Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder that can occur after you have seen or experienced a traumatic event that involved the threat of injury or death. PTSD can occur at any age. It can follow a natural disaster such as a flood or fire, or other traumatic events such as assault, domestic violence, rape, terrorism or war to name a few.

There are three main categories of symptoms of PTSD. The first category is reliving the event (flashbacks of the event, repeated memories of the event, nightmares of the event, and strong reactions to things that remind you of the event). The second category of symptoms is avoidance (emotional numbing, feeling detached, memory loss about the event, avoiding places, people and thoughts that remind you of the event), The third category involves arousal (concentration problems, being easily startled, hypervigilance, having outbursts of anger, and difficulty sleeping). Some people also experience guilt as a symptom of PTSD.

Counseling for PTSD

One of the most effective forms of therapy for treating PTSD is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). There are several different types of CBT used, one is exposure therapy. Over time, people with PTSD may develop fears of reminders of their traumatic event. The focus of exposure therapy is to help reduce the level of fear and anxiety connected with these reminders, and reducing the avoidance of them. Another form of CBT used is called cognitive processing which helps people to process memories of the event and identify “stuck points” that keep them from overcoming fear and anxiety related to the event. Cognitive processing sometimes also involves telling or writing about the traumatic event(s) in order to process trauma memories.