Car accidents are traumatic events; they can leave you feeling afraid and vulnerable, in the minutes following the accident and beyond.
Shock, or acute stress disorder, can impact your life negatively, explains Healthline. It can completely disrupt your day to day activities.
What does shock feel like?
When you have acute stress disorder, you will experience dissociative symptoms. Following the accident, you may be confused as to where you are, you may have difficulty maintaining awareness. Shock comes with a feeling of numbness; your emotions or thoughts may not even seem real to you. It can feel like you are detached from your body. In some cases, you may even experience dissociative amnesia. This happens when you cannot remember parts of the event. Often, these are crucial details you would otherwise remember.
What behaviors indicate shock?
It may be difficult to get the incident out of your head following an accident. You could re-experience it through flashbacks, nightmares or feeling like it is happening again. To avoid these feelings, you may catch yourself putting a distance between yourself and the ones you love. You may not associate with people who remind you of the accident. You may not want to take part in regular conversations, in fear that someone might bring it up or remind you of it somehow. Activities and places that you once loved may also go on your avoid list.
At work or school, you may feel unable to concentrate or focus on your work. Others may startle you on accident or notice how tense you are. In some cases, you may become irritable.
