How does a car accident feel?

The question of “how a car accident feels?” is probably best analogized to what does hot sauce taste like? It, quite frankly, varies dramatically based on the salsa or hot sauce and the car accident. 

Most people that are involved in a car accident initially are just grateful to be alive. You’re sitting there at the scene of the accident, and you looked down at yourself. There’s no blood on you. Your bones aren’t popping out of you, and you can move. So at that exact moment, most people actually don’t feel anything from a car accident. If anything, it’s a euphoria of being alive. 

People that have suffered a soft tissue injury in a car accident, though, many of them will start to feel symptoms of that soft tissue injury 30 minutes to a couple of hours after the accident when that euphoria is starting to wear off. And at that point in time, the general feeling of being in a car accident will be like having gone to the gym for the first time where you’re feeling a little bit of pain. Your mind is thinking, “Oh, I might be sore. But hey, I am still alive. I feel good.”

A large portion of people wake up the next morning, and now their muscles are starting to tighten up, and they’re starting to feel really, really sore after the accident. What will happen is that feeling will sometimes be in your back, then your neck, and then your shoulder. It feels like it’s just pulling on it. It’s a generalized pain. 

What’s really unexpected for many people is that pain will feel like it’s moving around. At one point in time of the day, it will feel like it’s your shoulder, then it’s in your back, and then it’s back in your shoulder, then it’s in your neck, and it’s in your back again. The pain moving around your body is confusing to a lot of people. 

What is really happening is all of those muscles were overworked in the accident. They’re all fighting for attention and recovery. It’s that constant fight and battle amongst them that gives you this odd feeling of why the pain moves around.  

Most people find a successful resolution to a soft tissue injury through physical therapy, chiropractic care, massage therapy, or acupuncture. Some type of physical manipulation in your muscles can help those muscles recover and reduce the time that you’re in that uncomfortable feeling.  

After a first gym session in a long time, you will wake up in the morning really sore, and that soreness at that level usually lasts for about two full days. On the third and fourth day, you are still sore, but it is more of a moderate soreness. By day five and six, it is usually a mild soreness. By day seven, you’re not sure if you’re sore or not or if it’s between the ears, and you just don’t want to go back to the gym. For most people, by day eight, you are completely recovered, you can go back to the gym, and if you’re not then, that’s usually a sign that you did something more significant than just overworked your muscles. 

A car accident lifecycle is very similar to that of going to the gym except for instead of being two days, two days, and two days it typically is two to three weeks, two to three weeks, and two to three weeks. The reason for the longer time-period from a car accident to the gym is because when you went to the gym, you overworked one single muscle or one single muscle group. For a few days, you just relax and rest those muscles. Unfortunately, you overworked several muscles or several muscle groups from a car accident, so those muscles are pulling on each other and fighting each other for attention. 

We will have clients come in, and they will say, “Yesterday the pain was in my neck. Today it’s in my back, and an hour ago, it was in my shoulder.” The pain feels like it’s moving around because it’s a constant tug of war between your muscles for attention. It’s that tug of war, and the muscle’s inability to rest is what typically has the pain lasting instead of two days, two days, and two days lasting two to three weeks, two to three weeks, and two to three weeks. 

When you go to the doctor’s office or hospital after a car accident, one of the most common drugs they prescribe you is a drug called Flexeril. It’s a name brand for a muscle relaxant, and as a muscle relaxant, it does just that. It’s a big giant pill to get your muscles just to back off each other and stop fighting each other. Unfortunately, Flexeril is probably the number one drug taken one time and then never again because it just makes you feel icky. 

Most people have a better result with some kind of holistic therapy instead of drugs. Obviously, physical therapy is a great remedy. In addition, chiropractic care and acupressure or acupuncture can be great holistic treatments for a muscle tissue injury. Hopefully, by getting that type of holistic care, it can accelerate your healing time and thus reduce the length of time you’re sore overall. 

Like when you go to the gym, and you get past the eight-day mark if you are still in a lot of pain, that is usually a sign that you need to follow up with a physician for possibly some imaging to determine if you actually tore a muscle and need some kind of surgical intervention or something else. A car accident is very similar when you get past week six, eight, or ten, and you are still in a lot of pain, then that is usually a good sign that you need to get into a physician. You may need to have an MRI or some other type of imaging to determine exactly what is wrong with you.