Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:
What is PTSD?
Is There a Successful PTSD Treatment?

by Ginny NiCarthy counselor and author

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You wake from a nightmare sweating or shaking or screaming.

Startled by an unexpected sound or touch, you nearly jump out of your skin.

You try to shut out feelings about that awful thing that happened to you.

But certain smells, sounds and sights re-stimulate the pain and fear from the past.

You may begin taking roundabout routes to work or school to avoid encountering triggering sights or sounds.

You may begin using alcohol or drugs keep away the fear, grief, self-blame or anger—at least in the short run.

The nightmares, startle reactions, flashbacks and avoidance make you wonder if you are going crazy.

Those reactions are often Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, but that doesn’t mean you’re “crazy.” They are your mind’s response to extreme, unanticipated frightening events.  PTSD is common among combat veterans. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has been in the news often lately because many Iraqi vets suffer from it. But you needn’t have fought in a war to experience the prolonged effects of the fear and pain of trauma.

Your wounds may be the result of physical, sexual or emotional assaults as a child. Abuse and coercive control by an intimate partner or other family member can result in traumatizing humiliation. PTSD can also results from frightening car accidents or train accidents, hurricanes or floods–events that may be no one’s fault. You may have lost your job, your home or your intimate partner. You may have witnessed a violent death. Whatever happened, you experienced a physical, emotional or spiritual shock.

Recovery from trauma can be quick, especially if there has been only one harrowing event and if you have supportive people in your life. Some of us have adequate resources, strengths and resilience to weather the traumas. Others may lack these resources, to a greater or lesser degree-- often because of a history of perceived failure, rejection, neglect humiliation or abuse. Sometimes the trauma seems horrific and overwhelming.

If you’ve ever watched a toddler learning to walk, you’ll see the essence of resilience. The child takes off joyously, and then, smack! She falls down. Maybe she cries a little, but then gets up and courageously tries again and surrounding family members cheer her attempts.

That’s the way life has been for many of us. We crawled, stood, walked and ran, refusing to give up when we fell flat. But sometimes trauma feels like it’s too much to take, especially when one such event is followed by additional emotional or physical assaults. If that’s what you have experienced, you may feel afraid to get up again, especially, if just as you’re gathering the strength to stand up—smack--you’re hit again.  This is the experience of many in situations of childhood neglect, abuse or domestic violence.

You may begin to blame yourself, or decide everyone else is cruel or hates you. It may seem safer not to trust anyone, or you avoid certain kinds of people, and after a while the categories of those who are untrustworthy grow until eventually almost everyone is viewed as threatening.

If isolation, depression and anxiety follow, you may start drinking or taking drugs to shut out the pain. It may work temporarily, but, in the long run, continued reliance on liquor or drugs lead to a condition that is called alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence secondary to PTSD. Alcoholism or drug addiction can become a second but equal diagnosis to the PTSD.

The good news is that there are new and more reliable kinds of PTSD therapy are available. Therapy can help reduce your nightmares, your startle reactions, flashbacks and the isolation that comes from avoiding potential memory triggers. Many people suffering from PTSD don’t begin the work of recovery for years after the trauma occurred. They are pleasantly surprised to discover it is never too late to begin PTSD recovery.

A counselor or therapist who is experienced in (PE) Prolonged Exposure Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) can work with you to stop posttraumatic stress disorder from interfering with the pleasures and satisfactions of your present life. After two or three months, there is a good chance you can be free of the emotional storms based on past trauma, and fully live the life you choose, based on present day realities.

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Ginny NiCarthy is a Seattle area counselor and author of a number of books relating to domestic violence victim treatment.

See also:  Find an EMDRIA Certified EMDR therapist in the Puget Sound area on CounselingSeattle.com.  Model program for Prolonged Exposure Therapy.. 

This document is Copyrighted© 2008 by CounselingSeattle.com, Floyd Else, Webmaster, and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part without crediting the author, source and site name. All rights reserved.

 

           

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