Welcome to Dr. Zender’s Psychology Today blog, The New Normal.
Traumatic accidents can seriously impact every area of your life. However, with the proper information and support you—or someone you care about—can reclaim the life you were meant to live. In Dr. Zender’s blog, you will find tools, tips and ideas to facilitate your recovery process —tools that will help you to cope with your physical and psychological injuries and conditions. You will learn to do more than just survive, you will learn to thrive!
A note to auto insurance companies: You will find valuable information here that will help you better serve your insured customers. In fact, when patients get the proper supports, needed care and treatment up front, they need far fewer resources in the long run than if support is withheld. That translates into a big win-win for your company and a boost to your bottom line!
Vehicular Trauma Syndrome
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 [...]
The Horrors of Texting and Driving
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 [...]
Car Accidents and Collective Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
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 [...]
Recovering From Trauma and Its Obstacles (Part 2)
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 [...]
Recovering From Trauma and Its Obstacles (Part 1)
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 [...]
What Do Auto Accidents, PTSD, and TBI Have in Common?
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 [...]
