About Trauma (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is an intense physical and emotional response to thoughts and reminders of a perceived life-threatening event that may last for many weeks or months after. The symptoms of PTSD fall into three broad types: re-living, avoidance and increased arousal. Symptoms vary among individuals and also vary in severity from mild to disabling.

• Symptoms of re-living include flashbacks, nightmares, and extreme emotional and physical reactions to reminders of the event. Emotional reactions can include feelings of guilt, extreme fear of harm, and numbing of emotions. Physical reactions can include uncontrollable shaking, chills or heart palpitations and tension headaches.
  
• Symptoms of avoidance include staying away from activities, places, thoughts, or feelings related to the trauma or feeling detached or estranged from others. Drug and alcohol use and food binges are methods of avoidance.
  
• Symptoms of increased arousal include being overly alert or easily startled, difficulty sleeping, irritability or outbursts of anger and lack of concentration.
  
• Other symptoms include panic attacks, depression, suicidal thought and feelings, feelings of being estranged and isolated, and not being able to complete daily tasks.

There is no one type of trauma that can lead to PTSD. There are many different kinds of traumatic situations but they all have certain common elements:

• The trauma was life threatening or it led to an actual or potentially serious injury. Some times, the trigger is that the individual believed the event was life-threatening, whether it actually was or not.
  
• The individual reacted to the trauma with intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

It could be a one –time incident, which leads to Shock Trauma, (e.g. rape, car accident, war) or a longer-term situation which leads to Developmental Trauma (e.g. childhood abuse and neglect). Developmental Trauma leaves one more vulnerable to Shock Trauma.

Many people come through such situations with no long-term effects. However, if the problems become worse or last longer than one month after the event, PTSD should be considered, and you would be wise to speak to a professional.

Trauma involves all three parts of the brain—the brainstem (automatic instinctive behavior), the limbic system (emotions), and the neo-cortex (logic/thinking). A perceived threat sends a message to the brainstem, the emotion of fear is aroused, adrenaline surges through the system and the brain tries to make sense. Which is the best response: fight, flight or freeze? In some cases, the memories of the event become “stuck” and are not processed through the brain to where they can be released into the past. This is PTSD.

PTSD counseling involves working with both the body and the mind, to release the emotions and to teach the body to “let go”. PTSD responds well to Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing and to Traumatic Incident Reduction, both techniques in which I am well versed.

Please feel free to contact me for more information. My phone number is 604.836.6840 or e-mail me

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