Signs To Watch For In Your Family After A Vehicle Accident

In most vehicle accidents, people are caught unaware. You and your family may have felt that you're powerless during the situation or have been unprepared for the incident.

 You’ll feel emotional and physical pain, which naturally makes sense after getting involved in a horrifying event like a car accident. No one can quickly heal from it, and it can take weeks, months or even years before anyone can ever fully recover.

 However, there are times that your family wants to seem healthy for you; put up an act and be brave. This is why you should be wary of your family after getting involved in a traumatizing event.

When you and your family become part of a severe car accident, most of the time you’ll find out that it can be quite difficult getting over your feelings of stress. You may think that healing from your emotional problems will be easy; maybe a night of sleep would cure it or hanging with family and friends can help you forget.

However, this can be more damaging. This is why you should watch out for emotional signs in your family.

1. You should watch out if your spouse or children are upset, in denial, or shocked after the accident.

A lot of people experience being in shock after a vehicle crash. It can immediately manifest itself or could even take days or weeks to show up. The shock feels different for each person. However, the common symptoms that you can watch out for are:

You and your family may also experience shock even if none of you were driving the vehicle when the accident occurred. It can manifest to anyone; it can happen:

2. You should watch out if your spouse or children are furious, gets irritated, or keeps getting agitated.

After the incident, you or anyone who was driving the vehicle can feel angry towards the other driver. It won’t matter even if the fault is yours or not. Also, the passengers in the car such as your kids could feel angry at the drivers that have been part of the accident. If this happens, it would then be easy to take out any fury that you or your family feels to anyone around you, mainly if your feelings of rage, irritation, and agitation are prolonged. These feelings are well-founded; however, you should look out for them before you or anyone in your family start acting on them.

This can be very difficult if you’re dealing with a teenager who has been part of a car accident. They usually tend not to want their parents’ support and may even be furious at everyone in their family. If this happens, you can let them talk to their friends for a while. However, you should never close your lines of communication and never forget to keep reminding them that you’re there for them.

3. You should watch out if your spouse or children are feeling self-condemnation, degradation, or blaming themselves.

Guilt, shame, and self-blame in your family can easily occur when someone has been seriously injured or has died in the accident. If you, your spouse, or your legal aged child has been driving the vehicle, you and they are highly susceptible to these feelings. Why? You and your family are susceptible because you may feel that you could have prevented the injury or death from happening.

If anyone in your family has been part of the crash or has witnessed it happen, they can also feel guilt, shame, and self- blame, especially if they think that they could have done something to:

You should remind yourself, your lifetime partner, and your children that these expectations are not realistic, and you shouldn’t be beating up yourself over them.

4. You should watch out if your spouse or children is feeling restless, troubled, and dread.

Getting involved in an accident that could have resulted in you or your family’s demise could make anyone rethink their lives. It would make anyone, even the bravest of the brave, to question their mortality. You and your family may be feeling this, especially for someone like you who is a parent and has a family to look after too. You and your spouse might be feeling worried what would happen to your kids if you both died. Your children would also be feeling anxious about the prospect of dying; what about their dreams, their aspirations, and their plans in life.

It may not immediately show, but you can check if someone in your family is worrying if they are:

What To Watch Out For Physically

1. You should watch out if your spouse or children keep getting headaches.

Headaches are common after getting involved in a car accident. The pain may not be as serious as other physical pain that you and your family feel, however, they shouldn’t be ignored.

A headache can be a sign of:

2. You should watch out if your spouse or children have pain or stiffness in their necks and shoulders.

There are a lot of times that people who get involved in a severe car accident don’t realize that they have experienced whiplash. You and your family may also be suffering from the same symptom. Whiplash is one of the oldest delayed symptoms a person can experience.

You should check your family if any of them are feeling pain or stiffness in the upper area of their body as it may be a sign of whiplash. You should do so especially on people who have been sitting near the rear of your vehicle.

If you think that you or your family suffered whiplash, you can get checked through:

3. You should watch out if your spouse or children are feeling pain in their backs.

You or your spouse may be ignoring your back pain and think of it was a result of working too hard. However, if you have been involved in an accident, it may be a result of an injury to back muscles, nerves or ligaments, or maybe something worse like damage to your vertebrae.

You should watch out if your spouse or children have pain or swelling in their abdominal area.

One of the most ignored injury after an accident is abdominal pain or swelling. You should watch out for signs such as:

You should take action immediately if anyone in your family feels one of these things as abdominal pain is usually a sign of internal bleeding, which can be life-threatening if not properly treated.

4. You should watch out if your spouse or children are feeling numb in any part of their body.

Numbness can be an indication of injury resulting from whiplash. If you, your lifetime partner, or your kids have loss of feeling in your limbs such as your hands and arms, make sure to get them checked immediately. This numbness may be a result of damage to your spinal column or the neck.

At The End Of The Day, As A Loving Parent and Spouse

It’s always the best option for you to get checked by medical experts after you and your family have been involved in a vehicle accident. If you, your spouse, or children feel any of these symptoms, or if you’ve observed that they may be silently suffering these, visit a doctor or psychologist immediately. The doctor and psychologist will be able to diagnose the problem and properly treat it. 

Vicki Haskett