Does Trauma Always Cause Ptsd
Traumas can lead to PTSD, but not always. Not everyone who has been through a trauma will have PTSD. In fact, most young people who go through trauma will not have PTSD.
But most will feel the effects of trauma. Its natural to react to a deeply stressful event. Most people will feel upset, have thoughts of the trauma, and other signs of distress. These may be called PTSD-like symptoms.
Most people do find ways to cope with what theyve been through. Some will get past trauma quickly on their own. It helps to have extra comfort and support from people in their lives. Therapy can also help. As people cope and adjust, their symptoms get better.
PTSD develops when a trauma overwhelms a persons ability to cope. The deep stress of trauma keeps the brains threat sensors too active. That makes it hard for the person to feel safe again. People with PTSD need extra help to move through the coping process. Therapy helps them do that.
Whether or not a person will have PTSD partly depends on:
- how severe the trauma was, or how harmful
- the help and support they get
- if they have a lot of other stress in their life
- if they have been through past trauma
- if they have depression or anxiety
- inherited risks like family history of depression and anxiety
After a trauma, a person may have PTSD-like symptoms that last for a short while, sometimes days or weeks. This may be called a stress reaction. Only if symptoms last longer than a month can it be diagnosed as PTSD.
And How You Can Support Someone Suffering From It
Post-traumatic stress disorder begins with a trauma: it may be directly experienced, witnessed, or even heard second-hand. Those afflicted may feel anxious, act angry, or become violent depending on the severity of the disorder. They can have trouble sleeping, feel uninterested and detached from daily life, or experience lingering flashbacks, nightmares, or an avoidance of things that remind them of the event. These symptoms can begin any time after experiencing trauma, but if they persist for more than a month, PTSD could potentially be the cause.
Friday 1 October 2021
Post-traumatic stress disorder is far more common than you might think, and its not only war veterans that can suffer from iteveryday people can get it too, from experiencing trauma, abuse, or accidents, witnessing these things, or interacting with someone who has experienced them.
Chris says she has lived with life-affecting symptoms nearly all her life, but she was only recently diagnosed with PTSD. Shes also had to overcome a fear of being stigmatisedpersonally and professionallyfor her mental health condition to talk about it publicly for the first time.
This is her story.
Chris is 50 and lives in Griffin, Queensland, with her rescue cats and guineapigs. She has two adult childrena 24-year-old son who is a chef, and a 23-year-old daughter who is studying archaeologyand she works in community health.
Despite being successful in her career and in raising her children, she has suffered almost all her life from low self-esteem, severe anxiety, vivid dreams and nightmares, and constant fight-or-flight responses to all kinds of situations, including seemingly ordinary ones, such as getting a coffee, a timer going off at the hairdressers, or someone dropping a weight in the gym.
I wasnt diagnosed until November last year , Chris said.
I just thought I had some kind of mental distress The symptoms were presenting themselves again and again, all throughout my life, all of my childhood, all of my adult life, and it was interfering with my life.
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When To See A Doctor
Many people experience symptoms after a traumatic event, such as crying, anxiety, and difficulty concentrating, but this is not necessarily PTSD.
Prompt treatment with a qualified professional can help prevent the symptoms from getting worse.
This should be considered if:
- symptoms persist for more than a month
- symptoms are severe enough to prevent the person returning to normal life
- the person considers harming themselves
psychotherapy and counseling, medication, or a combination.
Options for psychotherapy will be specially tailored for managing trauma.
They include:
Cognitive processing therapy : Also known as cognitive restructuring, the individual learns how to think about things in a new way. Mental imagery of the traumatic event may help them work through the trauma, to gain control of the fear and distress.
Exposure therapy: Talking repeatedly about the event or confronting the cause of the fear in a safe and controlled environment may help the person feel they have more control over their thoughts and feelings. The effectiveness of this treatment has been questioned, however, and it must be carried out with care, or there may be a risk of worsening of the symptoms.
What Is It Like To Live With Ptsd
Living with PTSD means living in a constant state of fear. Feeling overwhelmed is common. Its like no matter how happy you appear on the outside or try to convince yourself that you are, theres something really sad and negative hiding just below the surface. People living with PTSD often blame themselves for the trauma they experienced or berate themselves for not being able to get over the trauma. They may ask themselves, Why cant they just move on? Why cant I just forget the trauma? Sometimes the future seems hopeless. A person with PTSD may feel like its a challenge just to get out of bed in the morning.
