Name: Annibelle June Harrison
From: Mount Vernon, Illinois
Votes: 0
Annibelle
Harrison 2020
Drivers
Education Scholarship Essay
18
November 2019
Car
Wrecks: The Hidden Effects
When
most people think of car wrecks they usually think about the physical
injuries that occur, when really there is a whole other aspect that
very few know about. The effects that a car wreck can have on mental
health can be just as detrimental as those on physical health. From
personal experience of my mom and I being in a serious car wreck two
years ago, I have seen the impacts and believe that more attention
should be brought to the mental health of those involved in car
wrecks.
Two
years ago my mom and I were on our way to school when a car ran a
stop sign and hit us. We kept rolling and eventually stopped after
hitting a power pole and going in the ditch. Our car was totaled but
we only had minor injuries, such as broken noses and scratches. We
went to the emergency room to get checked out then went home to rest,
thinking we were both going to be just fine. About two weeks later,
my mom and I noticed that we both were still very bothered by the
scene of the crash and hadn’t been able to go about our daily lives
the same. Weeks and months went by and my anxiety and depression
began to greatly escalate, and so did my mom’s. My mom’s was much
more severe than mine causing her to miss a long period of time off
work. She went through six long months of counseling and trying
several different medications in order to try to help her. Finally,
she found a treatment plan that helped and now, over two years later,
she is doing much better but still struggles on occasion.
After
experiencing this wreck and seeing how it affected us in a different
way, I began to do more research on the topic relating to mental
health and car wrecks. I found that PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder) is one of the most common mental condition that occurs
after a wreck. This can cause the person to try and avoid anything
that reminds them of the accident. Extreme emotional and physical
distress can come along with this condition. Around nine percent of
people involved in car accidents will be affected by this. The more
serious the accident, the higher the chance of being affected. For
most people, the symptoms of PTSD will go away anywhere from three
months to one year but there are some people whose symptoms can
improve but can still linger years down the road.
What
can we do to try and reduce this problem? First off, this is where
safe driving comes into play. Nine percent might not sound like a lot
but when there are around six million car wrecks every year in the
U.S., that nine percent quickly becomes a large number. As most of us
know, distracted driving is at fault for a majority of these wrecks.
Many new precautions have been taken in order to try and reduce the
amount of distracted drivers but I believe there is much more we can
still do. One main thing that I think would help would be to make all
new cars have a feature to where it connects to your phone so that
when you are driving it does not function except for emergency calls.
This is one of the many ways that we can reduce distracted drivers
and in turn reduced wrecks. With not only physical injuries being on
the line but also mental conditions, I think it is more important
than ever that we take the precautions needed to try and prevent the
wrecks but also make mental health treatment more available for those
who are effected.
The
majority of people think about physical injuries when they think
about car wrecks, but there is another aspect that you can’t see.
Mental health conditions after car wrecks is an issue that very few
people know the real effects of. After my mom and I were involved in
a serious car wreck, we both developed increased levels of anxiety
and depression, my mom’s being more severe than mine. After
watching this happen I believe that not only more attention should be
brought to preventing wrecks but also the treatment for the
“injuries” that can’t always be seen. I hope that my experience
and this essay helps to bring more attention to this issue and help
those who are effected get the treatment they deserve.
