No matter who you are, where you live, how old you are, or what you do for a living, you are liable to suffer a traumatic injury at any time. You could be walking to the shops one day, and all of a sudden become the victim of a life-changing accident or attack. This might not be a nice thing to think about, but it’s still a very serious and very real threat that you face each and every day of your life.
As if the pain of suffering an injury wasn’t bad enough, should such a plight ever befall you, you will be forced to cope with the aftermath of the situation and come to terms with what has happened to you. It is during this stage of recovery where your resolve will be tested, your mental wellbeing will be put under enormous amounts of pressure, and you will have to work harder than you’ve ever worked before just to regain some sense of normality.
The good thing is, if you remain on track and focused on your recovery, there is every chance that you will be able to move forward with your life. Things might not be exactly the same as they were before, but rest assured you will be able to live a happy and fulfilling life once again.
To find out what you must do to move forward in life should you ever suffer a traumatic injury, be sure to read on.
Accept help
You aren’t going to be able to move forward from your traumatic injury if you haven’t got a network of people supporting you every step of the way, that’s for sure. If you’re to make a full recovery from your physical plight and protect your mental wellbeing throughout the coping process, you’re going to need to rely heavily on your family, friends, and treating physicians.
Should you reject the assistance that your loved ones and carers offer, you’ll only increase the load that you have to carry, and as a result, you won’t be able to concentrate on your recovery as much as you really need to. For the sake of your overall health and wellbeing, it is vital that you put your pride to the side and accept help whenever it is offered.
The assistance that you accept in this instance can come in a number of different shapes and sizes. It could be your neighbor offering to cook you meals for the time being while you acclimatize to your new way of living, it could be a friend offering to take your kids to and from school for a while as you get back on your feet, or it could be a professional entity offering to help you claim compensation for being the victim of an accident that wasn’t your fault.
With regards to the latter, rest assured there will always be a host of professionals out there that you can turn to when it comes to making claims and getting the money that you deserve. Should you be the victim of poor care from the medical team that treated you at the scene of your injury, for example, you would be able to turn to IBB Claims for help.
These experts will assist you in filing your paramedic negligence claim, they will support you throughout the claiming process, and they will do their utmost best to secure you fair compensation.
Understand the coping stages
Once the dust has settled on your traumatic situation and you begin your recovery process, you will find yourself going through a number of coping stages as you seek to come to terms with what has happened. To ensure that you recuperate from your plight in the quickest and healthiest way possible, it’s essential that you understand what these coping stages entail and acknowledge the impact they are going to have on you going forward. Simply being aware of the different emotions that you will be liable to experience at this time will help you prepare yourself for what comes next.
Here are four coping stages that you need to understand and prepare yourself for:
- Denial
The first and most turbulent coping stage that you will endure is denial. At first, you will be confused about your injury, then you will angry at the fact that you were made to suffer such an unfortunate plight, and then you will try to convince yourself that you haven’t even experienced any trauma.
All of these different emotions will come at you thick and fast, so it’s essential that you ready yourself for them. More importantly, you must acknowledge their existence and not blame yourself for acting in an erratic, aggressive, or outspoken nature.
- Bargaining
Once you start to accept your situation for what it is, you will go through the coping stage known as bargaining. Even if you’re not particularly religious, you’ll find yourself bargaining with an all-mighty being in an attempt to go back in time and reclaim the life you had before you were stricken with your injury. If you’re to deal with this stage in the healthiest way possible, it is essential that you refrain from getting carried away with the belief that you will be able to bargain your way back to full health.
Instead, focus on the science of recovery and put all of your efforts into the physiotherapy sessions that your doctor asks you to attend.
- Depression
If your recovery doesn’t go exactly to plan, especially, you will also be liable to go through bouts of depression. At this point in your recuperation process, you will start to blame yourself for what has happened even if you are in no way to blame for an event that injured you. On top of this, you will question whether there is actually any point in attempting to make a full recovery.
At this stage, you must surround yourself with people that are capable of lifting your spirits. This will ensure that you don’t lose faith in your recovery process and it might even stop you from grieving your former life.
- Acceptance
After all that strife, you will then start to truly accept what has happened to you. You’ll accept that your traumatic injury took place, you’ll accept that you cannot bargain your way back to full health, you’ll accept that there will be times when you get down about the situation, and you’ll accept that you’re only going to get better if you devote yourself fully to the recovery process.
Ease back into your everyday life
No matter how well you think your recovery is going or how healthy you start to feel, you must refrain from rushing back into normality. A number of things about you and your life will have changed as a result of your traumatic injury, which is why you must ease back into the swing of things.
The art of rest can never be understated in this instance, which is why you should never be averse to simply putting your feet up when things get too difficult or overwhelming for you throughout your recovery process.
To rest both your body and mind in the most effective way possible, you must:
- Set yourself a regular sleep schedule and attempt to stick to it
- Spend the majority of your time in relaxing environments
- Don’t overexert yourself when it comes to exercise
- Share your burdens at work
- Refrain from drinking too much alcohol and caffeine
Let go of the past
Last but certainly not least, you must let go of the past if you’re to truly stand a chance of moving forward after suffering your traumatic injury. No matter what trouble befell you or what role you played in the situation, you must be willing to accept the situation for what it is and leave where it belongs, in the past. Only when you find the strength to do this will you be able to focus your attention on all the wonderful things you have still yet to do in the future.
To let go of the past in the healthiest manner possible, you should:
- Create a mantra for yourself that helps you to contend with negative thoughts
- Distance yourself physically from the strife that you underwent by not visiting the scene of the incident
- Practice mindfulness and find your inner-calm
- As touched upon earlier, surround yourself with a network of people that are able to support you on a daily basis
- Don’t be afraid to talk about your feelings
- Accept the fact that you might not get an apology for what happened, and give yourself permission to forgive whoever has wronged you
- Seek professional psychiatric help if you think you are unable to take the above advice and let go of the past
Should you ever been unfortunate enough to suffer a traumatic injury, it’s essential that you put all of the advice laid out above into practice. If you do, you’ll no doubt find it a lot easier to move forward from your plight and regain a sense of normality in your life.
