PTSD and work

[Bee007]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and was hoping to get some advice as to how to cope with PTSD and a highly demanding job. I am a lawyer and a year ago I was hit by a car who ran a red light whilst crossing the road just outside of work whilst on my way to court. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things but I find it really challenging when I have to cross the road where I was hit to go to court and find I am unable to cope with any stress/pressure at all. Does anyone have any strategies they use that help them to refocus and/or get through the day? Does anyone have to revisit their accident site every day as part of their work and if so, how do you cope with it?? Thanks for listening.

[Croix]

Dear Bee007~

You are facing very awkward situation and I think it no surprise at all you as susceptible to stress and pressure. Having to retrace your steps over the exact location of your accident on a daily basis seems to me to be a repeating trigger bringing to the fore all the intense feelings you had at the time.

Before going further I'd like to ask if you have skilled medical support? Dealing with the psychological effects of trauma events is not always straightforward and does take specialist abilities. On top of that you may have physical injuries, and possibly financial ones being away from work.

I made the mistake of plowing on without proper medical support, and this simply made matters harder to treat, and has taken a long time too as a consequence. I ended up being invalided out of my job, though there were other factors involved.

One of the things I had to face was that life was not going to carry on the same, and this was a very hard factor to deal with, and it was only basically good luck and the support of my partner that helped me start a new direction in a new career, from police to tertiary educator.

I'm not suggesting it is necessary for you to make such a radical change, however anything that can reduce pressure and triggers is worth examining. Do you have any thoghts about this?

I'd very much like you to come back and talk more

Croix

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Bee007,

Thank you for your post. I can see that Croix has already offered you some great support and I couldn't agree more with his suggestion about getting some professional support.

To answer your question, I did have a car accident on the way home from work, and I had to drive on that same road everyday to go to work. Like yourself, there was no detour or way that I could avoid it.

There were probably two things that really helped the most -

The first thing was reassuring myself that I was safe now. In trauma, our brain doesn't fully recognise that which is why we get so anxious or wired up even though there is no longer any threat. While I completely validate that what happened to you was terrible, what are the chances that this will happen again? The likelihood is low as things like this are a total freak accident. For me, there was also every chance that a car accident would happen again, but there was also every chance (and a much higher chance!) that I could drive home and be completely safe.

The second thing was to use grounding exercises. Grounding exercises are another way to help reassure your brain that right now, in this moment - you are safe. A lot of these exercises you can practice while at work, or even arriving there a few minutes earlier just to re-centre yourself. This is one small way to bring your body back to the present, start to relax and focus throughout the day.

I am more than happy to go through any of this stuff, but if I type it all today it might be a bit overwhelming to read! 🙂 I hope that this does help somewhat, and also that you're able to access some support if that's what you need

rt