Different Types Of Ptsd
When youre diagnosed with PTSD, you might be told it is mild, moderate or severe. This describes how your symptoms are affecting you.
You might also be told you have a specific type of PTSD.
- Complex PTSD can be caused by repeated trauma such as violence, neglect or abuse. As well as the symptoms of PTSD, you may also experience shame or guilt, have difficulty controlling your emotions, feel numb or spaced out or try to cope through self-harm or alcohol or misuse
- Birth trauma can develop after a traumatic childbirth experience
- Delayed-onset PTSD is where your symptoms began more than six months after experiencing trauma
Modern Psychiatry And Wellness Can Help
From feeling scared and anxious to angry and depressed, there are many emotions related to trauma. However, knowing how to address and recover from a traumatic event can be difficult. If you or a loved one experienced a traumatic event and are experiencing symptoms believed to be related to post-traumatic stress disorder, please contact Modern Psychiatry and Wellness, were here to help.
Other And Unspecified Trauma
You might have some of the symptoms of a trauma disorder, but not meet the criteria for one of the recognized types. Or, you might not be able to provide enough information for a specific diagnosis. In these cases, professionals often make a diagnosis of other or unspecified trauma- and stressor-related disorder.
This diagnosis is not any less serious than other trauma disorders. People with other or unspecified disorders have a legitimate mental health condition that is diminishing their quality of life. Treatment can help you gain control over your symptoms.
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What Are Common Symptoms And Difficulties That A Person May Experience
PTSD is one type of anxiety disorder. Symptoms often begin within 1 to 3 months of the event, but it is also possible for the signs to appear many years later.
Symptoms of PTSD include nightmares, uncontrollable memories, persistent fear, and severe anxiety. Many people report that they re-experience the traumatic event, and have vivid nightmares or flashbacks. They often avoid things that remind them of the event â for example, someone who was hurt in a car crash might avoid driving.
Examples of some difficulties include:
- Feeling very nervous, fear, horror, guilt, shame, on edge, irritated, or angry.
- Feeling numb, detached, disconnected, or less connection with their body and thoughts or with family or friends.
- Feeling that something terrible might happen again, or that they must constantly be âon guardâ for danger.
- Being startled or frightened very easily.
- Trying to avoid places, objects, activities, or people that remind them of the event.
- Dissatisfaction with work and life.
- Having trouble concentrating and staying focused.
- Problems sleeping well.
- Feeling down, low mood, or unmotivated.
- Avoiding public places or crowds of people.
- Seeking out other ways to cope such turning to substances such as alcohol or drugs.
Some individuals may have physical reactions, such as trouble breathing, dizziness, chest pain, etc.
The Why Behind Your Symptoms Matters
Unpacking the factors contributing to key symptoms, like avoidance of loved ones or feelings of self-criticism and judgment, may point to one condition over the other. A therapist can help you trace symptoms back to the source to arrive at the correct diagnosis.
For example, both bipolar disorder and PTSD can disrupt your sleep, but for different reasons:
- With PTSD, you might have trouble falling asleep or wake up often due to frequent nightmares, which can leave you anxious and afraid to fall asleep.
- If you have bipolar disorder, you might need only a few hours of sleep to feel rested. Or, you might often find yourself lying awake, mulling over feelings of hopelessness and guilt or dealing with racing thoughts.
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International Classification Of Diseases
The International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10 classifies PTSD under “Reaction to severe stress, and adjustment disorders.” The ICD-10 criteria for PTSD include re-experiencing, avoidance, and either increased reactivity or inability to recall certain details related to the event.
The ICD-11 diagnostic description for PTSD contains three components or symptom groups re-experiencing, avoidance, and heightened sense of threat. ICD-11 no longer includes verbal thoughts about the traumatic event as a symptom. There is a predicted lower rate of diagnosed PTSD using ICD-11 compared to ICD10 or DSM-5. ICD-11 also proposes identifying a distinct group with complex post-traumatic stress disorder , who have more often experienced several or sustained traumas and have greater functional impairment than those with PTSD.
When To Get Medical Advice
It’s normal to experience upsetting and confusing thoughts after a traumatic event, but most people improve naturally over a few weeks.
You should see a GP if you or your child are still having problems about 4 weeks after the traumatic experience, or if the symptoms are particularly troublesome.
If necessary, your GP can refer you to mental health specialists for further assessment and treatment.
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Can Ptsd Cause Bipolar Disorder
Although little evidence points to PTSD as a direct cause of bipolar disorder, experts do recognize links between the two conditions.
Its not clear what causes bipolar disorder, but a combination of brain chemistry/structure, genetics, and environmental factors may play a role.
One major environmental trigger? Stressful events, such as:
- moving away from home
- going through a breakup
- dealing with challenges at work
Traumatic events can also cause stress both in the moment and later, while you work to recover from the experience.
