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Psychiatric News: Consequences for Children Victimized in Accidents

In recent news, the Transport Statistics of Great Britian found that at least 56,000 children have suffered or died after having been involved in an automobile accident in 2007.  And this number may be on the rise. 

But children aren't always left injured.  Sometimes they are able to escape injury.  But regardless of whether they are injured or not, all children involved in traumatic accidents may experience confusion and fear.  These two emotions are usually overwhelming to young children and it is hard for them to make sense out of terrifying experiences. 

When these traumatic accidents do occur and leave children emotionally scarred, their can be more seriuos long-term consequences.  The psychological states that your child may experience after a life-threatening scenario may include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Generalized Anxiety, and even Depression.  Obviously, these psychological states are detrimental to the overall health and safety of your child, and must be addressed in order to be corrected. 

The toughest one is PTSD.  Many parents do not know what it is.  And for those that do know, they often associate it with soldiers who return from war and have a terrible time readjusting.  But that is not always the case because PTSD can set in after any sort of traumatic event.  By any sort, we mean just about anything.  Even if a child is not injured but witnesses a terrifying accident or injury inflicted on someone they know, they can be left scared and unable to handle their emotions.  Being emotionally hurt does not require being physically hurt. 

At the same time, experiencing a serious injury first-hand can have lasting mental consequences.  Some of the signs and symptoms that a child is suffering include all of the following listed below:

-Tendency to Revert to Past Behaviors (i.e. thumb-sucking)
-Becoming Unusually Aggressive
-Withdrawing From Other People
-Anxiety and Tension
-Rapid Changes in Mood
-Abnormal Behavior
-Irrational Fears

We list irrational fears because children will often develop a tendency to fear things that they previously did not fear.  For example, they may not want to enter a vehicle altogether.  What's more, these irrational fears may be completely unrelated to the accident your child witnessed. 

It is not unusual for parents to purposely ignore the subject, because they believe that it will help their child forget that the accident even occurred.  But this is not a good approach.  In order to deal with an unbearable experience, you must talk openly about it with your child.  Failing to do so will leave them with bottled up emotions, like a shaken soda ready to explode. 

If you believe that your child has been involved in a child injury or accident situation where he or she suffered, we urge you to contact any one of our Kansas City Child Injury and Accident Lawyers.  We are committed to preventing child injury situations, but when they do inevitably occur, our 15 years of experience in our field will allow us to fully counsel you.  
 

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