Have you suffered a neck injury following a whiplash accident? The psychological implications of whiplash injuries can be complex and problematic.

Whiplash injuries are common, and good, accessible medical advice, primary care and physiotherapy mostly provide positive responses which help the majority of sufferers of whiplash symptoms to make a quick and full recovery. However, when it comes to the psychological repercussions of whiplash, often the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation are not so straightforward.

The most common psychological symptoms of whiplash which can accompany physical symptoms like back and neck pain and stiffness, headaches and reduced movement in the neck are

irritability\r
memory loss\r
poor concentration,\r
and sometimes anxiety and depression.

While mental shock can occur immediately following the accident, post-traumatic stress can affect the victim of a whiplash injury for a long time after the accident has occurred (NHS Choices, 2009, ‘Symptoms of Whiplash’)

The Impact of Psychosocial Problems Following Whiplash

In the context of back pain, a report by the New Zealand Accident Compensation Corporation states that “most of the known risk factors for long-term disability, inactivity and work loss are psychosocial,” (ACC, 2004, p31). This is a major concern in the context of rehabilitation where a whiplash victim’s career and daily life can be seriously compromised.

Indeed, the report also lists the three main consequences of back problems:

pain\r
disability, limitations to daily function\r
reduced productive activity, including work loss - (ACC, 2004, ‘Guide to Assessing Psychosocial Yellow Flags in Acute Low Back Pain’)

As with any injury, the objective in treating whiplash is to allow the sufferer to make a complete recovery as soon as possible. But the more complex psychological factors frequently escape detection and receive inappropriate treatment. What would have seemed like a straightforward rehabilitation can become terribly complex, at the cost of the individual’s health and work.

Behind the Psychological Issues of a Whiplash Sufferer

Yet it’s not easy to see what links the physical pain of a whiplash accident to longer-term psychological disruption. An editorial in the British Journal of Psychiatry incorporates contributing factors as broad as personality, gender, employment, legal status, life events and vulnerability to psychiatric problems, or problems which already existed (Thomas, 2002).

The consequences of a whiplash accident can affect attitudes and emotions considerably. Sufferers of chronic pain can develop a number of beliefs as a response to pain, of which the primary reaction is fear, and accordingly motivated fear-avoidance behavior. In this case, accompanying attitudes can include the belief that all pain is a barrier to the return to normal life and work:

not being able to judge one’s own capability for certain activities\r
catastrophising, pessimism (expecting the worst)\r
lacking the confidence that you are in control of the pain\r
taking a passive attitude to rehabilitation

As well as common sleep disturbance, normal activity can often be badly disrupted. The sufferer can experience serious loss of motivation, reduced productive activity and increased use of aids and self-medication, particularly alcohol, all with respect to the onset of pain.

A history of long-term pain, serious injury or psychological conditions can cause yet more distress and instability. Anxiety can develop over job security, and upset caused by a disorganized or unclear legal process in making compensation claims can only exacerbate the problems.

Finding a Resolution to Psychological Issues

Despite the complexities of the issue, there is a solution. Psychological problems associated with whiplash injuries are increasingly being recognised as “logical responses to living with chronic pain,” according to Dr. Richard Seroussi, a specialist in spine care and pain medicine. This suggests that certain psychological problems can be resolved without psychiatric treatment if the sufferer can find complete physical relief from chronic pain.

With this in mind, it’s vitally important to seek good medical help if you are suffering from any of the symptoms of whiplash (see our title pages [link to main page]). It’s also a relief to know that there are comprehensive treatments for injuries sustained in whiplash accidents, but this doesn’t detract from the seriousness of the risk to your long-term health and career situation if you’ve been involved in a whiplash accident.

Every single day, millions of people go to doctors or chiropractors for a back problem. These people place total faith in the practitioners of medicine, even though the medical profession is responsible for over 700,000 deaths per year. One hundred thousand of those are killed by the same types of pills they prescribe for back pain.

It’s not that doctors don’t care. It is that they don’t know any better. Often, they prescribe medication based on nothing more than the sales pitch and literature of the drug company that makes the product.

Doctors only care about your pain to the extent that they can profit from it. If you doubt this fact, go to a chiropractor and tell them you want to get an adjustment but cannot pay for it. Even though it would only take five minutes of their time to help a needy patient, they will not do so.

The back problem is yours. You are the one that hurts every day. You are the one who pays the bills for pain management and never gets cures. It’s your time and gas money that gets you to the doctors office, and your time wasted waiting for them when you show up on time.

Almost everyone with a back problem not caused by traumatic injury can undo the damage themselves. It was caused by not doing the right things in the past, and can be corrected by doing the right things in the future.

It’s your back problem. You feel the pain. It is up to you to do what it takes to correct the problem. The doctors interest in you is gone as soon as you walk out of the office. But stopping your back pain requires constant attention.

Only you have the time required to do what is needed to cure back pain. But you will not succeed until you are willing to do what needs to be done for yourself. Ten minutes a week with the doctor or chiropractor will never cure your back pain. Besides, it’s not their problem.

Spinal health is critical to general physical wellbeing. Like a mast on a ship, the spinal column directs and controls movement. Its stability is vital, and its maintenance is a constant task that needs to be consciously addressed each day. One need not scan medical journals for studies and statistics on the back, the importance of a high-performing spine is known, the task now is to ensure its health. Many individuals do not have the time or energy to be working on their spine during the course of the day, this is just as well, your best chance at improving spine and back health is to learn to sleep the spine-healthy way.

