Ever Felt Out of Your Own Body?

This is very much a stress reaction to the trauma. She should not be afraid of it. She needs to let the feelings ride out and with the help of the medication she will move past this. I felt very much the same way with my car accident. I felt for days that it wasn't really real. Out of sorts. It is very hard to explain. It did lead to being nervous while in a car, but she has to get back on the horse as they say and drive, feel comfortable, etc. It's still very shocking to one's systerm, but let her know she will be okay. Just let the feelings come as they need to.

She be able to stand back in her own self soon. Realization of mortality is traumatising. Sometimes the core of yourself your center will retreat and let auto pilot take over.

I think it is good that she's getting treatment for it. She's in shock and is having trouble dealing with the accident and what could have happened.

I have a friend who lost a child in an accident a few years ago and said that for the first two years she was on auto pilot and she doesn't even remember much from those two years because she was just going through the motions. She looked at me, when she was coming out of it, and said that for the first time she was actually aware of everything around her and the world was looking much clearer.

It takes time to sort through some of the events in our lives and your sister needs some time to sort through what happened. I know when I had an accident it took me about a week to finally feel "normal" again. I was nervous driving. I thought about it constantly. I was dealing with the aftermath of getting the car fixed and the insurance companies, but once all that was over and I got "away" from it, I was fine.

She'll be okay, just keep talking to her and keep checking on her and get her more help if she doesn't seem to be getting better within the next week or so.

Blessings to you and your sister!

I did, it happened once, out of nowhere, I was alone in my parents' house, I was 22. All of a sudden a felt disconnected and really "out of my body" how you describe it. I got SCARED so I ran to a psychiatryst, he told me I had a panic attack with a detachement symptom and told me I was not crazy or anything, that could not happen again or never again. Well, I suffered for few months after that because i was scared it would happen again, but it never did. Ever. So tell your sis to do what she can to feel safe during this time (sleeping with door open, avoiding reading etc..) and to be sure she may never have that experience again. Good luck to her.

Sounds like post traumatic stress disorder, she needs to make sure she tells her doc how she's feeling so she can be treated properly. We have a 6th sense called proprioception, which is pretty much how our body recognizes our body as just that... our body. There's a great book about it called 'The man who mistook his wife for a hat'... if nothing else, it might help her reflect on what she's feeling and understand that this is totally normal and can be managed. There's also a weird twist of humor to it too. I hope she has a fast recovery! Best wishes! You hang in there too, worrying takes a lot out of you ;)

Ummm.... that's either head injury or shock.

I'm assuming they ruled out head injury when they gave her the anti-anxiety meds. If so, the meds should take care of the shock over the next couple of days. What else will help is high sugar foods. Cookies, brownies, candy. There's a durn good biological reason why alcohol and sweets are served at high stress events like weddings, funerals, graduations. The quick sugar release helps keep us balanced... adrenalin burns energy like nothing else. A lot of quick sugar in addition to regular food keeps us from feeling nutsy cookoo. In addition to alcohol's intoxicating effects, there are very few faster acting sugars. She should avoid alcohol like the plague if she's on meds... but consider this an Rx for unlimited cookie and brownie consumption.

everything heels over time. her surrounding spirits will return when she recognizes she survived

Hi,
I would be sure that family or friends are close to her for the weekend for sure ande even next week or so to help her through her scarey ordreal. She needs love, care and reassurance that she will feel better again and get bk to her own self. I do think it is best that she see her famly Dr asap to be sure she did not have any head injury. I have never been in a serious accident just fender benders, but am a pretty sensitve person and even those upset me for a few days. Also, be sure she is taking the anti- anxiety meds under the Dr's care until her emotions even out. Getting bk to her routine should help. If she is a church goer she may want to talk to her Pastor or Priest just to vent her upset and get reassurance too. God was watching over her and will get her thru this.
Hugs for her and you for being so caring.

Post trauma stress and shock.
It takes time to recoup.
If she has a hard time... or even delayed reactions to it/the emotional aspects... try suggesting a support group...
Things like this affects people in different ways... some just flit on like nothing happened, some are impacted in more under the radar but sublime ways.
So, just observe and make sure, she 'recovers'... well.

all the best,
Susan

A similar situation happened to me after a car accident. It is definitely trauma. If the meds are not helping (they didn't help me), she could try meditative breathing and working with a therapist on relaxation/visualization techniques. That has worked the best for me with dealing with my body and mind since the accident. Big hugs to your sister!

I call this feeling "being on auto-pilot." You're functioning and mostly behaving appropriately, but it's as if you just flipped a switch to "auto" while you're out. It's a very, very common response to trauma.

Right now, she's coping not only with the accident itself, but with the way it made her feel about the world. Up until now, she's probably felt like most young people, and thought that bad things will always happen to somebody else. It never really occurred to her that she couild be killed, crippled, the cause of someone else being hurt or anything else of the kind. Now she's realizing that reality is different than the way she pictured it. She feels very vulnerable and like the universe is out of control.

It might last for months, or even a year or more, depending on how disillusioned she is, and whether there's physical problems from the accident. Last time I had something like this happen to me, over a year later I broke down in tears in the cereal aisle of the grocery store. I just felt that nothing, and no one, was safe, and it was awful.

Let her work through at her own pace and in her own way. Don't try to rush her to "snap out of it." If she's become fearful of anything - not just cars, but any situation - don't tell her it's silly or recite statistics. Tell her, in real terms, that yes, the world is a scary, random place, but she DOES have the ability to cope with it. She has the knowledge and skill to make the best of life.

All my best to both of you!

She just had a very traumatic experience in her body. I don't blame her for wanting to escape and avoid reexperiencing that. Some people benifit from receiving massage. It helps them reconnect to their body through a possitive experience. I'd advise her to remember that massage therapists are not there to just run through their own massage routine but to customize the massage to her. This takes her speaking up if she wants the massage to be different in any way.

I wish her good luck in recovering.