PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder)
Key Facts
- PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by stressful events and often causes nightmares or flashbacks and sleep disturbance
- Symptoms can develop immediately or years later
- Trauma-Focused CBT is recommended for PTSD and is proven to be an effective treatment.
Symptoms and experiences
Many people will experience trauma at some point in their lives. A trauma is understood as an experience which is threatening, overwhelming, or out of our control.
Common traumas include: accidents, being a victim of physical or sexual violence, or being in a life-threatening situation such as a war or natural disaster.
Survivors of trauma might feel shocked, scared, guily, ashamed, angry, or vulnerable. With time some people get over their experiences without needing professional help. However for a great number of people the effects of trauma can last for much longer.
These feelings and symptoms may develop into Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which is an anxiety disorder that can occur after experiencing a trauma. PTSD is estimated to affect about 1 in every 3 people who have a traumatic experience.
PTSD can develop immediately after someone experiences a disturbing event or it can occur weeks, months or even years later.
Someone with PTSD often relives memories or feelings of their experience through nightmares and flashbacks, has a heightened sense of threat and may change their behaviours to avoid reminders of the event. They may also have problems sleeping and find concentrating difficult.
These symptoms are often severe and persistent enough to have a significant impact on the person’s day-to-day life.
“My mind is a cruel thing, I forget the things I try to remember and remember (all too well) the things I try so hard to forget”
Complex PTSD
Trauma tends to be harder to recover from if it is repeated, or if it happens in childhood. People who repeatedly experienced traumatic situations such as severe neglect, abuse or violence may be diagnosed with complex PTSD.
Complex PTSD can cause similar symptoms to PTSD and may not develop until years after the event.
Treatment
It's normal to feel upset and confused after a traumatic event, but you should seek help if you are still having problems about four weeks after the traumatic experience, or if the symptoms are causing you a lot of distress.
PTSD can be successfully treated, even when it develops many years after a trauma. There is very good evidence to say that CBT is an effective treatment for PTSD. It is often referred to as trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
This type of therapy usually involves developing techniques to manage the overwhelming feelings connected to the trauma and if necessary, processing the trauma memory so that it is no longer painful to remember. It can also include working on changes that have been made to your beliefs and behaviour following the event to enable you to feel like the person you were before it happened.
If you are concerned that you might be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, try filling in this questionnaire. It can give you an indication of whether PTSD has become a problem for you.
