The End of the Uncertainty about Your North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Case (What’s Causing All the Stress)
Why is your North Carolina workers’ compensation case causing you so much agita?
That’s a loaded question. Dwell on it for a second. When you mentally fixate on your situation – what happened at work, how your employers have reacted so far, what the potentially liable insurance company has done – you likely feel some negative feelings.
So what’s causing these feelings? What’s at the root of your stress?
Your instincts might be to blame your lack of “stuff.” Your lack of money. Your lack of cooperation from your employer or the insurance company. Your lack of ability to function, physically, or live your life free of pain.
These all might be problems that are currently holding you back in your life. But they are likely NOT the core constraint that’s causing you the frustration.
The core constraint, almost certainly, is your lack of certainty.
Uncertainty – both negative uncertainty (“is the diagnostic dire or not?”) and positive uncertainty (“will I get the promotion or win a big North Carolina workers’ compensation award?”) — can cause stress because it causes your mind to “spin out” diverse positive, negative, and neutral scenarios. When you envision yourself in these different scenarios, the stakes of any actions mount.
It’s not hard to get on board with the notion that instability could cause stress.
But what IS somewhat counterintuitive is the idea that the instability in and of itself – independent of the positive or negative stuff associated with it – might cause stress. Yet research from diverse fields bears this out.
Painful events and setbacks do cause stress in the short-term, but they don’t necessarily impact our happiness or satisfaction in the long-term. Taking an extreme example… consider studies on the hedonic effect of getting paralyzed. You might think that losing your ability to move your arms and legs would radically decrease your life satisfaction and happiness. In the short-term, it does. But over longer periods of time – a year plus – even this kind of epic medical crisis does little to impact baseline happiness and life satisfaction.
What this means is that, if we can manage the instability and uncertainty surrounding North Carolina workers’ compensation cases, we can go a long way towards resolving the emotional problems that accompany it.
Think about all the pressing questions that, when you dwell on them, cause you stress. They all involve your “not knowing” some key factor:
• Will I get benefits at all?
• If so, what will my weekly allowance be?
• How will my finances change when/if I get the compensation?
• How will my financial plans change if I don’t get the compensation?
• When will I be able to get back to work?
• How serious is the injury?
• Who can help me resolve these and other questions?
The team here at the Law Offices of Michael A. DeMayo cannot fix everything in your life and tie up your circumstances in a near little bow. But we have ample experience helping people in very, very similar situations get great results and resolve their stresses.