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What Its Like To Have Ptsd
PTSD can be a jarring, terrifying experience in some cases. People relive their trauma to the point where they cant function. If you have PTSD, you know the feelings can last long after the traumatic incident ended.
Many U.S. military veterans describe PTSD in stark terms.
U.S. Air Force veteran Stacy L. Pearsall said, Even just falling asleep was tough. The minute I would start dozing off, I would get a surge of adrenaline or anxiety and wake up. And even when I did fall asleep, I would wake up with night terrors or sweats.
But you dont have to be a combat veteran to experience PTSD. Anyone can get it. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that up to six percent of the population has symptoms in any given year.
PTSD is most clearly described in terms of its symptoms. Theyre mostly grouped into four kinds: intrusive memories, avoidance, adverse changes in thinking and mood, and fluctuations in emotional and physical reactions. Symptoms can change over time or differ from person to person.
Besides recognizing the symptoms, the first step in possible recovery often means reaching out to your doctor or family and friends for support.
Tip : Anticipate And Manage Triggers
A trigger is anythinga person, place, thing, or situationthat reminds your loved one of the trauma and sets off a PTSD symptom, such as a flashback. Sometimes, triggers are obvious. For example, a military veteran might be triggered by seeing his combat buddies or by the loud noises that sound like gunfire. Others may take some time to identify and understand, such as hearing a song that was playing when the traumatic event happened, for example, so now that song or even others in the same musical genre are triggers. Similarly, triggers dont have to be external. Internal feelings and sensations can also trigger PTSD symptoms.
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Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder
Disinhibited social engagement disorder occurs in children who have experienced severe social neglect or deprivation before the age of 2. Similar to reactive attachment disorder, it can occur when children lack the basic emotional needs for comfort, stimulation and affection, or when repeated changes in caregivers prevent them from forming stable attachments.
Disinhibited social engagement disorder involves a child engaging in overly familiar or culturally inappropriate behavior with unfamiliar adults. For example, the child may be willing to go off with an unfamiliar adult with minimal or no hesitation. These behaviors cause problems in the childs ability to relate to adults and peers. Moving the child to a normal caregiving environment improves the symptoms. However, even after placement in a positive environment, some children continue to have symptoms through adolescence. Developmental delays, especially cognitive and language delays, may co-occur along with the disorder.
The prevalence of disinhibited social engagement disorder is unknown, but it is thought to be rare. Most severely neglected children do not develop the disorder. Treatment involves the child and family working with a therapist to strengthen their relationship.
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.
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The Triggers Can Be Unexpected
PTSD symptoms are typically triggered by sensory reminders of the traumatic event. Besides Vicks, John’s triggers include the smell of wet grass, and children’s birthday parties. For Charlotte, being around raw meat being cut is a visceral reminder of her episiotomy , while Carole’s PTSD is triggered by waves, as well as everyday items like toothbrushes.
“You’d be amazed how many waves there are in films, or how the water falling into the sink can look like a wave, or the clouds can look like a wave,” she says. “My outstanding memory is of toothbrushes, children’s shoes and teddy bears being stuck in the sand.”
What Happens To Different Parts Of The Brain
Memory is a complex process that involves many parts of your brain, but to keep it simple, well focus on two of the key players: the amygdala and the hippocampus. The amygdala is associated with emotional memory especially the formation of fear-related memories. It evolved to ensure your survival by strongly encoding memories of past dangers youve experienced so that you recognize and respond to those threats if you see them again.The hippocampus, the other region of your brain heavily involved in memory, acts like the brains historian. It catalogs all the different details of an experience who was there, where it happened, and what time of day it was into one cohesive event you can consciously recollect as a memory. In your typical, day-to-day life, your amygdala and hippocampus work together to turn your experiences into distinct long-term memories.However, during a traumatic event this system works a bit differently. Because you are in danger, your bodys built in fight-or-flight mechanism takes over and your amygdala is over-activated while the hippocampus is suppressed. From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense: the processes involved in building a cohesive memory are deprioritized in favor of paying attention to the immediate danger. As a result, your memory becomes jumbled.
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So Why Cant I Just Move On From The Trauma
This is a common question and the answer is complex. Maybe you didnt have a lot of coping skills before the event happened. Or maybe the traumatic event was so severe that it left you questioning everything youve ever thought about the world. You believed people were generally good and then someone raped you, how can that make sense? Trauma is complicated and PTSD symptoms can literally impact every area of a persons life. Moving on is not easy and it requires a great efforteffort thats hard to muster when youre constantly feeling drained from all of the hypervigilance and emotional toll of trauma flashbacks!
