What is PTSD?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a condition that can develop after a person either experiences or witnesses a traumatic event. Examples could include witnessing, or experiencing:
- traffic accidents
- violence or abuse
- disaster, natural or man-made
- serious injury or illness
- bereavement
- repeated exposure to other’s trauma*
*This is known as Vicarious Trauma and can often affect first responders, members of the armed forces, nurses and many others who are supporting other trauma sufferers. It can manifest its own symptoms such as:
- insomnia
- changes in appetite
- panic attacks
- lapses in concentration
- depression or anxiety
- a lowered immune system
The symptoms of PTSD can be deeply disturbing and overwhelming, making work and ordinary life very challenging. However, we believe it’s important to understand that, handled with care and the right treatment, symptomatology can be eased, reduced, managed and, in some cases, fully remitted.
There is another form of PTSD called complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (cPTSD). Symptoms are similar, with a couple of variations.
The main difference between the two is to do with the duration of the trauma. cPTSD tends occur after multiple, sustained, traumatic episodes, often during formative years. These could include serial bullying and/or sexual or psychological abuse.
What are the symptoms of PTSD?
Symptoms are often persistent and invasive, disrupting personal and working life. If you have experienced severe trauma and are troubled by intrusive and disturbing nightmares and/or heightened anxiety, these could be signs of both PTSD and/or cPTSD, as could the following:
- lapses in concentration
- flashbacks*/ruminations/reliving the events
- feelings of guilt for being a survivor of the event
- a feeling of detachment from everyday life
- emotional numbness
- nightmares / insomnia / parasomnias
- irritability
- hypervigilance
- short temperedness
Symptoms more associated with cPTSD:
- breakdowns in relationships
- difficulty with controlling emotions
*Flashbacks are vivid and feel real, forcing you to relive part, or all, of the traumatic event. They are sometimes portrayed too loosely and superficially in popular culture. Talkmind takes all PTSD symptoms seriously as we are mindful of how debilitating the associated psychopathology can be.
What is Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (cPTSD)?
cPTSD is simply a type of PTSD but has recently been classified as a separate diagnosis. It is often used in instances where there has been repeated trauma, lasted over a long period of time or started at a young age.
How does Talkmind treat PTSD and cPTSD?
Like many other conditions, there is a variety of interventions for PTSD that can include trauma informed therapies and medicinal treatments, mainly aimed at treating and easing symptoms.
We will always take care to make sure our treatments are precisely targeted and appropriate for each case. Some treatments* may include:
- antidepressants (such as SSRIs or SNRIs)
- Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Prolonged Exposure (PE)
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Trauma Focussed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT)
- Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
*Depending upon the severity of the (c)PTSD, holistic approaches can have better clinical outcomes.Â
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Signs of PTSD
Although nightmares and flashbacks are the stereotypical symptom of PTSD, many people don’t them. Instead, you may find yourself ‘zoning out’, struggle to concentrate, feel numb, or feel jumpy and on edge most of the time. Most common symptoms:
- DissociationÂ
- Mental flashbacks
- Physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, sweating, hyperventilating or even an upset stomach
- Hallucinations or paranoia