What Is Emotional Trauma AND WHY IT CAN BE DEVASTATING?

It is not uncommon to have experienced emotional trauma at some point in our lives. Trauma is an experience which is overwhelming, threatening, frightening or out of our control. Victims of trauma often feel shocked, angry, scared, guilty, guilty, ashamed, or vulnerable. In time about 75% of people get over their experiences without needing professional help. However, in a large proportion of people the effects of trauma can last for much longer and become post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Lois’s Story

Lois (not her real name) was walking into work one evening when she was assaulted by a man. It was a bad attack and she was hurt quite badly – during the attack she was terrified and was convinced that she would die. Lois no longer felt safe after the attack. She developed sleep problems and would have bad dreams about the attack. Certain situations during her day would remind her of the attack. When she had a memory of the attack she would feel fear and her breathing and heart rate would increase.

Lois went back to work, but she felt scared to go out alone. She felt panicky around men she did not know. She believed that her friends wouldn’t understand how she was feeling. She also noticed that she got irritable about things that never her before. Because she felt that she ‘should be over it’, she thought to herself as weak and pathetic

What Is PTSD?

As noted above it is common to be affected by traumatic experiences. What are the symptoms of PTSD?

Symptoms of PTSD are split into four groups:

• Re-experiencing symptoms: Memories of the trauma play over and over in your mind. The memories can be re-experienced as images of what happened, sounds, smells, tastes, or body sensations associated with the trauma. It can feel as though the events are happening again.

• Arousal symptoms: You can be ‘on edge’ or ‘on guard’ following a trauma. Many people find it very difficult to relax, and find that their sleep is affected.

• Avoidance symptoms: It is normal to avoid physical or emotional pain. People who have had trauma often try to avoid any people, places, or other reminders of their trauma.

• Negative thoughts and mood: Trauma can have a powerful effect on how we view the world. People begin to see the world as a more dangerous place, lack trust in others, have difficulty with intimacy and often suffer low self-esteem.

Does everyone develop PTSD?

It is very common to feel vulnerable, shocked or ‘shaken up’ following a trauma. This is called an Acute Stress Reaction. But, if symptoms persist then the person is said to have PTSD.

What keeps PTSD going?

With PTSD memories of the trauma keep coming back to bother us because they are ‘unprocessed’. The trauma experience was so overwhelming that the brain was unable to store the memories properly at the time. They keep reappearing in the form of nightmares, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts because they have not been properly stored in long-term memory.

The way we try to cope with symptoms can have unintended consequences. Trying too hard to avoid parts of life can mean that we live a restricted existence which can have a dramatic effect on how we feel. We can become ‘stuck’.

The diagram below shows how psychologists often think about PTSD.

LEARN MORE ABOUT TRAUMA TREATMENT IN JACKSONVILLE HERE