The bottom line is that living with PTSD is difficult at best. PTSD symptoms may hold you back from living life to the fullest, accomplishing your goals, and following your dreams. At worst, the symptoms can take over your life.
What Are The Symptoms Of Ptsd
According to the DSM 5 , PTSD symptoms include some or all of the following:
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Thinking of the distressing event over and over
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Having moments where you feel like you are experiencing the trauma all over again were recurring)
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Feeling triggered or upset by things that remind you of the trauma this may include physical reactions such as sweating or a racing heart.
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Avoiding things that remind you of the traumatic event. This may mean that you try to avoid thinking of the traumatic event or that you avoid external reminders such as people, places, objects that remind you of the trauma.
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Frequent negative moods such as feeling fear, anger, guilt or shame
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Negative thoughts or cognitions related to the event-often this includes feeling guilty or thinking the trauma was your fault, worrying youll never get over the trauma or worrying it will happen again
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Having difficulty remembering important parts of the traumatic event
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Negative beliefs about yourself or the world
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Less interest in things you used to enjoy
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Hypervigilance or feeling on edge all the time
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Difficulty focusing
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Difficulty with sleeping
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Depression Anxiety And Grief
There will be days that you are anxious because you are waiting for the other shoe to drop, for someone or something to hurt you. There will be days that you will feel depressed because it feels like you will never feel better. There will be days that you grieve the loss of others and the loss of yourself.
A Day In The Life Of A Ptsd Patient: Flashbacks Discomfort And Hope
Traumatic life-threatening events often leave emotional scars, which, like physical scars, remain with an individual for the rest of their lives. Although we all go through a healing period following trauma, for some, the emotional scars are so deep they interfere with their ability to function normally. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric disorder where flashbacks and memories of a traumatic event significantly disrupt patients everyday lives.
In a World Health Organization survey, it found that around 3.6 percent of the worlds population suffered from PTSD over the past 12 months. The underlying factors that lead to the development of PTSD are complex and still poorly understood however, as new research emerges, scientists are gaining a better understanding. For example, they’ve already found genetics may play a role.
Recently, Medical Daily had the chance to speak with Ruska, a 23-year-old American college student who developed PTSD after experiencing repeated physical, sexual, and emotional abuse through most of her life. Ruska, who chose to conceal her identity by using a different name, hopes that her first-hand account of what its like to live with PTSD will not only help remove some of the stigma attached to it, but also give hope to other people living with the oftentimes debilitating condition.
What were some of your earliest symptoms of PTSD and when were you diagnosed?
How does your condition affect your everyday life?
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How Does Therapy Help
Trauma therapy gives people a way to safely share their feelings, tell their story, and get support. In therapy, they learn coping and calming skills to help them deal with anxiety after a trauma. This makes it easier to talk about what they have been through.
In therapy, people learn how trauma can affect their thoughts, feelings, and actions. They learn ways to adjust some of the difficult thoughts about the trauma. They learn to let go of any guilt or shame about what happened.
Slowly, people learn to face things they used to avoid. Therapy helps them gain courage and confidence. They use their strengths to cope and move forward.
How Ptsd Affects Everyday Life
Psychological Effects
A trademark symptom of PTSD is re-experiencing the traumatic event. Without warning, the individual may confront the emotions that they felt when the event took place, making them feel as though theyre facing it again. This may manifest as recurring flashbacks or nightmares. Certain smells, sounds or emotions may trigger flashbacks, or they may occur for no apparent reason. This is often frustrating for the individual and can make them feel powerless when unexpected triggers bring them back to a state where they feel an acute sense of danger.
Physical Effects
PTSD can lead to physical effects that impact the individuals health and quality of life. For example, they may always be in a heightened state of alertness with a fight-or-flight response thats always ready to take over. Concentrating may be difficult, and they may have a hard time sleeping, either because they have difficulty quieting their minds or because they avoid sleep to prevent nightmares, leading to exhaustion.
Emotional Effects
Traumatic events can change the structure of the brain, increasing the amount of stress hormones produced. As a result, the individual may lose interest in activities that they once enjoyed and have negative thoughts about themselves or others. These changes can leave the individual feeling unable to shake sad or anxious moods or get enjoyment from previous hobbies.
Social Effects
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