Not everyone who experiences trauma goes on to develop PTSD, bipolar disorder, or any mental health condition. That said, the lingering stress of a traumatic experience can factor into mental health symptoms, including anxiety and depression. Repeated childhood trauma also increases your chances of developing complex PTSD .
What Can I Do As A Supervisor Manager Or Co
To support people experiencing PTSD or any other mental health issue, managers or co-workers may
- Lead by example. Reduce stigma and encourage conversations.
- Address their observations, try to have an open discussion, and offer support if you recognize signs or symptoms.
- Recognize that withdrawal and anger is part of the PTSD disorder.
- Ask how to support them, even if they are not ready to talk about it.
- Help them find support.
- Encourage them to talk to someone they trust.
- Let them know it is healthy to reach out and accept support.
- Take care of yourself as well and make your own health and safety a priority.
- Encourage workers to report concerns or incidents so that these events can be investigated and addressed.
Workplaces can further help by providing access to support services, such as employee assistance programs , as well as the time needed to attend such support. People returning to work after an event may need to transition back through less demanding tasks.
Remember that no one who sees a traumatic event is untouched by it. Common reactions are grief, anger, sadness, and anxiety. By acknowledging these feelings and using appropriate support or coping strategies, individuals can feel supported.
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Free Brochures And Shareable Resources
- Helping Children and Adolescents Cope With Traumatic Events: This fact sheet presents information on how children and adolescents respond to traumatic events, and what family, friends, and trusted adults can do to help. Also available en español.
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: This brochure provides information about post-traumatic stress disorder including what it is, who develops PTSD, symptoms, treatment options, and how to find help for yourself or someone else who may have PTSD. Also available en español.
- : Help support PTSD awareness and education in your community. Use these digital resources, including graphics and messages, to spread the word about PTSD.
How Canada Is Helping
Canada is committed to addressing PTSD. We passed the Federal Framework on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Act in June 2018. The Act recognizes that all Canadians can be at risk for PTSD and that a great number face higher risks because of the nature of their work.
The Act led to a National Conference on PTSD in April 2019. Experts from across the country, including people with lived experience, shared their knowledge and views. With their involvement, we have developed Canadas first Federal Framework on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
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Ptsd In Children And Teenagers
Older children and teenagers experience similar problems to adults when they develop PTSD. Younger children can express distress in a different way. For example, they may re-live the traumatic event through repetitive play rather than having unwanted memories of the event during the day. Many children have frightening dreams without recognisable content rather than nightmares that replay the traumatic event. Children may also lose interest in play, become socially withdrawn, or have extreme temper tantrums.
About one third of children who experience a traumatic event will develop PTSD.
Other problems that can develop alongside PTSD include anxiety or depression, defiant behaviour, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and in teenagers and young adults, suicidal thoughts and alcohol or drug use.
Why Do Some People Develop Ptsd And Other People Do Not
It is important to remember that not everyone who lives through a dangerous event develops PTSD. In fact, most people will not develop the disorder.
Many factors play a part in whether a person will develop PTSD. Some examples are listed below. Risk factors make a person more likely to develop PTSD. Other factors, called resilience factors, can help reduce the risk of the disorder.
Some factors that increase risk for PTSD include:
- Living through dangerous events and traumas
- Getting hurt
- Feeling horror, helplessness, or extreme fear
- Having little or no social support after the event
- Dealing with extra stress after the event, such as loss of a loved one, pain and injury, or loss of a job or home
- Having a history of mental illness or substance abuse
Some factors that may promote recovery after trauma include:
- Seeking out support from other people, such as friends and family
- Finding a support group after a traumatic event
- Learning to feel good about ones own actions in the face of danger
- Having a positive coping strategy, or a way of getting through the bad event and learning from it
- Being able to act and respond effectively despite feeling fear
Researchers are studying the importance of these and other risk and resilience factors, including genetics and neurobiology. With more research, someday it may be possible to predict who is likely to develop PTSD and to prevent it.
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Who Develops Ptsd
Anyone can develop PTSD at any age. Some factors can increase the chance that someone will have PTSD, many of which are not under that person’s control. For example, having a very intense or long-lasting traumatic event or getting injured during the event can make it more likely that a person will develop PTSD. PTSD is also more common after certain types of trauma, like combat and sexual assault.
Personal factorslike previous traumatic exposure, age, and gendercan affect whether or not a person will develop PTSD. What happens after the traumatic event is also important. Stress can make PTSD more likely, while social support can make it less likely.
How Do The Dsm
Overall, the symptoms of PTSD are generally comparable between DSM-5 and DSM-IV. A few key alterations include:
- The revision of Criterion A1 in DSM-5 narrowed qualifying traumatic events such that the unexpected death of family or a close friend due to natural causes is no longer included.
- Criterion A2, requiring that the response to a traumatic event involved intense fear, hopelessness, or horror, was removed from DSM-5. Research suggests that Criterion A2 did not improve diagnostic accuracy .
