Whiplash can cause both short and long-term effects in your life, depending on the severity of your injury. This type of injury can happen as an accident at work, such as a slip or a fall in which your head is abruptly jerked backwards, or as a personal injury, such as a road traffic accident.
Injury claims can be vital, particularly if you start developing your symptoms at a later date and they worsen. When there is an accident at work, employers’ responsibilities should have covered reasonable steps to guarantee your health and safety. Negligence can make them liable, something to consider when whiplash can affect you for life.
Seemingly innocuous, whiplash can lead to changes in your financial situation and affect your family’s income and comfort.
Long-term Repercussions of Whiplash
The NHS classifies whiplash as “a type of neck injury caused by sudden movement of the head backwards, forwards, or sideways.” The soft tissues in your neck become both sprained and stretched, and you typically feel better within a period of a few weeks or months. In more extreme cases, however, whiplash can be a long-term condition that severely limits daily life.
A whiplash diagnosis is often accompanied by pain, tenderness, muscle spasms, headaches, stiffness, and shoulder and arm pain. Certain less common symptoms with long-term repercussions, such as:
- Memory loss
- Pins and needles in arms and hands
- Tiredness
- Irritability
- Difficulty to concentrate
Chronic pain is a very real possibility after suffering from whiplash, even if you did seek medical help as soon as it happened. Speaking with your loved ones can also help you should you be suffering from anxiety.
When Whiplash Symptoms Affect Your Mental Health
In addition to physical symptoms, having prolonged or severe pain can increase difficulty in carrying out tasks in your daily life alongside having mental health repercussions. Capable of causing anxiety, depression, and affecting your work, it becomes important to guarantee that you are heard and your claim addressed.
Other side effects of whiplash can be:
- Travel anxiety can occur, making you weary or frightened to be in any type of motor vehicle if your whiplash was the result of a road traffic accident.
- Stress and trauma can cause sleep problems, evolving into a sleep disorder in extreme cases.
- Stress can cause you to have poor concentration levels, which can seriously affect your work.
Should you be out of work due to suffering from whiplash, it can cause serious impacts on your personal and financial life. It’s important to address both physical and emotional symptoms to ensure that you return to your normal daily life as soon as possible.
Additionally, claim compensation will aid to cover extra medical expenses, loss of earnings (past and future), home adaptation costs should the resulting injuries be severe, and any funeral costs should it be needed.
At The Claims Partnership, we understand how important it is to handle each case individually with professionalism and compassion. Get in touch with our friendly team today on 01772 562084 to know more about how we can help you.