Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by extremely distressing, scary and frightening experiences known as trauma.
A traumatic experience is described as one where you thought you or someone else might die, be seriously injured or have your bodily integrity threatened.
Types of trauma that can cause PTSD includes one-off incidents such as a car accident, being attacked or assaulted or a difficult childbirth or other medical experience. It also includes prolonged experiences in childhood such as emotional, physical and sexual abuse; and longer term adulthood experiences such as domestic abuse, torture and experiences during warfare.
PTSD includes having nightmares, dreams, images and flashbacks of the past experiences. Avoiding reminders of the experience, or avoiding things that trigger a flashback. Plus being hypervigilant, which is when you feel jumpy, on edge and find it difficult to relax.
PTSD can have an impact on many areas of your life. Your social life may be impacted because you're too scared to go out or feel scared that someone might find out what happened. Your hobbies may be impacted because you've become depressed and lost interest or they remind you of the trauma. Your relationships with family and friends can be impacted as you want to hide away, you feel bad about what happened or it does not feel safe to go out. Your work or studies might be impacted because you cannot concentrate, have lost motivation or last confidence in your abilities.
While PTSD has an impact, there are treatments that can help. Two of those treatments are offered by CBT Reflections, these are Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing (EMDR).
These treatments help you process the experiences that have happened so the memories stop coming back on their own.
An experienced therapist will guide you through treatment for PTSD helping you make changes based on your goals.
Helen Maharaj, founder of CBT Reflections has over 10 years experience providing therapy for people with PTSD. She has attended training from internationally renowned PTSD experts.
If you think you might be experiencing PTSD please contact us to discuss how treatment can help.