Experiencing Trauma and PTSD

With about a third of adults in England reporting having experienced at least one traumatic event so far in their life (Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, 2014), the effects of trauma are impacting a great many people.

During a traumatic event, you may have experienced or witnessed something that was life threatening, or a life may even have been lost. That can happen so quickly and unexpectedly, that it is difficult to comprehend. Your body goes into shock, and your mind becomes overwhelmed.

Afterwards there can be a sense of being stuck in the past, and not really feeling alive in the present. This can lead to coping strategies including drug taking, eating disorders, severe anxiety, depression, numbness, dissociation, self-harm, hypervigilance, and potentially a general lacking of meaning in life.

If you have experienced a trauma, you may find that you are suffering from extreme psychological stress, and if this continues for more than two months, you may be diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, as it is abbreviated. PTSD is a diagnosis that was introduced in 1980.

However, it is not easy to be clear of the difference between someone who experiencing a normal stress reaction, and someone who has tipped over into something more intense, such as PTSD. Above all, it is important to know that whether you have a diagnosis or not, if you are suffering from the effects of a trauma, then you should certainly seek psychological help to address this.

Trauma Symptoms

For trauma, these are the main symptoms you may be experiencing:

• Re-experiencing the trauma – Flashbacks, dreams, thoughts, and feelings, all triggering an intense emotional reaction.
• Numbing of responses, feeling detached or disconnected.
• Impairment of memory.
• Difficulty in concentrating and focusing.
• Hypervigilance – A heightened state of awareness, where the brain resources are on constant alert.
• Sleep issues.
• Avoidance of reminders.
• Feelings of guilt, irritability, anger and rage.

Counselling and relaxation techniques can really help address the imbalance in the mind, brain and body, allowing you to remember how you survived, as well as changing what have become unhelpful reactions. We are use EMDR – Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing – as a powerful method of working with trauma and PTSD.

We also use a variety of other skills and techniques tailored to your own unique needs, to assist you back to mental well-being.

To arrange your first session simply send us a message here.

You might like also to take our online program ‘Overcoming Trauma and PTSD’.

Click here to find out more, and gain intstant access.