Well known advice from physicians suggests that humans should give themselves six to eight hours of sleep per night. There is a school of thought that says that one may catch up on their slumber at a later time and make up for sleep deficits incurred during a night of sleeplessness. To be clear: be it from work or play, slumber lost is not slumber that can be “made-up.”

Though it is possible to account for small deficits by sleeping more on successive nights, there is not a zero-point, or equilibrium that you will return to if you lose rest one night; if you give yourself four hours of rest on one night, sleeping 12 hours the next night will not restore your sleep health. You will feel more normal and more rested, but not because you have satisfied your slumber credits or improved spinal health. That being said, it is admittedly very difficult to stay on a perfect schedule for your whole life, it is, perhaps, even undesirably inflexible to do so. The key then, is to make the most of your slumber through spine-strengthening, smart sleeping. There are three ways to do this:

1. Stretch before going to bed: To prevent tossing and turning, stretch your lower back and your hamstrings (which are, by way of the hip-bone, connected to your waist-bone and spine.) Two excellent and easy stretches can be performed in just half a minute each. For the first, stand straight and extend your arms straight over your head, clasp your fingers and pull through your shoulders and upper back. For the second lie face up on the ground and bring your legs towards your chest by pulling with both arms on the underside of your thighs. After completing 30 seconds of each stretch, get into bed and sleep easy knowing that you’ve improved the constitution of your spinal column.

2. Try a new sleep posture: Physiologists advise that one of the best sleep postures is the underused “fetal position.” Common to babies, this position calls for the sleeper to form their body as if he was an infant or fetus and hold a pillow between their knees to relieve knee-to-knee pressure. Another option is to sleep face up with a pillow or towel placed below your ankles. Both are acceptable and equally efficient.

3. Give yourself the chance to succeed: Unfortunately, we only have so many hours in a day available for slumber and spinal health. Do not squander your hours. Smoking, drinking coffee or beer, and strenuous exercise, will all stimulate your body and hurt your chances of getting spine-healthy slumber if you partake in them less than an hour and a half before your planned sleeping time. If you must drink coffee or beer, smoke, or exercise, do so at an appropriate hour.

Those hours you have scavenged from work and play are precious, do not waste them by going to bed with a tight back and a tired spine, in a poor posture, or stimulated by poor scheduling. If you stretch, try a better sleeping position, and abstain from activities that energize, you should notice improvements in the quality of your sleep and the sturdiness of your spine.

Stretching can help with many different aches and pains. Most back pain is caused by tight muscles in the hips and low back. Many neck and shoulder problems are also caused by tight muscles. So why don’t more people stretch? Because they’ve tried and it didn’t work!

Everyone out there, young and old, has tried to stretch at some point. Here’s how it usually goes. They bend over and try to touch their toes and either bounce or hold the position for about 10 seconds. And what does this accomplish? Absolutely nothing. So people give up on stretching. Well, if stretching is supposed to help with pain then why didn’t stretching help me in the past? The answer lies in the duration of your stretching.

Everyone has a neurological stretch reflex. This is a reflex that acts so that you don’t stretch too far and rip your muscles off your bones. If you didn’t have this reflex every time you bent down to touch your toes your hamstrings would rip off your legs. Not a pretty picture. So we were made with a stretch reflex that causes our muscles to tighten up when they are stretched. This prevents the rupture of muscles. The reflex lasts for up to 45 seconds.

So what are people doing when they stretch for 10, 20 or even 30 seconds? Absolutely nothing. You must hold a stretch for 3 minutes to get any real benefit. Once you hold the stretch for 45 seconds your stretch reflex shuts off and your muscle actually starts to lengthen. You should feel the stretch, hold the position, without bouncing, and relax for 3 minutes.

The reason most people get not benefit from stretching is because they think that 30 seconds is enough. Now you understand that it’s not nearly enough. For a dramatic effect please hold your stretches for 3 minutes. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

How early can you start back Pain Prevention? Well the sooner the better BEFORE we start to feel the pain. What I mean is to prevent any imbalance through regular maintenance. Start them YOUNG.

Let me explain. Recently in one of our classes we were joined by two young 15 year old girls and slim in stature. One of the girls mother brought them who is also at the class. We practiced a variety of postures with some back bends, in particular the Wheel or Crab some call it. Its Sanskrit name is Chakrasana.

We went through the motions of prep work etc and theses two girls just flowed into it. No trouble, in fact one of them went into variations of the pose - Eka Pada Chakrasana, good to see to inspire others. Some of the members of the class weren’t quite as flexible but had a go any way. Those who have been reading these articles on a regular basis will understand where I am coming from when I say that perhaps the reason that we are unable to go into these positions is how tight our bodies have become.

How much are we really hanging onto? Remember 15 year olds haven’t the experiences of a 20, 30, 40 plus year old therefore do not carry ‘baggage’ around with them. I am not saying these youngsters haven’t any issues to deal with, they only have 15 years of experience where as the rest of us have x number of years that we are dealing with. Therefore we tend to carry around a lot more baggage and that baggage results in stress in the body and gives us our dis-eases, back pain, neck pain, you name it we tend to have it.

Only by recognising our issues, ailments, imbalances, back pain or dis-ease can we start to do something about it. These youngsters haven’t theses issues so if we educate them early then perhaps they will avert any troubles that may happen. Prevention is better than a cure.

Let’s take these two youngsters as an example. They are not regular students, but what if they where? What if they could take the knowledge gained and pass it on to others of the same age group and older? Think of all the possible troubles that could be averted by some simple measures. OK I know there are PE classes and the like; however the practice of yoga works on different levels, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual that other programmes do not.