ptsd

Trauma comes from the Greek language and means wound. It is used by the medical profession to refer to physical wounds, but can also be used in psychological terms, hence someone who is suffering a psychological wound.

Trauma can be experienced by any event that creates a high level of distress. These can include;

• being involved in a major car accident
• being assaulted or experiencing rape or attempted rape
• witnessing a murder or death
• suffering a bereavement or a major loss
• going though a major breakdown of an important relationship
• suffering emotional, physical or sexual abuse
• suffering bullying

Symptoms from suffering a trauma can be physical such as poor quality sleep, headaches and stomach upsets. There will also be psychological effects which can leave you feeling scared, isolated and unsure of yourself. You may find your outlook on life has changed and you see the bad in life at every corner. You may find that your imagination runs away with you and focuses on things that may go wrong in life.

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is when there are delayed or protracted responses after witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event. If after a month you are experiencing intrusive thoughts or images, poor sleep or disturbing dreams, phobias, panic caused by a certain trigger such as a sound or smell or even a touch, feeling angry and having difficulty concentrating or even experiencing flashbacks etc then you are suffering with PTSD.
It can also effect your appetite, cause you suffer panic attacks or palpitations and a sense of shear helplessness.

PTSD is often in the news regarding the effects of war, or a major catastrophe such as a ship sinking, or a train crash where there as been major loss of life. And yet an extremely high amount of PTSD can develop from RTA’s (road traffic accidents) and some PTSD can develop from things like experiencing bullying, or a burglary. It is also possible to develop PTSD from visualising someone else’s traumatic event. (for example, it your child have been attacked and you visualise over and over again what they had suffered, and with this you felt guilty at not being there to protect them, you could develop PTSD from this)
Often people are more prone to PTSD if at the time of the traumatic event, they were psychologically vulnerable at the time, such as suffering high amounts of stress, or emotionally were at very low ebb due to a relationship breakdown etc.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is often associated with a part of the brain called the amygdala. The amygdala coordinates the brain's fear responses and after the traumatic event has passed, the amygdala should settle down and the fear pass. But sometimes it’s as if the amygdala keeps an imprint of the fear stored, so the fearful responses are continually activated. Here at the Trauma Recovery Clinic, we work to remove that imprint so the amygdala calms down and the effects of PTSD pass.

Recovery from Trauma can mean different things to different people. For some, removing the effects of PTSD is enough for them to return to a normal existence.
For others the issues in their life are far more complex. Even after recovering from the trauma or PTSD, there may be other issues that need repairing. Perhaps a relationship has deteriorated due to the effects of the PTSD, or maybe a depression has taken hold. There’s a chance that to cope with the PTSD, a person has turned to drink and this needs to be dealt with. Work may have suffered, or even the skills of socialising have been lost. That’s why here at the Trauma Recovery Clinic at London, we deal with the after-effects of Trauma, or even deal with then as individual issues. This could be

• depression
• anxieties
• panic attacks
• relationship problems
• lack of confidence
• low self-esteem
• lack of goals
• values and belief systems that are negative
• weight gain
• poor sleeping habits
• eating disorders
• self-harming
• social anxieties
• a lack of self-worth

That’s why it’s you who decides what recovery is for you. If other things need to be resolved for you to move on, we have the skills and resources here at the London clinic for you to achieve this.