TRAUMA AND PTSD
PTSD stands for "post-traumatic stress disorder" - a set of emotional problems that can occur after someone has experienced a terrible, stressful life event.
Trauma is defined as an event outside your control in which you experienced or witnessed a physical threat, (e.g. sexual abuse, physical abuse, war combat, seeing someone killed, surviving a natural disaster, a car accident).
Responses to trauma often include intense helplessness, fear, or horror. (Or if you were a child at the time, agitated disorganized behavior.)
After the trauma, some of these symptoms can appear:
- intrusion: the trauma comes back into mind even when you don't want it to, as in nightmares, flashbacks or images.
- avoidance: numbing, feel detached, avoiding any reminders of the trauma.
- arousal: feeling "hyped up" (e.g. easily startled, sleep problems, anger.)
- lower functioning: problems with relationships, work or other major areas in life.
There are two types of PTSD. 'Simple PTSD' is from a single incident (such as a car accident or hurricane), usually as an adult. 'Complex PTSD' is from repeated incidents such as domestic violence or on-going child abuse. It has a broader range of symptoms, including problems with self-harm, suicide, dissociation ("losing time"), relationships, memory, sexuality, health, anger, shame, guilt, numbness, loss of faith and trust, and feeling damaged.
PTSD is considered an anxiety disorder because it is marked by an overwhelming feeling of anxiety during or after the trauma. It is a psychiatric illness, but it is definitely possible to heal from it. New insights into this disorder are continually being discovered due to more sophisticated technology in the field of neuroscience (the study of brain functioning.)
PTSD often occurs with other disorders such as depression, substance abuse, panic attacks, anxiety, agoraphobia (anxiety about, or avoidance, of places or situations from which escape might be difficult), obsessive-compulsive, and bipolar (marked mood swings).