THE dates March 17 and November 26 of 2020 mark two traumatic experiences that Antwaine Campbell will never forget.

On both days the 22-year-old met in motor vehicle accidents while travelling by taxi in the Corporate Area. Now, he is too traumatised to take that mode of transportation again.

“Both experiences were very traumatic. The first left me so traumatised that it took weeks for me to travel via taxi again. The second caused me to be seriously affected mentally. I haven’t taken another taxi since then, not even chartered ones,” Campbell told the Jamaica Observer.

He said in the first incident, he was in a taxi travelling to The University of the West Indies, Mona, from Roosevelt Avenue, St Andrew.

“A car that was exiting a parking lot slammed into the taxi on my side. The taxi then swerved and hit a light post,” he said.

For the second incident, Campbell said he was travelling to Half-Way-Tree on a taxi from Spanish Town Road.

“Two cars were racing next to the taxi. This caused my taxi to stop and the car behind hit the back of it. Then a truck hit that same car, causing it to hit the taxi again,” he said.

“I dislocated my shoulder in the first accident and may need surgery to fix it. The second one, I sustained a lower back injury. Now I can no longer lift any heavy weights without risk of worsening my injuries,” said Campbell, noting that he was taken to Kingston Public Hospital after both crashes.

Now, Campbell only takes buses operated by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company.

Consultant psychologist Dr Orlean Brown-Earle told the Observer that it is absolutely necessary for trauma victims to get psychological support.

“You would have to teach individuals how to think again. A psychologist would possibly use cognitive therapy and behavioural therapy to help individuals to renew their minds. Remember, if you are not thinking sensibly or logically, there is no way that you are going to start to do the things that you are supposed to do correctly,” she said.

Brown-Earle said it is more difficult to deal with trauma victims who have experienced the same incidents more than once.

“By the time they start dealing with one situation something else comes up. They haven’t fully healed from one thing and that’s what happens. We refer to that as chronic trauma — when there is repeated and prolonged exposure to stressful events like child abuse, bullying and domestic violence,” she said.

Giving an example of those victims, she said, “Somebody who has been raped and they get raped again, experienced multiple car accidents or find themselves in a situation where somebody comes and robs them, and it happens to them again…”