Post traumatic stress disorder is a psychological disorder which impacts all areas of someone’s life after witnessing a traumatic event. Symptoms include:
- Re-Experiencing or Re-Traumatization: flashbacks, night terrors, night mares, hallucinations, auditory hallucinations (hearing voices or sounds), painful memories, sudden onset of disturbing images, memories, or sounds, inability to escape playback of the past, sudden fear.
- Avoidance: limiting one’s’ life to a safe environment in order to control triggers or reminders of traumatic events.
- Depression: experiencing a chemical imbalance in the production of dopamine and serotonin due to ruminating thoughts and feelings of hopelessness.
- Anxiety: feelings of insistent fear, concern and worry that the past will be repeated or has not concluded; paranoid that they will wake up in the grips of the trauma.
- Panic Disorder: prone to panic attacks and feelings of panic characterized by an irrational fear of sudden death.
- Hyper-Arousal:being highly engaged by traumatic memories, one is prone to angry outbursts, feeling restless and irritable, unable to sleep, unable to focus, and being on edge.
- Self-Harm: suicide attempts, suicidal ideations, self-harming behaviors like cutting, violence, starvation, risk taking, etc.
- Substance Abuse: turning to the compulsive abuse of drugs and alcohol to cope with or numb difficult memories and emotions
- Psychosomatic Manifestation: physical aches, pains, injuries, incurable pain, dizziness, nausea, etc.
- Dissociation: derealization, depersonalization, feeling detached from one’s own identity or idea of reality and the world
How Long Does It Take For PTSD To Form?
Symptoms of PTSD can start to occur immediately after a traumatic event. Often, someone will go into a dissociated state to deal immediately with the trauma of the situation. Semeing quite calm and detached, their brain is in emergency mode to cope with the reality of the situation. Most often, it takes time for PTSD to develop. Though the reality of the situation has not been immediately weighed in, the brain is already trying to cope with it. More obvious symptoms can take time to appear. Because symptoms of PTSD can include depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and other manifestations, it can be missed. Misdiagnosis of PTSD can leave someone struggling to cope with trauma for years without ever being properly treated for it.
Do All Traumatic Events Lead To PTSD?
Almost everyone will experience some kind of trauma in their lives. Trauma was once appropriated to war and war veterans. Today, researchers and mental health professionals understand that trauma is not limited to extreme violence. Verbal abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, abandonment, and bullying can all be traumatizing experiences. Not everyone who experiences trauma on any level will develop PTSD. Only a small percentage of people will develop symptoms which could be diagnosed.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be successfully treated with clinical therapeutic methods and a holistic health care program. Avalon By The Sea provides primary mental health care for patients with a primary diagnosis of PTSD. For a confidential assessment and more information on our residential treatment programs, call us today at 1 888-958-7511.
