Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
After a traumatic event, most people experience symptoms of anxiety, anger, and nightmares. These feelings normally lesson over time. However, sometimes they do not. This is when PTSD develops. There is hope though. With treatment, you can be free again.
After a life-threatening event such as a car accident, the death of a loved one from suicide, military combat, or a sexual assault, your world will be shaken. For some, recovery happens naturally over time. For others, it does not happen, and symptoms persist even years later. You may no longer feel the word is safe, feel the need to constantly monitor your environment for threats, may withdraw from others, or engage in reckless or dangerous behavior. You may try your hardest to avoid thinking about the trauma, but it is not possible. It haunts your dreams and even your awake times as little things trigger big memories.
The good news is that there are proven treatments to reduce your symptoms to a pre-trauma level. Three of the most studied are: Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, and EMDR. I am trained in Cognitive Processing Therapy which is a therapy that examines your thoughts related to the trauma. By examining and challenging some of these thoughts, you can learn to distinguish the truth from assumptions you may have been making and explore natural emotions versus artificially manufactured ones. Results are generally seen in 8-12 sessions. This is dependent on your full participation in the process. This can be a challenge due to the fact that you most likely would rather put the events completely out of your mind. The problem is that the memories come back anyway. The goal of therapy is to put them in their proper place-in the past-so you can recover from PTSD and live a more fulfilling life in the present.