You feel on edge. Nightmares keep coming back. Sudden noises make you jump. You are staying at home more and more. Could you have posttraumatic stress disorder?
If you have experienced severe trauma or a life-threatening event, you may develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress, or what is commonly known as PTSD. Maybe during the event you felt as if your life or the lives of others were in danger or that you had no control over what was happening. While in the military, you may have witnessed people being injured or dying, or you may have experienced physical harm yourself. Some of the most common symptoms of PTSD include recurring memories or nightmares of the event, sleeplessness, loss of interest, and feelings of numbness, anger or irritability, or being constantly on guard, but there are many ways PTSD can impact your everyday life. Sometimes these symptoms don’t surface for months or even years after the event occurred or after returning from deployment. They may also come and go.
If these problems persist or they’re disrupting your daily life, you may have PTSD. Whether it stems from a personal tragedy, natural disaster, violence, or any other type of disturbing event, trauma can take a huge emotional toll. And while there is no right or wrong way to feel after a traumatic event, there are strategies that can help you work through feelings of pain, fear, and grief and regain your emotional balance. Whether the traumatic event happened years ago or yesterday, you can find a way to heal and move on with your life. After a traumatic experience, it’s normal to feel frightened, sad, anxious, and disconnected. However, if the upset does not fade and you feel stuck with a constant sense of danger and painful memories, you may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Causes
Most people associate PTSD with serving in combat. In addition to combat, post-traumatic stress disorder can be caused by any kind of trauma in which your well-being is physically or emotionally threatened:
- Combat exposure
- Physical abuse
- Physical attack
- Rape
- Torture
- Childhood neglect
- Sexual molestation
- Being threatened with a weapon
- Kidnapping
- Mugging
- Robbery
- Civil conflict
- Car accident
- Plane crash
- Fire
- Natural disaster
- Life-threatening medical diagnosis
- Death of a loved one
Symptoms
PTSD develops differently from person to person because everyone’s nervous system and tolerance for stress is a little different. While you’re most likely to develop symptoms of PTSD in the hours or days following a traumatic event, it can sometimes take weeks, months, or even years before they appear. Sometimes symptoms appear seemingly out of the blue. At other times, they are triggered by something that reminds you of the original traumatic event, such as a noise, an image, certain words, or a smell.
While everyone experiences PTSD differently, there are four main types of symptoms.
- Re-experiencing the traumatic event through intrusive memories, flashbacks, nightmares, or intense mental or physical reactions when reminded of the trauma.
- Avoidance and numbing such as avoiding anything that reminds you of the trauma, being unable to remember aspects of the trauma, a loss of interest in activities and life in general, feeling emotionally numb and detached from others and feeling a sense of a limited future.
- Hyperarousal, including sleep problems, irritability, hypervigilance (on constant “red alert”), feeling jumpy or easily startled, angry outbursts, and aggressive, self-destructive, or reckless behavior.
- Negative thought and mood changes like feeling alienated and alone, difficulty concentrating or remembering, depression and hopelessness, feeling mistrust and betrayal, and feeling guilt, shame, or self-blame.
Panic Attacks
People who have experienced a significant trauma may have panic attacks when they are exposed to a trigger that reminds them of the inciting trauma. For instance, someone who develops PTSD as a result of combat exposure may have a panic attack upon hearing a loud noise that reminds them of an explosion. During a panic attack, the person will commonly experience intense discomfort or fear. This may be accompanied by psychological or physical symptoms, which might include:
- Sweating
- Racing or pounding heart
- Shortness of breath
- Shaking or trembling
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Chest pain
- Numbness
- Hot flushes
- Tingling
People may experience a sense of detachment or may even feel as though they are dying, going crazy, or having heart attacks.
Treatment
If you show signs of PTSD, you don’t just have to live with it. In recent years, researchers have dramatically increased our understanding of what causes PTSD and how to treat it. Hundreds of thousands of Veterans who served in the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard have gotten treatment for PTSD and found significant relief from their symptoms. Two types of treatment have been shown to be effective for treating PTSD: counseling and medication. Professional therapy or counseling can help you understand your thoughts and reactions and help you learn techniques to cope with challenging situations. Research has shown several specific types of counseling to be very effective for treating PTSD. Medications can also be used to help reduce tension or irritability or to improve sleep. The class of medications most commonly used for PTSD is called “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors,” but a doctor can work with you to figure out which medication works best for you.
Therapists may use three types of psychotherapy when treating PTSD: cognitive therapy, anxiety management, and exposure therapy. If they are treating children with PTSD, they may also use play therapy. During anxiety management, patients learn how to better cope with their symptoms through relaxation training, breathing retraining, and positive thinking and self-talk. Therapists may teach patients how to control their anxiety and fear by relaxing the major muscle groups in their bodies, one at a time. In order to deal with hyperventilation, therapists teach patients how to use slow breathing techniques to combat tingling, dizziness, and palpitations. During positive thinking and self-talk, therapists help people to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts when they are faced with reminders of the original trauma. Therapists may also use assertiveness training to teach patients how to express their emotions without pushing others away. In just a few months, these treatments can produce positive and meaningful changes in your symptoms and quality of life. They can help you understand and change how you think about your trauma and how you react to stressful memories.
If you find yourself struggling with PTSD, don’t suffer one more minute. Contact us at Gateway 2 Counseling to begin the road to healing.
Struggling with PTSD? We are here for you.