- The avoidance and numbing cluster in DSM-IV was separated into two criteria in DSM-5: Criterion C and Criterion D . This results in a requirement that a PTSD diagnosis includes at least one avoidance symptom.
- Three new symptoms were added:
- Criterion D : Overly negative thoughts and assumptions about oneself or the world and, negative affect
- Criterion E : Reckless or destructive behavior
Continuing Education
PTSD Overview and Treatment
The course describes the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for PTSD and evidence-based treatments. Videos of Veterans with PTSD and clinicians are included.
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How Is Ptsd Treated
Many people have some symptoms of PTSD in the first couple of weeks after a traumatic event, but most recover on their own or with the help of family and friends.
For people whose symptoms last longer, PTSD is treated with psychotherapy or sometimes medicine, or both. Everyone’s PTSD is different, so if you have PTSD you might need to try a few different types of treatment before you find something that works for you.
How Is Ptsd Diagnosed
The doctor will do a mental health assessment. This means they will ask about current symptoms, past history and family history. They may do a physical examination to check that there are no other reasons for the symptoms.
The doctor may refer to a psychiatrist or psychologist. They will ask how long, how often and how intense the symptoms are, and what happened during the triggering event.
For PTSD to be diagnosed, the symptoms need to be severe enough to interfere with someones ability to function at work, socially or at home. A full diagnosis cannot be made until at least 6 months after the trauma.
Often a diagnosis can come as a relief for someone who has been suffering debilitating symptoms because it provides an explanation and a basis for beginning treatment.
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What Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Posttraumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, or rape or who have been threatened with death, sexual violence or serious injury.
PTSD has been known by many names in the past, such as shell shock during the years of World War I and combat fatigue after World War II, but PTSD does not just happen to combat veterans. PTSD can occur in all people, of any ethnicity, nationality or culture, and at any age. PTSD affects approximately 3.5 percent of U.S. adults every year, and an estimated one in 11 people will be diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetime. Women are twice as likely as men to have PTSD. Three ethnic groups U.S. Latinos, African Americans, and American Indians are disproportionately affected and have higher rates of PTSD than non-Latino whites.
People with PTSD have intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings related to their experience that last long after the traumatic event has ended. They may relive the event through flashbacks or nightmares they may feel sadness, fear or anger and they may feel detached or estranged from other people. People with PTSD may avoid situations or people that remind them of the traumatic event, and they may have strong negative reactions to something as ordinary as a loud noise or an accidental touch.
Religious And Other Cultural Contexts
Dreams figure prominently in major world religions. The dream experience for early humans, according to one interpretation, gave rise to the notion of a human “,” a central element in much religious thought. wrote:
But there can be no reasonable doubt that the idea of a soul must have first arisen in the mind of primitive man as a result of observation of his dreams. Ignorant as he was, he could have come to no other conclusion but that, in dreams, he left his sleeping body in one universe and went wandering off into another. It is considered that, but for that savage, the idea of such a thing as a ‘soul’ would never have even occurred to mankind….
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What Are The Signs & Symptoms Of Ptsd
Most kids and teens with PTSD will:
- have upsetting thoughts of the trauma
- have bad dream or sleep problems
- have bad memories, called flashbacks, that make it seem like the trauma is still happening
- avoid things that remind them of the trauma
- be more easily startled, scared, or anxious
- feel more moody, sad, angry, or not enjoy things as before
- not remember some parts of what happened
Younger children may show more fearful and regressive behaviors They may re-enact the trauma through play.
When symptoms like these happen in the first days and weeks after the trauma, it may be called an acute stress reaction. Doctors diagnose PTSD when symptoms last longer than a month.
What Can I Do If Im Not Happy With My Treatment
If you arent happy with your treatment you can:
- talk to your doctor about your treatment options,
- ask for a second opinion,
- get an advocate to help you speak to your doctor,
- contact Patient Advice and Liaison Service , or
- make a complaint.
There is more information about these options below.
How can I speak to my doctor about my treatment options?
You can speak to your doctor about your treatment. Explain why you arent happy with it. You could ask what other treatments you could try.
Tell your doctor if there is a type of treatment that you would like to try. Doctors should listen to your preference. If you arent given this treatment, ask your doctor to explain why it isnt suitable for you.
Whats a second opinion?
A second opinion means that you would like a different doctor to give their opinion about what treatment you should have. You can also ask for a second opinion if you disagree with your diagnosis.
You dont have a right to a second opinion. But your doctor should listen to your reason for wanting a second opinion.
What is advocacy?
An advocate is independent from the mental health service. They are free to use. They can be useful if you find it difficult to get your views heard.
There are different types of advocates available. Community advocates can support you to get a health professional to listen to your concerns. And help you to get the treatment that you would like. NHS complaints advocates can help you if you want to complain about the NHS.
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