North Carolina Workers’ Compensation: Unsupportive Spouses – What to Do?
North Carolina workers’ compensation beneficiaries often fight battles on multiple fronts.
You fight with insurance companies to make sure they make good on benefits and pay you on time. You fight with employers – or even your employer’s parent company – to get fair and just treatment. You fight with your doctors and medical staff to ensure that you get adequate care, answers to your questions, and the right medication and rehabilitation. You may even fight with random strangers on the street, who sadly and inaccurately believe that North Carolina workers’ compensation is only for people who want to “leech off the system.” You also fight with your own body, to try to heal it as quickly as possible.
At the end of all that fighting, you are likely exhausted. The last thing you want to do is fight with friends and allies – particularly your spouse or partner.
Unfortunately, when you are hurt or injured, your entire family may become stressed. First of all, you may temporarily lose an income stream. Second, you may need significant medical care. Third, you may need logistical support. Fourth, your partner or spouse may lose out on a critical ally to help with child care. Fifth, any big change – good, bad, positive, or neutral – temporarily increases stress. Think about the last time you moved offices, started a new job, etc.
All those stresses would challenge even the most perfect relationship. And most of us do not have perfect relationships. So the stresses will likely push on the fault lines in your relationship that have already been giving you trouble.
So how do you break the cycle? How do you find peace, protect your spouse’s needs and also protect your own needs in your relationship?
There is no quick, snappy answer here. But taking small but certain steps toward resolving some of your uncertainty, frustration, and stress will relieve the burdens on your family and could possibly benefit your relationship. As the old saying goes, “a rising tide lifts all ships.”
So how do you “raise the tide” and make your life less stressful, fretful, and uncertain?
Here are five solutions:
1. Connect with a reputable North Carolina workers’ compensation law firm to get answers to burning questions about your situation.
2. Practice 15 minutes of mindfulness meditation (focusing on “just the breath”) every day.
3. Write down “best-case scenario” outcomes for your workers’ comp case and read them aloud at least twice a day.
4. Regularly re-read the serenity prayer.
5. Improve your diet to reduce stress and medical problems by limiting your consumption of sugar – particularly liquid sugar.
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