Psychology Today Blog

One of Michigan’s precious jewels is currently in danger of being stolen.   In 1973 Michigan legislators, in a stroke of genius, created the most comprehensive system of protection in the nation for people injured in car crashes.  The no-fault personal injury protection law mandated that auto insurance companies pay for all needed rehabilitation and care for life and without limits. Michigan is the only state in the nation that provides this level of coverage. Our Michigan system is currently under attack by some politicians, insurance [...]

Most adults in the United States of America drive vehicles of one kind or another on public roadways and are at risk of being involved in an auto accident which may result in serious injuries or death. According to the National Safety council’s data in 2016, over 40,000 people died from auto accident related injuries and 4.6 million required medical treatment in the USA. Regarding the shocking USA auto accident fatality statistics, it is perhaps necessary to put it in perspective of deaths resulting from [...]

Human history has been written in blood and suffering. It is only by small victories of the heart and spirit that we have endured, and through which we can but hope to prevail. If we as a species are to survive and evolve, it is necessary to find new ink, one composed of love, compassion, and understanding, and held in a crucible of forgiveness. The above paragraph was inspired by a quote I read from Bessel van der Kolk, one of the true giants in [...]

Today I attended a legal conference given by the Brain Injury Association of Michigan and learned some important things about advocacy for patients with brain injuries that I will share with you. Pratheep Sevanthinathan, a Michigan attorney, gave an excellent presentation. It is a well-established clinical fact that people with brain injuries have cognitive difficulties involving problems with memory, concentration, focusing and remembering, among others. These difficulties are also known to be stress-sensitive, meaning that when the person with a brain injury is under stress, these difficulties become [...]

Traumatic life events, such as being injured in accidents, often serve to define who we are as human beings.  The same traumatic event can leave one person’s life decimated while others may be propelled to greater accomplishments and life satisfaction than would have been likely without the traumatic event.  How do we explain such striking contrasts? After several decades of clinical work as a psychologist specializing in trauma treatment, I have come to believe the key factor predicting such outcomes is the element of life [...]

In graduate school, many years ago, I was taught not to talk about healing. It was viewed as appearing unscientific. Better to stick with measurable treatment goals and objectives. The dean of a prestigious medical school said to the graduating class that at least 85 percent of what the young doctors had learned would in time be proven false. He added that he hoped they would eventually develop the wisdom to know the 15 percent that was true. Many things I believed to be true [...]

I want to introduce a new syndrome which I call Vehicular Trauma Syndrome or VTS. From my clinical practice which specializes in treating people who have survived serious vehicular accidents of one kind or another, I have come to recognize a constellation of psychological and physical symptoms specific to these kinds of accidents. There are also characteristic stages of recovery which I will briefly describe. I believe VTS is new because I have not found it described as such anywhere, although parts of it are [...]

It was a beautiful spring day in rural Texas last week. By all accounts, a pleasant, fun-loving, 20-year-old man was driving his pickup truck, when distracted by texting, he drove head-on into a mini-bus with 14 occupants returning from a church retreat. Thirteen people on the bus died at the scene. One bus survivor remained in critical condition, as did the young man. Beyond the trauma resulting to the families of the deceased and to the two survivors of the accident, there is the collective [...]

What do we know about car accidents and modern society?  We know that injury from auto accidents is a major public health concern.  In the United States, there are about six million auto accidents each year resulting in about three million people injured.  We know that many people do not do what they can to keep themselves and others safe while driving.  For example, even though wearing seatbelts reduces the risk of death or serious injury by roughly 50%, 1 in 7 people still do [...]

This week’s blog is a continuation of last week’s post. Please indulge me as I take a brief dive into Greek mythology as its gods help us to understand concepts about the human psyche that are often still used in our psychological terminology today. Wikipedia states that for the ancient Greeks, the god Thanatos was the personification of death. There is an ancient statue which depicts him as a winged youth with a sword swung from his shoulder. Homer wrote about him in the Iliad, [...]

In many years of working psychotherapeutically with trauma survivors, I have learned that self-care is at the heart of trauma recovery. I have also frequently observed that highly intelligent people who are struggling with life circumstances repeatedly make bad choices for themselves that lead them into greater difficulties. This paradox often strikes me as perplexing. Why do some smart people when dealing with traumatic life events make bad choices that are counter to self-care? Might the answer lie in our genetic programming? Or in the [...]

Contrary to popular belief, the hippocampus is not a place where hippopotami go for higher learning. It is actually a seahorse-shaped structure deep within our brains that has to do with memory and emotions and is implicated in PTSD, TBI, fibromyalgia, depressionand many other psychological conditions.  Trauma has been shown to atrophy the hippocampi and various therapies have been shown to rehabilitate it. A curious legal decision from the Michigan Appeals Court, Overweg v. Thomas, contained a psychologically erroneous ruling that PTSD did not reach [...]

As a psychologist specializing in treating victims of auto crashes, many of my patients face life long disabilities and pain due to injuries resulting from crashes that resulted from the actions of distracted drivers.  It is likely no surprise that the cell phone is the number one problem when it comes to motor vehicle trauma caused by distracted drivers. Neal E. Boudette, the Wall Street Journal’s Detroit Bureau Chief in a November 15, 2016, article in the New York Times, quoted Deborah Hersman, president of [...]

We are at a major juncture in technological developments with respect to how we travel in cars. In a February 13, 2017, article Janet Burns reported that Ford Motor Company announced plans to invest $1 billion over the next five years in self-driving artificial intelligence in a virtual driver system to be created by Argo AI. The plan is to roll out fully autonomous vehicles in 2021. Burns quoted Ford Motor’s president Mark Fields’s statement about these development having as significant as impact as the [...]

Who will pay for your psychological care in the event you sustain psychological injuries in an auto accident? Most people do not know the answer and most do not care to consider it unless they are in need of care. Sadly, it may be too late for you to receive the care you need if you checked the wrong box when selecting your auto insurance policy. Read the rest of the article published at Psychology Today.