PTSD

Have you experienced PTSD?

What is PTSD?

PTSD symptoms are more than described in the DSM IV-TR, but for purposes of the DSM it only lists the more common major symptomology.

These symptoms are:

Flashbacks

Fear, Helplessness, Horror

Avoidance or shutting off of emotions

Audible remembrance of an event (Gunfire, explosions)

Difficulty sleeping (REM disruption)

Intrusive thoughts, images, or perceptions

Distressing dreams of event(s)

Acting and feeling as if the distressing event was recurring

Illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashbacks

Triggers (internal or external) that cause psychological distress

Physiological reactivity to the cues from a traumatic event

Avoiding thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with trauma

Avoiding activities or areas, including people that arouse recollection of the trauma

Inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma

Diminished interest or participation in activities

Feeling detached or estraged from others

Restricted range of affect (e.g. not being able to feel love)

Sense of a foreshortened future ( not expecting to have a career, children, marriage, or shortened life span)

Irritability or anger

Difficulty concentrating

Hypervigilance

Exaggerated Startle Response

May impair ability to work, be social, or other areas of functioning

Acute is less than 3 months

Chronic is more than 3 months

Delayed onset means that the symptoms appear 6 months after the stressor.

There is much more of course for symptoms, rapid heart rate, flushing or tingling of the skin after a flashback, you get the idea. 

The picture above was created after being treated for PTSD, and I think it explains itself for the most part, but here is just a brief overview. This is depicting one capsule related to several traumas in a point in time, there can be several capsules with different traumas, or as some call it Complex PTSD.

The picture represents stages that take place when a person encounters PTSD related to flashbacks, feelings, emotions, and thoughts. At the beginning, the person may not realize they have PTSD, but they know something is intrusive or cannot stop visualizing it in the mind, largely scattered, and may not be intrusive all the time. The second stage is a little bit more organized, but is largely unconnected and can be intermittent, emotion related to the event is more pronounced, and the third stage, the person has lived with it long enough for organization to occur of the memories, flashbacks, thoughts and emotions that are attached. If you have any questions feel free to email me at pkefdr@aol.com.

For those of you living with PTSD, I hope you are able to find a psychologist with the training on EMDR Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing, and while you cannot get rid of it, you can learn to tag the memories so they exist only in long term memory and they are no longer intrusive in your daily life, in your dreams, or when your overtired. PTSD is not the end, it is your new beginning to life, and happiness that you can again experience.