What happens when we are subjected to enormous and catastrophic stress? Our feeling of safety can vanish. We might experience terror and drop into our automatic survival instincts as we have seen from the survivors of the World Trade Center. How we deal with the aftermath, the fact that we have been exposed to life-threatening trauma during which we felt we might die may present us with a host of post-trauma thoughts and emotions that repeat and reoccur over the weeks, months, or even years.

These unresolved symptoms will cause great distress, anxiety, and fears, even though the event has passed and we are alive. It is not only the victims of these events but the witnesses, families of victims, rescuers, and helping professionals who can develop severe stress symptoms.

These catastrophic events can include rape, physical or sexual abuse, mugging, car-jacking, natural disasters, and man-made ones.

We live and endure but we are forever changed. Our safety has been violated and our perspective of our life and the world has been radically altered. Some people can recover quickly by re-setting their priorities and values and living in the present. Others may be haunted by their past and are unable to move on in the present and future.

 

POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

When someone has experienced extreme trauma, often repeatedly, the symptoms of PTSD can infuse them with enough fight or flight adrenaline that their thoughts, belief systems, and emotional wiring gets crossed and interrupted. We develop a self-perpetuating and skewed circuitry that mistakenly informs our cognitive and emotional responses that our safety might be at stake at any moment and uses our memories of the past as triggers in the present. The trauma gets relived and re-experienced without resolution and catharsis.

The more often this happens to us, the more incapable we are of healing because our psychic wounds are never allowed to "scab over" and heal.

For example, the 24-hour media coverage about the WTC that is going on right now may trigger post-trauma symptoms rather than be informationaly helpful. The constant visual array on may be re-stimulating for those with PTSD.

 

SYMPTOMS OF PTSD

INTRUSIVE SYMPTOMS:

• Flashbacks (a feeling of reliving the trauma)
• Frequent, distressing memories of the trauma
• Nightmares
• Emotional and physical stress when traumatic memories are triggered

 

AROUSAL SYMPTOMS:

• Being easily startled or feeling jumpy
• Hypervigilance (feeling of "on guard" even when safe)
• Concentration difficulties
• Outburst of anger and irritability
• Problems in falling asleep or staying asleep

 
AVOIDANCE SYMPTOMS:

• Avoiding places, people, or situations that serve as reminders of the trauma
• Avoiding thoughts or feelings associated with the trauma
• Memory loss about some aspects of the traumatic event
• Feeling estranged or detached from other people
• Feelings of hopelessness and helplessness about the future
• Decreased interest in pleasurable activities

 

SOME PTSD STATISTICS

• It has been estimated that 70% of people will be exposed to a traumatic event in their lifetime
• Of this 70%, 20% will go on to develop PTSD
• At any given time, an estimated 5% of people have PTSD
• 8% will develop PTSD in their lifetime
• Victims of domestic violence and childhood abuse are at tremendous risk for PTSD
• Rape is the leading cause of PTSD

 

GETTING HELP

The good news is that PTSD can be cured. And the ways to do that are relatively simple.

1. Talk about it: For many people, talking about every detail, in sequence of their traumatic experience can be very helpful. Stuffing it down inside will cause damage over the long-term. You will develop physical symptoms from pushing this stress inside as well as develop thinking and feeling distortions. So you must bring all this out and talk about it.

2. Make contact: Many PTSD people accurately feel the world is not safe any longer. They may isolate. So, again, you have to do the opposite and reach out. Make contact with others who have been through similar trauma through groups or you place of worship. While some animals may need to lick their wounds quietly and alone, we people need to do it in the embrace of others.

3. Contact a professional: If you feel that your symptoms are not going away and you are making your life more and more limited., then you may need therapeutic help.

4. EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is one of the most powerful clinical tools to help cure PTSD. It is a short-term, powerful therapy that I use often in my office with excellent results.

 

DO YOU HAVE PTSD?

• I have strong physical sensations when I think about the event
• I try to avoid having upsetting thoughts or having contact with things or places associated with the event.
• My feelings are numb and I have difficulty experiencing normal pleasure or relief
• I am always watchful now to make sure nothing happens to me
• I have feelings of guilt associated with the event or surviving the event.
• I have the feeling of being unreal or that the world is unreal
• I feel alienated or isolated from others
• I get irritated or angry a lot
• I have new episodes of panic or anxiety
• I have flashbacks of the event
• I have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep because memories or images come into my mind
• I am easily startled when I hear a loud noise or when danger seems imminent
• I have been relying increasingly on drugs or alcohol to get through the day
  

Thanks to Simmonds Publication