It’s very common for patients who have suffered from recent injuries in a car accident to begin experiencing anxiety and depression. After a potentially traumatic experience (such as a car accident), you could also be experiencing chronic pain, which can easily increase depression or anxiety even more. Of course, though we are starting to go back to our normal lives, the recent pandemic also left many who had never had anxiety or depression before to suffer from these ailments, as well.
With anxiety and depression at a high, especially for someone who was recently in a car accident, it’s important to understand one of the simplest and most effective ways to fight anxiety and depression. So, today, we are highlighting Doctor’s on Liens’ Dr. Zubin Dah’s quick tip on gratitude journals.
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Dr. Dah of Southern California Heath Center has his patients write down what they are grateful for three times a day in a journal for the first month of their treatment, leaving them with 90 reasons why they are grateful. After that, Dr. Dah has his patients decrease their entries to one thing they are grateful for per day for the next five months. So, after six months of entries, they have 240 things they are grateful for. Each patient is encouraged to look back daily to reference what they were grateful for, as well.
Dr. Dah’s study on gratitude showed a decrease in anxiety and depression from patients who kept up with their gratitude journals. This shows us that gratitude journals can be extremely important to boost moral and a great tool to have people focus on the good in life rather than the bad. After all, when you’ve experienced something like a car accident and are feeling pain, you can easily begin focusing on the negatives, and that negative attitude can taint the way you see the rest of the world. By forcing your mind to focus on the positives out there, you can change your whole mindset for the better and live a fuller, happier life over time.
If you’ve been injured in a car accident or if you suffer from depression and anxiety, think about trying out a gratitude journal. Also be sure to reach out to Dr. Dah or one of our other specialists who work on a lien basis at Doctors on Liens to help you with your injuries today.
