Whiplash is a non-life threatening injury, at least when it’s treated right away. The most common method of getting whiplash is in a motor vehicle accident when the driver or passenger is hit from behind the vehicle and the rapid back/forth motion of the body upon impact causes your muscles and spine to tense up and thus create whiplash. The effects of whiplash can be felt long after a vehicle accident and if it is not treated right away can lead to prolonged disability. Most individuals who find themselves in a vehicle accident and getting whiplash will recover quickly with minimal chronic symptoms, if any.
As always, if you suspect you have it and/or have recently been involved in an auto accident that could have caused you to get it, its vitally important you seek the advice of a medical professional right away. The most common signs of it are neck pain, arm pain, back pain, shoulder pain, dizziness, vertigo, difficulty focusing, muscle spasms, and headache. Untreated whiplash will only get worse over time and can lead to other forms of chronic pain. The following information will provide you with the necessary details on identifying the symptoms.
1. Neck Pain
Neck pain is the most pervasive and most complained about symptom. When you get in an auto accident, your neck muscles tense up and the rapid back and forth motion of being hit from the rear of your vehicle causes your muscles to stay tight and tense. The feeling of neck pain from whiplash is akin to having a stiff neck. The signs of this are feeling like you’re unable to move your neck from stiffness, pain (mild or chronic) from attempting to move your neck in any direction and the general feeling of pain at the base of your neck or top of your spine. Over the counter medications may help ease the pain for a while, but you are likely to need further medical treatment to fully get rid of the pain.
2. Arm Pain
Just like with neck pain, arm pain is caused by the muscles in your arm tensing before impact from another vehicle. Signs of arm pain include feeling like your arm is stiff, inability to move your arm in any direction and your skin or muscles being sensitive to touch. While range of motion exercises can help to stretch the muscles and eventually give relief to the pain, professional medical help will be needed for a holistic solution to arm pain, or any symptom. Unresolved arm pain can lead to further chronic pain in your future unless you get it treated as soon as possible.
3. Back Pain
Whiplash is known to cause chronic back pain, even if it is temporary. The pain generally starts at the top of the spine near the base of your neck and goes all the way down to the bottom of your spine, encompassing all the muscles at the sides of your back as well. You will feel the common pain (as with the rest of the symptoms) of stiffness in your muscles, and feeling like you’re unable to move. Generally, as with neck and shoulder pain, you are likely to need the help of a chiropractor to get your back and the rest of your body back to feeling right.
4. Shoulder Pain
The pain in your shoulders can also be very intense. The shoulder acts as a rotator joint for the movement of your neck and arms. When you get whiplash, your shoulder muscles tense up just like they do with the other symptoms and make it feel like you’re unable to move your arm or neck around the shoulder area. Altogether, shoulder, neck, arm, and back pain are common in that it makes you feel mild to chronic pain even attempting to move at all. It is important to relax your muscles as much as possible when recovering. Do not worry about the pain lasting forever. The sooner you treat it, the sooner you’ll get to feeling much better and back to normal.
5. Dizziness
With the rapid back and forth movement associated with the injury, sometimes it can irritate a part of your brain through your inner ear, at the place where the two connect. When this happens, you can suffer from dizziness. This can cause trouble concentrating as well as other symptoms such as difficulty standing up straight, nausea, headaches, insomnia and numbness in limbs. The symptoms of dizziness from whiplash are similar to that of a concussion. If you are experiencing these symptoms, make sure to contact your doctor immediately as it could lead to something more serious if left untreated.
6. Vertigo
This symptom of whiplash is most often caused by trauma to the neck. When you have vertigo, you start to feel dizzy after each attempt at moving your neck. As you can imagine, this would be a very unpleasant symptom to deal with and is often the cause of high-cost litigation in auto accident injury-related court cases. Statistically, those over the age of 40 are more likely to experience vertigo as a result of having whiplash from an auto accident. The treatment of vertigo is similar to that of the rest of the whiplash symptoms. Your neck and back will need to be stretched and realigned, and your muscles will likely need to be massaged on a regular basis for a while in order to receive maximum recovery.
7. Difficulty Focusing
When you’re suffering from whiplash, you experience mild to chronic pain on a 24/7 basis. You’ll have trouble sleeping from all the muscle and joint pain, thus leading to not feeling as rested the next day. This can cause a myriad of problems in your day-to-day life, one of them being difficulty focusing. Because of the pain, it can be hard to distract yourself from it long enough to complete a task at work or at home. This only emphasizes how important it is to seek medical treatment after an auto accident if you have whiplash as soon as you possibly can. The sooner you treat the symptoms, the sooner you’ll be sleeping better and able to focus more during the day.
8. Muscle Spasms
A muscle spasm or muscle cramp happens when your muscles (without your control) contract without afterwards being able to relax. With whiplash, the most likely places to have muscle spasms or cramps would be in your neck, shoulders, back, and arms. This is because these are parts of your body you use the most, and the parts that are most greatly affected by whiplash. Muscle spasms or cramps can last only a few seconds or up to several minutes depending on the intensity. Sometimes the area of the muscle spasm or cramp will be visibly twitching or look distorted.
9. Headaches
Another tough symptom to deal with when you get whiplash is the sudden onset of headaches. This can be attributed to the mild to severe neck pain and back pain which travels up the spine and causes your head to hurt. The constant tense muscles around the head (like the neck and shoulders) can also cause your headaches to happen. Again, over the counter medications may be effective in the temporary treatment of mild headaches or other whiplash symptoms, but nothing will be as effective as seeking the help of other medical treatment including seeing a chiropractor. When the contort your body into different positions, they stretch your muscles (especially in the neck and shoulder region) and leave your muscles feeling much more relaxed. When this happens, you’ll notice a significant decrease in the amount of headaches you’re getting.
