive restruc­tur­ing that clients can prac­tice out­side of ses­sions to man­age stress and anx­i­ety.

Beyond therapy — do these things

While trau­ma ther­a­py is a pow­er­ful tool, a holis­tic approach to recov­ery is even bet­ter.

You can begin doing any of these:

• Engage in reg­u­lar exer­cise to reduce stress and improve mood
• Prac­tice mind­ful­ness med­i­ta­tion to man­age anx­i­ety
• Grad­u­al­ly expose your­self to dri­ving, start­ing with short trips accom­pa­nied by some­one you trust
• Join a sup­port group to con­nect with oth­ers who have had sim­i­lar expe­ri­ence

Online trauma therapy Richmond, VA

Start your recov­ery trip today. Your phys­i­cal injuries may have healed, but lin­ger­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal wounds can rob you of months—even years—of hap­pi­ness and peace. Full men­tal recov­ery is pos­si­ble, and it starts with ask­ing for help.

If you’re strug­gling with stress or anx­i­ety fol­low­ing a car acci­dent, you can con­tact me. As a trau­ma-informed ther­a­pist oper­a­tional in Rich­mond, I know a thing (or ten) about help­ing car acci­dent sur­vivors feel like their old, pre-acci­dent selves again.

PS: Your first con­sul­ta­tion is 15-min­utes and is free. Here’s a direct link to sched­ule a meet­ing with me.

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