Being involved in any type of frightening accident can trigger your fight or flight response. It could be a car accident, a truck accident, a fall or a workplace accident — just to name a few examples. Your fight or flight response kicks in either way, and you can feel your heart hammering in your chest as you think about how lucky you were not to get seriously injured.
But were you that lucky? Or did you just suffer serious injuries that you do not know about yet?
Always seek medical help after a serious accident
The issue is that your body is going to release adrenaline. One of the effects of this is that you have a “decreased ability to feel pain” when your adrenaline is high. It doesn’t completely mask all your pain, but you may think that the issues are far less serious than they are. You think you have a slight bruise on your temple after a car crash, for instance, when you really have a skull fracture.
Your adrenaline surge is an evolutionary trait that helps people survive. If you are attacked, adrenaline makes it possible for you to fight back. If you are injured, adrenaline can make it possible for you to seek help. But, while adrenaline surges may have helped historically when fending off predators, it can massively hinder you after a modern car accident, if you decide not to go to the hospital when you’re badly injured.
For this reason, you should always seek medical help after a serious accident, and you always need to know what legal options you have to seek compensation for your injuries and other losses. Learning more about your right to file a claim can help.