ACC receives about 40,000 new injury claims a year from motor vehicle crashes in New Zealand. We have hundreds of fatalities per year and many seriously injured.
Car accidents happen at different speeds, involving different sized vehicles, and your location in the car as well as its safety features all play a role in what happens to you during a collision. Significant impacts find some people struggling to rehabilitate themselves back to full function.
Osteopaths will discuss your trauma history with you. Car accidents can leave people with ongoing restrictions and problems, so it is important information to gather. It may help you and your osteopath understand why your body is expressing certain symptoms at this present time. You may not have known you had a problem at the time of the car accident, or you generally recovered well enough to not seek treatment or no one suggested treatment to you at the time.
Osteopathy can play a major supportive role in your recovery from motor vehicle accidents. Osteopathy can also be useful in working through old injury patterns that continue to plague you because of forces such as those endured during a car accident. It could be an ongoing stiff neck or difficulty turning your head to back the car out or a lower back that is constantly being triggered by minor events.
Your physical and emotional trauma history are relevant and important information for restoring your body balance and health.
Your body in a Car Accident
What happens to your body during a car accident is completely dependent on the dynamics of the accident. The speeds, directions, types of vehicles involved, truck, motor bike where you were positioned and where you and your car ended up. Too many variations for me to describe them all.
Your body is thrown and moved because of these dynamics.
You may impact the inside of your car, the side windows, the dashboard, the steering wheel. Your knees can impact the front of the car, seats can collapse backward, seatbelts can lock tight across our chest and lower pelvis, air bags can inflate imparting a force to your body too.
This piece is not about the severe cases where there are potential life-threatening consequences where emergency medicine comes into its own. I am going to discuss the realm of cases that range from no obvious consequences, to those with ongoing chronic pain since their car accident.
My first recommendation is if an ambulance wasn’t required to attend your car accident and you were not checked and cleared, book a consultation with your GP or if you’re really concerned, go to your local white cross or accident and emergency centre. It’s great to have an examination and make sure something hasn’t been missed.
If everything has been cleared, then it would be recommended that you have yourself checked by an osteopath who can assess how your body has responded and repaired after the collision. It is not uncommon for patients to complain of ongoing neck, mid back, and lower back pain. Others have ongoing pain from fracture sites or concussions symptoms that have not resolved fully. The list goes on.
Your osteopath can gently assess your current situation regardless of whether the accident was today or 20 years ago. Our osteopathic assessments are unique as they look at the body as a whole and how the pattern of trauma is expressing itself throughout your body and not just in a single location. Our palpatory and examination skills can provide you with information on how to improve your function and provide you with a management plan to achieve your best results.
What to do if you sustain a whiplash injury?
Well initially it is important to get some appropriate pain relief which you can discuss with your GP. Hot and cold packs can also minimise swelling and help with the pain. In the past you will remember the foam neck braces were given. However now these are avoided as much as possible and if administered are only to be used for a short period of time.
Studies have shown that you should try and carry on with your normal activities to the best of your ability within your pain limitations. So that means listen to your pain and don’t force anything. All those small tissue structures are swollen and hurt and the last thing they need is further rapid sudden movements or overstretching to make them more aggravated.
So small neck movements to try and avoid any further loss of range is helpful but only within your pain limitations. Even some well explained strengthening exercises have been shown to be beneficial for the neck and upper back region.
Mobilisation is key, so getting joints moving has also been shown to be helpful in the recovery from whiplash associated disorder. This is where your osteopath can really help support your recovery and rehabilitation process.
The sooner you can get an assessment the sooner your osteopath can start working to help restore your body to normal function.
Motor Vehicle Accidents and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
0% of people who have pain caused by a motor vehicle accident meet the criteria for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). 38% can still show signs of PTSD 5 years after the accident.
PTSD can impact your recovery from Whiplash Association disorder (WAD). These are some things to look out for in yourself or your family and friends after a car accident or sporting injury:
1. Hyperarousal:
Body over responding when they think about the accident, like they are in danger. Sleeping difficulties, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, irritable, experiencing panic, uncharacteristic anger and outbursts.
This can be accompanied by flashbacks of the accident and emotional numbing.
2. Emotional Numbing:
This is where there is a sense of decreased emotional responses and reactivity that can impact your ability to feel and express emotions. It is a protective mechanism against negative feelings but also effects experiencing pleasure. Individuals lose interest in participating in activities, feel distant and separate, and find experiencing happiness and joy difficult.
3. Avoidance:
After the accident the individual may avoid different triggers that remind them of the event. They actively avoid discussing or thinking about it.
4. Re Experiencing:
This is where the individual has flash backs of the events, and it impacts their daily activities.
It is important to identify PTSD as part of a response to a car accident or injury and seek appropriate help for resolution. Part of your support for this may be your osteopath. Osteopathic work may help to normalise nervous system function after trauma.