Suffering from a personal injury is going to be one of the most traumatic experiences you are going to face. You didn’t ask to be hurt. In fact, it’s most likely that this injury came completely out of nowhere and caught you off guard. This is what can have a severe impact on your mental health. After you have been hurt, you may be wondering to yourself, will this type of accident happen again? You can’t predict when you are going to get hurt. However, you can start to feel depressed or anxious due to it. If your mental health starts to take a turn for the worse, or you need medical treatment to help you with the symptoms, it is likely that you are suffering from emotional damages.
It’s important that you keep an eye on your mental health after you have suffered from any type of personal injury. You may think you are alright but then may slowly develop symptoms of a mental health condition that require medical attention. Here at Gowing Law Solicitors, we would like to offer our support for those who are unfortunate enough to suffer from emotional damages. This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. That’s why Gowing Law Solicitors wants to make sure that our clients receive the support they need to make sure that they can recover in their own time Don’t forget that we are also here to get you the compensation that you deserve if you are thinking about making any type of personal injury claims.
Call us today on 0800 041 8350 for free advice and consultations to get started. You can also use our claim’s checker below:
What are damages in a personal injury claims case?
Before we give you advice on emotional damages and how you can start working on improving your mental health, let’s have a quick chat about damages in general. There are many different types of damages that you could suffer from if you have become the victim of a public accident. However, the most common damages are known as physical damages. This is when you receive a physical injury due to the negligence of someone else. Your injuries could include:
- Broken bones
- External and internal bleeding
- Fractures and torn muscles
- Crushed limbs
- Damaged organs
- Trauma to the brain or spine
- Damage to eyesight, hearing or loss of teeth
These are only a few examples of the types of physical damages you could suffer from. If you have suffered from extreme damages that have affected your quality of life, you could be owed a large amount of compensation for your losses. With that said, there are other types of damages that you could claim for. Just keep in mind that you will have to have suffered from a physical injury to claim for these damages.
Different Types of Damages Include:
As you can see, there are many different types of damages that you can make if you are interested in making a personal injury claim. Gowing Law Solicitors can help you figure out what sort of damages you could claim for. Make sure to let them know as much information as possible about your case. That way they can also give you a rounded estimate about how much you could be owed in compensation. The more details the better your case will be!
What are emotional damages in a personal injury claims case all about?
Now that you understand what the basics of damages are all about, let’s take a moment to go through emotional damages properly. After all, they are the type of damages that link specifically to your mental health and your overall quality of life. Emotional damages tend to occur after the physical injury. You may be in a lot of pain and may feel extremely unsure about the future. Worse still, you may feel too scared of other people (such as your medical professionals) who could have let you down in the past.
If you have been hurt, it’s likely that you will start to feel as if your world is closing down. You need to go through a recovery phase. As your body starts to heal, you may find that you get depressed or start struggling with an anxiety disorder. Worse still, if you already a condition that affects your mental health, experiencing an injury can make this worse. Take a look at the example below to get a better idea of how a personal injury could worsen your quality of life and mental health:
As you can see from our case study, Carla was already suffering from a mental health condition. Her injury caused it to get worse as she found it difficult to cope with the recovery period. In fact, she required additional medical attention to help her get through this difficult time. You may have found yourself in a similar situation and feel unsure about what you should do. Of course, you should have your personal injury claim looked at by a legal specialist. They can assess whether or not you require further medical support and can recommend therapies or specialist clinics to help you.
What can emotional damages cover?
It does not matter what type of legal claim you are making; if you have suffered from emotional damages due to your injuries, you should be able to claim for additional compensation. You may have already been struggling with your mental health, especially due to the current pandemic, and your injuries have simply made it worse. That’s why it’s essential that you get help as soon as possible.
Examples of emotional damages/distress include:
- Insomnia (i.e. a lack of sleep)
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Feelings of humiliation/fear of another person
- Paranoia/distrust of other people
- Suicidal feelings/actions
These are only a few examples of the potential emotional damages that you could suffer from. Emotional claims tend to be extremely complicated as they do not have physical evidence that go along with them. However, that doesn’t mean that they can’t cause extreme distress that can leave the victim feeling unsure about their future. Your solicitor can help you organize your case and make sure to do the difficult paperwork for you. That way you can focus on your recovery.
