Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a particular disorder that is based on the etiology of trauma. It is a debilitating response to witnessing and/or experiencing an extremely traumatic stressor involving physical threat, serious harm, death or threat of death. As mentioned earlier, it can also involve a response to a prolonged or chronic stressor. A person with PTSD feels intense fear, horror, feelings of inadequacy or helplessness as a result of the traumatic event(s) or situation.
While the traumatic event(s) or situation may have ended long ago, the person's reaction may not. The intrusion of the past into the present is one of the main problems confronting a survivor of trauma. This intrusion may appear as distressing intrusive memories, flashbacks, nightmares, or an overwhelming emotional state.
Survivors of repetitive early trauma, such as child abuse, are likely to instinctively continue to use the same self-protective coping strategies that they employed to shield themselves from harm at the time of the traumatic experience. Dissociation, hypervigilance, avoidance, and numbing are typical coping patterns that may have been adaptive and effective at one time, but later interfere with the person's ability to function.
These symptoms are an adaptation to a horrific and/or unbearable event or situation. They represent the person's attempt to cope in the best way they can with their overwhelming feelings. Every symptom helped a survivor to cope in the past and is still in the present in some way.
At Bridges To Recovery, we use several treatment modalities to help the person explore how their symptoms and behaviors are an adaptation, and thus help them to substitute less problematic and more effective ways of coping. In helping explore the roots of trauma and its aftereffects, we help to work through the damaging experiences and grow towards learning how to turn your life around.