Trauma PTSD: Definition, Examples and Treatment Options
Trauma PTSD: Definition, Examples and Treatment Options
A person suffering from trauma PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) frequently relives the horrific incident through flashbacks and dreams. They may also feel guilty, alone, and irritable.
They could also have trouble focusing and experience sleep issues, including sleeplessness. These symptoms frequently affect the person’s day-to-day functioning significantly since they are severe and persistent.
What is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?
PTSD is a mental health condition that can affect those who have gone through or observed a traumatic incident, sequence of events, or combination of circumstances. This might harm someone’s mental, bodily, social, and/or spiritual well-being and be perceived as emotionally or physically damaging or even fatal.
Natural catastrophes, catastrophic accidents, terrorist attacks, war and conflict, rape and sexual assault, past trauma, violence against intimate partners, and bullying are a few examples.
What Causes PTSD?
PTSD can result from any experience that a person deems distressing.
These may consist of:
- major traffic incidents,
- violent crimes against people, such as robberies, muggings, and sexual assaults,
- major health issues,
- birthing experiences.
After going through a traumatic situation, someone may get PTSD right away, or it may take weeks, months, or even years for it to manifest.
About one in three people who suffer trauma are thought to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while the precise reason why some individuals get the disorder and others do not is unknown.
People who often encounter traumatic events, such as extreme abuse, neglect, or violence, may be identified as having complex PTSD. While it may not manifest for years after the incident, complex PTSD might have symptoms that are comparable to those of PTSD.
Early-life trauma tends to be more severe since it might have an impact on a child’s development.
Who Can Get PTSD?
PTSD may strike anyone at any age. This covers those who have served in the armed forces as well as those who have been the victims of abuse, assault, or other serious incidents, including accidents and disasters. Even when they are safe, people with PTSD may experience anxiety or tension.
Not every person suffering from PTSD has experienced a traumatic incident. Finding out that a friend or family member experienced trauma can occasionally cause trauma symptoms in others. Specific individuals may be more susceptible to developing PTSD due to some aspects of the traumatic incident and biological variables (such as genes).
Symptoms of PTSD
The severity of PTSD symptoms might change over time. When you’re under a lot of stress or are reminded of your past experiences, you could experience increased symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
For instance, you could encounter fighting again and hear a car backfire. Alternatively, you can be struck with flashbacks to your assault after seeing a news article about a sexual attack.
Intrusion
Uncontrollably recurring recollections, unsettling nightmares, or flashbacks to the traumatic incident are examples of intrusive thoughts. People may suffer flashbacks that are so vivid that they feel as though they are experiencing or reliving the painful event.
Avoidance
One way to prevent yourself from being reminded of the traumatic occurrence is to stay away from people, places, activities, things, and circumstances that might bring back painful memories. Individuals might make an effort to forget or stop thinking about the upsetting experience. They could be reluctant to discuss what transpired or their feelings around it.
Changes in Mood
The inability to recall significant details of the traumatic event; negative thoughts and feelings that result in persistent and distorted beliefs about oneself or others; erroneous ideas about the event’s cause or consequences that lead to incorrectly blaming oneself or another; persistent fear, horror, anger, guilt, or shame; a marked decrease in interest in once-enjoyed activities; a sense of being distant or estranged from others; or the inability to feel happy or satisfied.
Changes in reactivity and arousal
Reactive symptoms, such as irritability and furious outbursts, reckless or self-destructive behavior, suspiciously over-vigilant awareness of one’s surroundings, difficulty focusing, difficulty sleeping, and so on, can all indicate arousal.
Treatment Options
After a traumatic occurrence, it’s common to have disturbing and perplexing thoughts; nonetheless, most people recover on their own over a few weeks. If one month after the traumatic event, you are still experiencing issues, or if the symptoms are especially bothersome, you should consult a general practitioner. Your general practitioner may recommend you to mental health professionals for additional evaluation and care if needed.
Even if PTSD appears years after a terrible experience, it is still treatable. The intensity of the symptoms and the time elapsed after the traumatic incident determine the course of treatment.
It is crucial to remember that not everyone who encounters trauma goes on to acquire PTSD, and not everyone who does has to go to a mental health facility. Some people’s PTSD symptoms gradually lessen or go away. Others who have family, friends, or clergy as support systems recover.
However, to recover from psychological suffering that can be severe and incapacitating, many people with PTSD require professional care. It’s critical to keep in mind that trauma can cause extreme suffering. PTSD is curable, and the person experiencing the anguish is not to blame. A person’s chances of recovering are improved the earlier they receive therapy.
Final Thoughts
Following a stressful experience, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may arise. It manifests as a variety of symptoms, including worry, hypervigilance, negative ideas and beliefs, and flashbacks.
Speak with your doctor or a mental health professional if you’ve been experiencing unsettling thoughts and feelings related to a traumatic experience for longer than a month, if they’re intense, or if you feel like you’re struggling to regain control over your life. You should seek therapy as soon as you can get the help you need for PTSD symptoms.
You cannot avoid negative events or experiencing situations that negatively impact you. However, you can learn how to deal with the consequences of these events in a way that is not harmful to your physical, mental, and emotional health. With the right PTSD therapist, you will learn helpful tools and techniques that can help you heal from the traumatic event that caused the PTSD.
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