Calculating pain and suffering in an Illinois accident claim can be a complicated process. Pain and suffering is subjective from person to person and has no numerical value unlike medical bills or property damage. Luckily, your lawyers can handle most of the calculations on their own and will ask questions and recommend appointments to prove their claims further.
In the meantime, though, you need to feel better. Physical pain is a horrible experience, especially when it’s constant and difficult to manage. Hopefully, some of the advice below will make that management much easier for you.
Take Your Medicine
Your pain can be caused by both an injury and the treatments for it. For example, if you’re hurt badly enough that you need surgery, that will cause you more pain, especially if the point was to add something to help the healing process, such as metal rods. This is why you will be prescribed and should take your pain medicine.
The cause of your pain is well-known, and there’s nothing more to be done to ease it for now as the cause heals, so you can use pain medication to handle it better. Each type of painkiller treats pain in different ways, from reducing inflammation to blocking the enzymes that create pain. While these medicines can be helpful in handling pain, they can also be abused and cause further issues.
To avoid these problems, take your medicine as prescribed until either the pain finally naturally fades or the prescription ends; your doctor will tell you which you do. If you find yourself struggling to maintain this structure and start feeling like you need the medicine to function despite your best efforts, alert your doctor right away and start doing whatever is feasible for you to end this addiction.
Look Into Physical Therapy
Many people believe that physical therapy only refers to the time spent with a professional to regain mobility in an injured limb or joint. While this is certainly part of it and is something you may experience as a part of your treatment plan, this isn’t the extent of it. You can actually do physical therapy at home.
All you have to do is know where the pain is and the cause and then perform research. You’ll find all kinds of different exercises of varying intensities, stretches, motions, and yoga poses that affect that area. Doing these stretches can help return mobility, increase flexibility, and, most importantly, reduce pain from that spot.
That being said, not all physical therapy can be done alone at home; much of it needs to be done with a professional as they gauge how intense the exercises can be, what you’re physically capable of handling and more. They can also help monitor your progress and assist your medical team with pain management.
If you have a physical therapy appointment, don’t miss it or your recovery will be awful and drawn-out. If not, then do some research and stretch in ways that can help alleviate your pain.
Consider Distractions
Sometimes, the best way to handle pain is head-on, such as through medication and stretches. Other times, you need a more avoidant measure, like distractions. Pain management is unfortunately unlikely to completely remove your pain for a while, so you will need to focus your mind elsewhere as a sort of break every now and then.
How you do this is up to you, though some good places to start are hobbies. Doing puzzles, listening to music, playing games, watching television and more can all be great ways to get your mind off of your pain for a while. This won’t make the pain disappear, of course, but it can ease it and prevent you from hyperfocusing on it.
Focus on Breathing
It’s shocking how your breathing affects your body and mind. Quick, shallow breaths can cause anxiety, panic and more while deep breaths promote calmness and relaxation. That’s why almost every piece of mental health advice you’ll receive starts with deep breathing. Unfortunately, pain automatically triggers your body to breathe quickly and tense up, which can actually make things worse.
When you catch yourself breathing like this, close your eyes if you can and start taking deeper breaths consciously. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. You can hold it for a while if you’d like or even count to make each step of the process even. Try and slowly relax your muscles as you do this, too to promote that calmness you need to heal.
If anxiety or panic starts to build then keep breathing and slowly talk yourself out of those emotions. Allow your brain to recognize that you are aware of the distress and that everything will be alright. Say this aloud if you need to. You’ll know you’re successful when the feelings dissipate. If this doesn’t work then practice grounding techniques alongside the breathing ones.
Remember Your Mental Health
Pain has a profound negative effect on your mental health, even if you don’t realize it right away; people with chronic pain know this well, unfortunately. Combine that with any lasting mental effects of your accident and you’ve got a rough emotional storm brewing.
The importance of taking care of your mental health during this time cannot be overstated. What works best for you will vary, but something like meditation can really help. If you want to try this, look up videos and find the method that works best for you.
Of course, practicing mindfulness on your own is vital, but it shouldn’t be the only step you take. You also need to talk to people, whether that be your friends, family or a licensed therapist. Unloading the emotions you feel will make those around you more sympathetic to your plight and help them understand the best ways to help you through it while also providing you relief.
Expressing how you feel is cathartic and makes those pent-up emotions fade away. If you feel that talking is not enough or you need to talk when no one’s available, then write them down. This could be through a detailed diary entry explaining exactly how you feel, why and how it’s affecting you or it could just be you listing the emotions you feel. It will help either way, so do what feels natural.