Mental Health Awareness Week: Be kind to yourself
Here at Gowing Law Solicitors, we understand that going through any type of injury can be severely traumatic. We have seen the affect that injuries have on our clients and it can be devastating. Not only can it cause them to lose trust in the people around them, but a lot of their negativity can turn inwards and fester. Worse still, if they have been injured during the pandemic, it’s likely that they will have been finding it more difficult to receive treatment.
Emotional damages can leave scars that cannot be seen, unlike physical damages. But that doesn’t mean that they are not there. It is our responsibility, as solicitors, to ensure that our clients receive support in order to recover. Even if they cannot fully get over their emotional damages, we can still assist anyway we can to ensure that the claim’s process is smooth and easy to follow. That way they can relax and recover whilst we can do the hard work.
With that said, as this week is Mental Health Awareness week, we want to provide some advice about how to take care of yourself if you have suffered from emotional damages. Last year, we provided a small booklet on how to cope with emotional damages after a personal injury claim. However, this year we want to leave our readers with something more digestible. The theme for this year’s mental health awareness week is to get out and enjoy the greenery of the world. We would highly recommend this for our clients if their injuries allow them to do so. However, there are some additional ways you should be taking care of your mental health:
Taking Care of Your Mental Health
Take your time when it comes to your recovery. Your mental health is extremely important and it will not get better immediately. Instead, it’s something that you will need to work on. Remember, only you can change your mind-set. However, friends, family, loved-ones and mental health experts will be there to guide you along the way. You will never be alone and will always have someone to go to for advice. That’s why one of the most crucial things you can do is to open up about your feelings. Talking to people, or even seeking an opportunity to open up through counselling, is a great way to voice your concerns and get advice about how to improve yourself. That way you can take your time and feel better in your own time.
It’s time to go outside!
One thing that can help with your emotional damages is taking time to appreciate the little things in life. You have to remember that everyone has been cooped up in their homes for over a year. That’s going to have a severe impact on your mental health, even if you feel as if everything is going reasonably okay. Boredom can leave you lots of time to think and you may start to feel negative thoughts creeping into your mind as time progresses. That’s why we would highly recommend that you do take some time to go outside and meet with people.
If your injuries are severe, this may be difficult, but make sure to do small activities that can make you feel good. Just meeting up with a friend to get some fresh air can do wonders for your mental health. In fact, it may even be a good time to visit a natural park or historical area to make sure you are getting exercise and are seeing some fresh faces.
By connecting with nature, you can appreciate the smaller things in life and slowly start to build up to take back control over your world.
Stopping and thinking about the future
It can be daunting knowing that you have to recover from your emotional and physical damages. You never asked to be hurt. That’s why you may be left with a lot of questions that ask “why” you suffered from these damages in the first place. Now, one of the main reasons is that you suffered due to the negligence of someone else. But honestly, there is not solution to the damages in relation to why they happened to you specifically. It may have simply been a case of you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s why it’s important to have a moment of reflection to come to terms with what has happened to you.
It’s okay to take your time with this. Everyone moves on in their own time. You will do the same. Just remember that there are people who are willing to support you and make sure that your recovery process is as easy as possible.
Gowing Law Solicitors are here to support you with your personal injury claims
Here at Gowing Law Solicitors, we understand that personal injury claims can be difficult to undertake on your own, especially if you are suffering from emotional and physical damages. This is why our law firm is here to offer you our support. We can provide you solid advice and consultations for free! If you are happy to move forward with your claim, we can work with you on a “no win-no fee” basis. That means you will always come out on top and will never need to pay any hidden fees.
Call us today on 0800 041 8350, email us at info@gowinglaw.co.uk or use our LiveChat to get fast advice from our specialists. One of our lawyers will then be in touch to discuss your claim in further detail. Feel free to ask them any additional questions that may be on your mind.
Learn more about personal injury claims
If you want to learn more about personal injury claims and emotional damages, the best place to go is Gowing Law’s legal blog. We update it every week with brand new content about legal claims, seasonal updates and information about our law firm. Occasionally you may even find the odd competition or giveaway listed on our blog and social media. So, make sure to keep an eye on it to win a prize! If you want to suggest a topic for our blog, feel free to send it to info@gowinglaw.co.uk. We will then let you know when the topic has been covered.
We look forward to seeing you in our next blog!
