How long does it take to recover physically (and mentally) after a bad injury?
Your journey to recovery is unique and personal, so the best thing you can do is be patient and give yourself time to heal. But, in moments like these, being patient is the most difficult thing in the world.
Between the pressure of returning to work (if you don’t have a solid support system) and the trauma of suffering the injury, you may look for ways to speed things up. Sadly, this is not how healing works, and depending on the type of injury and your environment, it may take longer than initially predicted.
While your healthcare practitioner may offer a time interval, it all depends on your physical and mental state. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the steps you can take to make sure your recovery doesn’t take longer than necessary.
Find your pace
This is one area where you can’t compare, even if you know someone with a similar injury. Each body is different, and so is each injury. The best thing you can do is pay attention to what your doctor and your body are telling you.
Each person’s reaction to a traumatic event that resulted in an injury is different. You may feel low energy or even exhausted. There’s also a chance you’ll feel agitated and eager to be done with visits to the clinic or the chiropractor. Or you may be somewhere in between.
You may also have unusual reactions, like being easily startled or feeling anxious without an actual apparent reason. Pay attention to your physical and mental state and write them down. This way, it will be easier to identify patterns that may be connected to the event that led to the injury.
Also, according to recent studies, writing can help the healing process and that’s because when you write things down, you help the brain to make sense of the event and process your feelings.
Get the compensation you’re entitled to
If you’ve been the victim of another person’s or company’s actions (intentional or accidental), you are entitled to compensation for your suffering. However, the legal system is not the most transparent and easy to understand, so it’s best to talk to an experienced personal injury lawyer in your area.
A local lawyer or law firm is well-accustomed to the regional legal environment and is interconnected with the local legal community. For instance, qualified personal injury lawyers within Richmond will know which judges are not influenced by external pressures or public opinion, favoring a more straightforward analysis of the facts.
Even though it sounds outrageous, women may still face discrimination due to outdated assumptions that are still prevalent in the legal system. And let’s face it – having your lawyer within drive reach is useful as it makes it easier to talk to your lawyer face-to-face.
Overall, a good personal injury lawyer can help you get the claim you deserve so you can spend your time and focus on recovery and healing. When financial issues are out of the picture, keeping stress levels low and thinking about your physical and mental health is much easier.
Pay attention to your mental health
An injury can worsen your mental health, and poor mental health can influence the length of your recovery. It’s a vicious circle that can keep you in a dark place for a long time if you don’t act.
It’s important to assess and acknowledge your feelings and accept your new normal. Depending on the type of injury, you may not be able to do things like you used to. This is a difficult and arduous path, so it’s best to talk with a mental health professional. They will be able to guide you and provide insight into how to go about accepting your current mental state.
Family and close friends can also help, so look for ways to open up to them. It doesn’t have to be right away, and you can do it gradually once you’ve started processing the event yourself.
Focus on your physical and mental health
In the end, there is no clear-cut answer when it comes to the time it takes to recover after an injury. But you can speed things up if you can focus on your physical and mental health during this time.
