|
|
Health Advice and Information on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD
Therapists who help heal and deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD
click apples
POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder , PTSD symptoms, survivor guilt and trauma caused by bullying, harassment, abuse and abusive life experiences
What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
How do I recognise the symptoms of PTSD? How do I recover from PTSD? Common symptoms of PTSD and Complex PTSD that sufferers report experiencing -
hypervigilance (feels like but is not paranoia) -
exaggerated startle response -
irritability -
sudden angry or violent outbursts -
flashbacks, nightmares, intrusive recollections, replays, violent visualisations -
triggers -
sleep disturbance -
exhaustion and chronic fatigue -
reactive depression -
guilt -
feelings of detachment -
avoidance behaviours -
nervousness, anxiety -
phobias about specific daily routines, events or objects -
irrational or impulsive behaviour -
loss of interest -
loss of ambition -
anhedonia (inability to feel joy and pleasure) -
poor concentration -
impaired memory -
joint pains, muscle pains -
emotional numbness -
physical numbness -
low self-esteem -
an overwhelming sense of injustice and a strong desire to do something about it Definition Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a natural emotional reaction to a deeply shocking and disturbing experience. It is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is defined in DSM-IV, the fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. For a doctor or mental health professional to be able to make a diagnosis, the condition must be defined in DSM-IV or its international equivalent, the World Health Organization's ICD-10. In the previous version of DSM (DSM-III) a criterion of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was for the sufferer to have faced a single major life-threatening event; this criterion was present because a) it was thought that PTSD could not be a result of "normal" events such as bereavement, business failure, interpersonal conflict, bullying, harassment, stalking, marital disharmony, working for the emergency services, etc, and b) most of the research on PTSD had been undertaken with people who had suffered a threat to life (eg combat veterans, especially from Vietnam, victims of accident, disaster, and acts of violence). In DSM-IV the requirement was eased although most mental health practitioners continue to interpret diagnostic criterion A1 as applying only to a single major life-threatening event. There is growing recognition that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can result from many types of emotionally shocking experience including an accumulation of small, individually non-life-threatening events in which case the resultant PTSD is referred to as Complex PTSD. The diagnostic criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are defined in DSM-IV as follows: A. The person experiences a traumatic event in which both of the following were present: 1. the person experienced or witnessed or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others;
2. the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. B. The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in any of the following ways: 1. recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts or perceptions;
2. recurrent distressing dreams of the event;
3. acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (eg reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those on wakening or when intoxicated);
4. intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolise or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event;
5. physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolise or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event. C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma) as indicated by at least three of: 1. efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings or conversations associated with the trauma;
2. efforts to avoid activities, places or people that arouse recollections of this trauma;
3. inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma;
4. markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities;
5. feeling of detachment or estrangement from others;
6. restricted range of affect (eg unable to have loving feelings);
7. sense of a foreshortened future (eg does not expect to have a career, marriage, children or a normal life span). D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma) as indicated by at least two of the following: 1. difficulty falling or staying asleep;
2. irritability or outbursts of anger;
3. difficulty concentrating;
4. hypervigilance;
5. exaggerated startle response. E. The symptoms on Criteria B, C and D last for more than one month. F. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning. The focus of the DSM-IV definition of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a single life-threatening event or threat to integrity. However, the symptoms of traumatic stress also arise from an accumulation of small incidents rather than one major incident. Examples include: - repeated exposure to horrific scenes at accidents or fires, such as those endured by members of the emergency services (eg bodies mutilated in car crashes, or horribly burnt or disfigured by fire, or dismembered or disembowelled in aeroplane disasters, etc)
- repeated involvement in dealing with serious crime, eg where violence has been used and especially where children are hurt
- breaking news of bereavement caused by accident or violence, especially if children are involved
- repeated violations such as in verbal abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse
- regular intrusion and violation, both physical and psychological, as in bullying, stalking, harassment, domestic violence, etc
TIM FIELD http://www.bullyonline.org/ http://www.bullyonline.org/ http://www.bullyonline.org/
PTSD is the term given to a particular range and combination of reactions following a trauma.
|
|
