Individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, often experience emotionally painful and physically uncomfortable symptoms of trauma. While physical injuries are often healed through straightforward treatments and medicines, psychological injuries, like PTSD, can be much trickier to solve. Sometimes individuals may suffer from PTSD for years, and the symptoms are very likely to impact both their professional and personal lives, not to mention their overall health.
If you or someone you know has suffered from PTSD, it is important that you know what to do next. The most important thing to do after symptoms of PTSD appear is to seek the help of a medical professional. Next, find out what your legal options may be.
What is PTSD?
PTSD is a mental health problem typically caused by a life-threatening event, traumatic experience, or brain injury.
Individuals who suffer from PTSD often experience the following symptoms:
- Flashbacks of the traumatic event
- Bad memories or nightmares linked to the traumatic event
- The afflicted person avoids situations connected to the event
- Feeling of paranoia, anxiety, anger, distrust, loss of interest, or numbness
- The afflicted person is hyper-aware of perceived threats
- Trouble sleeping
- Uneasiness
- Sudden anger
- Reckless, uncharacteristic behavior
How is PTSD Caused?
Although PTSD can be caused be any distressing event, the most common suffers are combat veterans. PTSD can also be caused by car accidents, natural disasters, life-threatening events, and physical or sexual assault. Essentially, anything extremely impactful in a negative way could cause PTSD.
Can I Seek Compensation?
Depending on your situation, you may be able to seek compensation for your injuries associated with PTSD. If any injury or illness, including PTSD, is caused by someone else’s negligence or carelessness, it is possible you have a personal injury case on your hands. For example, if you were assaulted by someone and you developed PTSD because of the incident, your attacker could be liable for the damage he or she caused.
Whatever your situation, our personal injury attorneys can sit down with you, evaluate your circumstances, and determine whether or not you have a case.
Contact Goeing Goeing & McQuinn, PLLC to discuss your situation with our Lexington personal injury lawyers.