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What is PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)?

Updated: Feb 1, 2023

Not all traumatic events lead to the development of PTSD, but in some cases traumatic experiences can lead to the development of this disorder.


Some studies seem to support the explanation that following serious psychological trauma an imbalance occurs within the nervous system, with changes in chemistry and electrical conduction. This results in a crash of the information processing system at the time of the event. In such cases, images, sounds, emotions and physical sensations are retained in memory without being processed. This material can be triggered by internal or external stimuli and is expressed as nightmares, flashbacks, and intrusive thoughts.



Signs and symptoms of PTSD?


A person who suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and is facing trauma will present certain signs and behavioural changes.

The most immediate symptoms to recognize are Flashbacks, which are a mental invasion of images of the traumatic event. Common symptoms include insomnia and hypervigilance: body and mind become difunctionally activated in response to neural stimuli. The persistence of this condition, associated with sleep problems, can decrease attention or concentration-leveIs, which can negatively affect personal and work life as well. Sufferers often exhibit high levels of irritability, with a noticeable decrease in their tolerance threshold and a tendency toward social closure: a decreased interest in engaging in social activities and gatherings, and the avoidance of places or situations that may remind them of the traumatic event; they often feel dull, no longer able to feel positive or negative emotions.

The individual suffering from PTSD experiences a time fragmentation; events seem not to be part of an integrated time continuum. The moment of trauma becomes central, an absolute watershed; separation of self-image occurs, between before and after the traumatic event.

Fear, anger, guilt or shame are the emotions to be tamed. The power of these feelings can sometimes lead toward paranoid thoughts or behaviours; in some cases, one can witness the appearance of reckless, destructive and self-destructive behaviours.


Treatment


After trauma, a person struggles to feel safe and secure and continues to be in a state of physical and mental alertness, alert to all stimuli of potential danger from the environment, expending endless energy.

Psychotherapeutic treatment for PTSD is to build a safe therapeutic alliance based on solid trust, where the person feels protected, understood in suffering and driven toward recovery. Initially, it is crucial to provide information about the disorder and help the person stabilize the most disturbing symptoms, including networking with other specialists.

Once symptoms are stabilized, work on traumatic memories begins through the exposure to painful memories (e.g. EMDR) and attempts are made to prevent the risk of relapse.


EMDR as a therapy tool.


The EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) approach is supported by ongoing scientific research and is recognized as the treatment of preference for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The method is used primarily for events that have involved danger to life or threat to the person's integrity and is recognized as one of the most effective (Greenberg, Brooks, & Dunn, 2015).

This type of method focuses on identifying images related to "traumatic" life events. These events can be single traumas from accidents, bereavements, earthquakes, natural disasters, but also repeated or interpersonal traumas. EMDR goes to work on the 'target memory' image of these events in order to decrease the emotional impact of the memory.

Every individual is endowed with the innate faculty to process traumatic events, but in some people, in particularly severe situations, this capacity gets blocked. The EMDR technique, using bilateral stimulation, that is, eye movements, can restart the processing capacity. The goal is to be able to use one's "painful memories" constructively over time, turning them into a resource.


In my work, I have learned that avoiding the traumatic memory does not solve the problem. If one can make logical/temporal sense of events again and put the pieces of one's history back together, it facilitates the process of integrating and overcoming one's trauma.


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