Exploring the Most Common Types of Psychological Injury

A psychological injury is an emotional condition that results from experiencing or witnessing something that made you feel distressed. Unlike physical injuries, these disorders can be overlooked and forgotten, yet their impact on a person’s life can be just as debilitating as physical harm. These injuries typically require a formal diagnosis by a mental health professional, as they go beyond the normal range of emotional distress and can become a huge problem in people’s lives.

Understanding the common types of psychological injury is important, particularly in contexts like psychological injury claims regarding workers’ compensation and therapeutic treatment. While a person’s response to trauma is personal, certain conditions are consistently recognised as the most frequent psychological consequences of traumatic events. This can include serious accidents, violence, negligence or chronic stress.

This guide will explore the different types of psychological injury and how it impacts people’s lives. If you feel you are suffering or simply want to learn more, continue reading this guide.

Common Types of Psychological Injury

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD is one of the most recognised psychological injuries, as it usually develops after a person experiences or witnesses a terrifying event that sticks with them. There are three main clusters of PTSD symptoms that can persist for over a month:

• Re-experiencing: The person relives the trauma through intrusive memories, flashbacks and distressing nightmares. They often feel like they’re back in the moment the event happened.
• Avoidance: The individual actively tries to avoid people, places, activities or situations that remind them of the trauma. This can lead to social withdrawal and emotional numbing.
• Hyperarousal: The person is constantly on edge, easily startled, struggles with concentration and sleep, and may experience angry outbursts.

Anxiety Disorders

While anyone can experience anxiety at any time, the most severe cases come from an immediate response to trauma. If it becomes consistent and negatively affects your daily life, it can be diagnosed as an anxiety disorder which needs attention from a professional. Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterised by chronic worry about everyday events and are often accompanied by physical symptoms like fatigue and poor concentration.

Another major symptom is panic attacks that are repeated and come along unexpectedly. These sudden episodes of intense fear are usually from severe physical reactions when there isn’t anything to be worried about.

Depression

Depression is a mood disorder directly resulting from a psychological injury. It involves a persistent feeling of sadness, hopelessness and a loss of interest in activities that you used to enjoy. Other symptoms include:

• Significant changes in appetite or weight.
• Sleep disturbances.
• Fatigue and low energy.
• Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt.
• Difficulty thinking or making decisions.
• Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.

Adjustment Disorders

Adjustment disorders refer to difficulties in adapting to a specific stressor. This could be anything from an accident you’ve suffered, a serious diagnosis or a significant life changing event. The symptoms of this can be similar to those of depression or anxiety, but everything happens as a result of something that happened within three months of the event. This diagnosis is often considered a time-limited reaction, though it can become a more severe condition like Major Depressive Disorder or PTSD if left untreated.

Phobias

A phobia usually manifests as an irrational and intense fear specifically tied to a situation or activity that was directly related to the traumatic event. This is a significant anxiety response where the exposure to the feared stimulus, or even the anticipation of it, triggers an immediate and overwhelming distress response. These phobias can range from life-threatening things like sharks to inanimate objects like doll toys. A very common one is having a phobia of driving a car due to a previous crash you were involved in.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

OCD involves a cycle of obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are distressing, recurrent thoughts or images, while compulsions are the repetitive behaviors or mental acts performed to temporarily relieve the anxiety caused by the obsessions. Following trauma, these symptoms often focus on the traumatic event. For example, a trauma survivor might develop contamination obsessions leading to excessive cleaning or compulsive checking behaviors like repeatedly locking doors. A lot of people will claim to have OCD, but it is something that can only be medically diagnosed.

Final Thoughts

These conditions underscore the fact that trauma is internal injury that alters a person’s emotional regulation and ability to engage with the world. While this guide provides an overview of the most common diagnoses, it is essential to remember that psychological injury is highly individualised to each person. Its severity will vary from person to person, so you’ll need personalised support based on your problems.

If you or someone you know is struggling with persistent symptoms following a distressing event, seeking a formal diagnosis and treatment from a qualified mental health professional is important for healing and reclaiming one’s life.