Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

What is It?

It’s a response to a serious and unpleasant event that has happened in our life that results in psychological trauma. For example abuse, rape, getting attacked, a road traffic accident or even witnessing an event like that.

Any seriously upsetting event is likely to cause this distress, overwhelming our abilitiy to cope with the situation that has occurred. We may become miserable, depressed or anxious after falling out with friends or family members, getting sacked, failing exams or having something upsetting or frightening happen to us. We may, if very unlucky, even get a full-scale depressive illness, anxiety state or other mental health problem.

Most of us will find stressful situations affect the way we think, feel and behave but this is normal. Problems tend to arise when we are disturbed for more than a month about what has happened.

Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress

If you are involved in a really serious event such as being in a road traffic accident, get attacked, abused, raped or see someone else experience things like this then you may get symptoms like the ones below:

• Anxiety, you may be frightened to do normal things especially if they remind you of the event in question, even leaving the house may be terrifying.
• Bad dreams or nightmares.
• Repeatedly thinking about what has happened, over and over again.
• Feeling that life will never be safe again.
• Being more clingy to the important people in your life.
• Being irritable and more emotional than usual.
• Getting frightened at things that would not have bothered you in the past.

It is normal to have these symptoms for up to two/three weeks after a stressful event, but if they do not go away and become worse over time you may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress. Some people may find they cope well initially but then develop these symptoms after a few weeks or even a few months. A fraction of people may even find this happening years later. You may also find that you are avoiding anything that reminds you of the situation, for example you find excuses not to get in a car if it was a car accident.

Some people will have some of these symptoms after events that, whilst very serious, are not bad enough to be life threatening. Obviously the way an event affects you depends very much on your previous experience and what you are like as a person. Anyone can get post-traumatic stress symptoms. The bigger the stress the more likely we are to have difficulties afterwards. Sometimes we get stuck with the symptoms. It’s as if we can’t get rid of them even though we want to, and the harder we try the worse it gets.

If you are not recovering within a few weeks or if you start to have flashbacks - that is you begin to think and feel as though you are back in the frightening situation (this can include hearing and seeing the event again) then you probably have post-traumatic stress disorder. If you accidentally come across reminders of the situation (and these may be small things) then flashbacks may be triggered.

People who have been exposed to chronic trauma such as repeated abuse may develop other major problems as well. You may find yourself being more sensitive to other stressful events.

What Do I Do If I Have Such Symptoms?

• If you have recently suffered a distressing or traumatic event that you are upset about, talk to someone you trust about what is happening to you.
• Allow yourself some recovery time, don’t expect to be your usual self immediately.  
• Remember, some distress after major upsets or stresses is normal. 
• If you are having severe symptoms and are not managing to cope with them or if the symptoms are not going away, you must talk to someone you trust or go to your doctor or another health professional.

Many people in this situation think they are just being soft or weak and should pull themselves together, or feel guilty and think these symptoms are their fault. This is not true. 

Tell someone what’s happening to you. It can feel like you’re going nuts but most people will develop symptoms if we experience severe trauma. Don’t worry that people will think you’re crazy or that you are wasting their time. It is important to get help early.

Treatment

Most of us respond to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, the other treatment that works for many people is eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing. A bit of  a mouthful to say isn’t it? It has similarities to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy but uses some other techniques as well to help people get to grips with their upsetting experiences.

Usually 8 to 12 sessions at weekly intervals are enough. If you have other problems (such as depression) then more sessions may be needed. Remember that you can still get rid of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress even if they have been around for a very long time.

If you’re not getting better then drug therapy may be suggested. Usually one of the Anti-Depressants will be used. It is important to understand that drug therapy is reserved for those who cannot use the other methods or where people are not responding to them. The evidence for the benefits of drug therapy are not as good as those for the psychological therapies.

If you are young and still living with your family it is probable that whoever is seeing you will want to talk to your parents or guardians. If your parents/guardians are to be able to help you, they need to understand what is going on.