Post Traumatic Stress

What is Post-Traumatic Stress?

Post-traumatic stress is a reaction to an overwhelming traumatic event, an event beyond the normal range of human experience that threatens a person’s sense of self, safety or security. Survivors of disasters or other tragic events, such as victims of incest or rape, war veterans, victims of severe childhood physical abuse or hurricane or crash survivors are all subject to post-traumatic stress. The symptoms of post-traumatic stress rarely become apparent during the trauma. Although symptoms can appear soon after the event, they can also appear months or even years after the traumatic event occurred. Traumatic events involve varying degrees of loss. Depending on the event the person could experience:

Loss of self-esteem: Victims of trauma often feel powerless or helpless. They may hold themselves responsible for not preventing the event or think they should have been able to fix it.

Loss of safety and security: After a traumatic event, an individual may feel unsafe or afraid to be alone at home or in the workplace. Places that once represented safety may seem lost or violated.

Loss of relationships: Even if there is not loss of life, the trauma may be enough to end a close relationship (for instance a man ending a relationship after his fiancé’s rape, or a teenager beginning a pattern of increasing drug use after his parents get divorced). If the incident involves the death of a loved one, the relationship with that loved one ends too.

Loss of identity: Following a natural disaster, war, personal trauma such as being a victim of severe abuse, even the loss of a job or career, the victim may feel like they have lost a part of their identity and thus are not sure who they really are now. Previously familiar roles may be altered in the home or workplace. Reactions and behaviors may be unexpected, creating doubt and confusion within the victim. Some individuals may question their behavior and wonder why they feel as they do.

Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome

Signs and Symptoms: The emotional reactions to stress are prevalent and predictable enough that when they are identified in a person, the person is said to be suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Post-traumatic stress syndrome can occur at any age including childhood. Some of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress are:

• Nightmares and other sleep disturbances,

• Difficulty concentrating,

• Emotional instability,

• Memory loss, (blocked memories),

• Hyper-vigilance,

• Increased stress in personal relationships,

• Startling very easily,

Vivid memories of the event can sometimes bring on painful overwhelming emotions. The memory can be so strong that the person may feel he or she is actually reliving the event. This is called a flashback. Children will often relive the trauma through action or repetitive play.

Most survivors of traumatic events eventually recover and their symptoms gradually diminish and disappear, though certain situations, sights, sounds, and smells may trigger an unwanted memory of the traumatic event. When the symptoms are ongoing to a point where they interfere with a person’s daily life, this is called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Simply put it is when the symptoms or continuing stress reactions become so debilitating that they interfere with a person’s ability to function socially, at work or as a family member. PTSD may be difficult to detect because the person may have a memory loss of the traumatic event or may have detached emotionally from the pain of the event. The victim may remember the event, but have no memory of how he or she felt at the time.

Those who suffer from PTSD experience intense feelings of fear and severe flashbacks. This intense fear may lead to a panic attack, in which the heart races, the throat tightens or the person becomes physically ill. During a panic attack, the person may act as if he or she is actually experiencing the event again yet not be fully aware of what he or she is doing.

A person suffering from PTSD may also experience nightmares that are so lifelike, intense and full of terror that he or she develops sleeping disorders such as insomnia to avoid them. Children may have repeated horror-filled dreams of monsters or of trying to rescue others.

Victims of PTSD also suffer emotionally, sometimes in the form of sudden, intense, or repeated and unexplained bouts of anger or grief. This emotional suffering may take the form of emotional numbness or avoidance, or the person may alternate between intense anger, irritability and sadness to the point of being unable to feel or express any emotions at all. This may lead family members and other loved ones to feel that the person suffering from PTSD does not care for them or in indifferent to their concerns.

PTSD sufferers will also avoid things or situations that bring up memories of the traumatic event. If untreated, the person’s daily life may gradually be dominated by trying to avoid situations that remind him or her of the event.

All of these intense and unrelieved emotional and physical stresses eventually combine to bring the PTSD sufferer into a state of depression. In an attempt to dull the pain and soften attacks of anxiety, panic and loneliness, the PTSD sufferer may resort to alcohol or drug abuse.

What can be done?

Although the pain and distress of post-traumatic stress may run very deep and may span many years, if it is properly identified and professionally treated, the sufferer can regain a happy life and learn to successfully cope with the trauma in a healthy and productive way.

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