PTSD AND TRAUMA

WHAT IS PTSD/TRAUMA?

Trauma is an anxiety disorder which typically develops from significant, shocking and life changing experiences,. Traumatised individuals are different from those who once had something unpleasant happen to them. They are unable to close the door on their experiences and continue to re-live some aspect of their trauma as a here and now reality – in flashbacks, dreams or emotions, long after the traumatic event has ended. Trauma is intrusive and has a direct impact on your mood and how you live your life.

CAUSES

Anyone can get PTSD at any age. This includes war veterans and survivors of physical/sexual assault, abuse accidents, disasters and many other traumatic events. Trauma can develop from a single, isolated incident, or from accumulative experiences.. Not everyone with PTSD has been through a dangerous event themselves.  Some people get PTSD after a friend or a family member experiences danger or harm. The sudden, unexpected death of a loved one can also cause PTSD.

Very often at the time someone is being exposed to an intensely fearful situation, their mind suspends normal operations and copes as well as it can in order to survive. This might involve different reactions such as “freezing on the spot” or “flight away” from the danger. When the mind tries to process the memory, it can revoke the unpleasant emotions associated with the trauma. A vicious circle begins: the individual tries to avoid thinking about the trauma and prevents the memory from being processed normally. This leads to nightmares, flashbacks and intrusive memories which lead to further hyper-arousal and emotional numbing, which in turn leads to more avoidance and so on.

SYMPTOMS

There are different types and symptoms of trauma, but all of them result in your being prevented from living a fully engaged, expansive and meaningful life.

Symptoms can involve any combination of intense and disturbing feelings:

·       Helplessness

·       Guilt, shame, self-blame

·       Being shut down, flat or dissociated

·       Avoidance of people, places or situations

·       Short temper, extreme moods, irritability

·       Difficulty with short term memory

·       Depression or anxiety

·       Fearfulness/nightmares/reliving the trauma

·       Startled response to loud noises/unexpected situations

·       Social/relationship difficulties

·       A lost sense of purpose and/or a bereaved sense of self

 Sufferers of PTSD have often found a way to hide and cope with their trauma. They may look reasonably normal from the outside, but there are underlying destructive ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. These are mostly unconscious, leading the individual to become stuck on a self-limiting auto-pilot.

HOW CAN COUNSELLING THERAPY HELP?

As a counsellor and pyschotherapist, I liken the concept of trauma re-enactment to an ice skater, skating around a rink:

If a skater makes a circuit on the ice, a shallow groove will be left.  If the skater then repeats the circuit along the same groove, the groove will deepen.  Add a third, fourth and fifth circuit and the groove becomes significant, to the point that the skater can almost switch to autopilot.  Soon the skater will find taking a different route across the ice more difficult, requirting effort and concentration.  Should the skater manage to alter his route there is high probability that if he gets too close to the original groove, he will naturally and quickly slip back into it. Only with determined effort can the skater move away once and for all from the habitual route of the original circuit. 

Counselling therapy with traumatized people is all about helping them to make different patterns in the ice. There are different ways of looking at things, different ways of handling old memories and different grooves to create in your thought process. Counselling gives you the opportunity to work through your trauma and repair the damage you have suffered, often unlearning coping mechanisms that have kept you going around in circles for many years.

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