More than Physical Injuries: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 101

Experiencing the harrowing event of the accident itself may be too much for an individual and his tolerance for grievous events. Much more are the psychological repercussions which may sustain for a number of months or years to end.

Legal Remedies for a PTSD Injury

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), in legalese, is qualified as a form of personal injury damage, for the simple reason that the individual’s functions are severely hampered by the various psychological events that may relive to the victim the distressing events that have happened.

Just take for instance an event concerning a serious trucking accident where a woman may be seriously psychologically damaged all for the simple reason of seeing someone close to her (a relative for example) dying, with blood all over the place and the depressing sound of people murmuring their pity and the shrieks of the sirens rushing for help, only it’s too late.

The aftermath of the event may render the woman staring blankly in space, and then after some time declared as fine. But PTSD is much more subtle in its attack. A victim may suffer the following:

• Flashback episodes or "seeing the event all over again", reliving in her visions the intricate details of the event including the undesirable emotions.
• Dreams of the event unfolding again, commonly causing the victim to wake up and break his sleep pattern.
• Overreactions to things or people reminding her of the stressful event.
• Emotional numbing in order to better deal with the aftereffects of the event.
• Avoiding people in general.
• Psychosomatic symptoms (symptoms that may appear to be physical but is, in fact, psychological like complaining about headaches, vomiting, fever, and headache)
• Excessive awareness and sensitivity to the surroundings, overreaction even to the most mundane objects.
• General disinterestedness even to what was normally interesting to her.

"Damages" for PTSD in a Personal Injury Case

These effects of PTSD are valid legal claims to any case of personal injury lawsuits. Why because of:

1. It is a form of non-economic damage, which, according to Federal Law, is claimable depending on how extensive the damage is.
2. The damage is a result of an accident where a person, in the eyes of the law, could be pointed as “negligent”, therefore responsible (directly or indirectly) for inflicting the trauma.
3. The damage is debilitating, hindering the capability of the person to work and may result to loss in wages/salary.
4. Progressive PTSD may lead to severe depression, alcoholism, chronic anxiety, and drug abuse if left untreated, hence medical compensation must be immediately sought.

Although one may not appear to be seriously injured in an accident, the mental health of a person may be seriously damaged because of the negligence of another. Cases of PTSD have arisen even after six-months since the traumatic event happened.

Knowing the symptoms of PTSD and with a little legal help, personal injury claims may be made to compensate for the psychological instability caused to the victim.