Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

What is PTSD?

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) refers to the psychological response that can result when a person is exposed to an overwhelming event or series events, that are in many cases both life threatening and catastrophic. These events include war, natural disasters, rape or physical violence. In most cases, individuals who develop PTSD will experience flashback or nightmares about the event; they are easily startled, and will often say that they feel "empty" or "dead inside". It is important to realize that these symptoms are a normal and predictable response to an event that is beyond what any person could ever tolerate.

When is PTSD diagnosed?

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the most common diagnostic category used to describe symptoms arising from emotionally traumatic experience(s). This disorder presumes that the person experienced a traumatic event involving actual or threatened death or injury to themselves or others -- and where they felt fear, helplessness or horror. Three additional symptom clusters, if they persist for more than a month after the traumatic event and cause clinically significant distress or impairment, make up the diagnostic criteria.

The three main symptom clusters in PTSD are:

1. Intrusions, such as flashbacks or nightmares, where the traumatic event is re-experienced.
2. Avoidance, when the person tries to reduce exposure to people or things that might bring on their intrusive symptoms.
3. And Hyperarousal, meaning physiologic signs of increased arousal, such as hyper vigilance or increased startle response.

The actual symptoms used in the United States are described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM.

PTSD is the result of severe trauma.
The experience of trauma is one of complete helplessness. Individuals often report that they feel themselves to be in immediate danger but feel completely frozen and unable to escape. This freeze state compromises normal cognitive functioning.
People often report that they lose track of time and space and their capacity to use language is compromised. As a result, the brain loses its ability to process conscious memory. Confusion takes over and any attempt to recall the sequence of events is disjointed and unclear. This fuzzy recollection of the event is the unfinished business of the brain that resurfaces in the form of memory fragments, flashbacks and nightmares.
The most common symptoms of PTSD include:

• Persistent thoughts or nightmares about the event.
• Recurrent Flashbacks
• A sensation of emptiness or "being numb"
• The perception of the world as a dangerous and unsafe place
• Feeling startled or frightened for no observable reason
• Other symptoms may include chronic anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, insomnia or restless sleep, and poor concentration.

Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

The following are some of the symptoms of PTSD -

If you experience any or all of these symptoms, you need not continue to suffer with them. Please contact Conscious Healing Therapy for assistance.

1. You feel like you are numb, or in a daze. People and experiences do not feel real to you, and/or feel like they are happening at a distance from you. You feel like you are watching yourself live your life, instead of living it. You find yourself unable to remember significant parts of the trauma.
   
   
2. You keep re-experiencing the traumatic event. You may have recurrent images of it which you can't get out of your mind. You may dream about it at night, or, in the daytime and awake, feel like you are reliving the experience. You may become extremely anxious or distressed should you encounter anything which reminds you of the traumatic event.
   
   
3. You will spend considerable amounts of energy avoiding anything that reminds you of the event. These may be people, topics of conversation, places, activities, etc.
   
   
4. You show marked symptoms of anxiety or nervousness. Examples of these are difficulty sleeping, irritability, poor concentration, hyper-vigilance (constantly scanning your environment for danger), exaggerated startle response, restlessness, etc.
   
   
5. You have difficulty functioning socially or occupationally. You have difficulty getting the assistance that you need, or telling your family or friends and getting them to help you get assistance.
   
   
6. You have difficulty with substance abuse (drugs or alcohol) or compulsive over-eating.