PTSD F What is PTSD?

(DMS-IV) A)The person has been exposed to a traumatic event that: involved actual or threatened death or serious injury; The persons response involved intense fear, helplessness or horror. B) The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced Distressing recollections Dreams Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring Psychological distress when exposed to cues. Physiological reactivity when exposed to cues. C) Avoidance Thoughts, feelings or conversations. Activities, places or people. A3 (Friends feared we wont visit again.) Inability to recall important aspects. A3 (Could not remember cars registration number.) Diminished interest or participation. Feeling detachment or estrangement. A3 (Stupid comment) Restricted range of affect (unable to have loving feelings). Foreshortened future.

PTSD D) Increased arousal Sleep disturbances Irritability or outburst of anger. Difficulty concentrating. Hyper vigilance. Exaggerated startle response. Duration of symptoms is more than 1 month. The symptoms cause distress or impairment. Acute: Symptoms lasts less than 3 months Chronic: Symptoms lasts 3 months or more. Delayed onset: At least 6 months after the stressor. Challenging because by now everybody else has forgotten about your ordeal. F Who can get PTSD? It can happen to anybody. We all experience things differently. What might be stressful and traumatic for one person will not be stressful and traumatic for another? For some its much harder to admit. A3 Hubby and the hotdog stand. Year later window at night. A3 Burglary when Abi was a baby. Brother laughed at me. To him it was a burglary. To me it was something different.
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PTSD F Why do some get PTSD and other people dont? There are 2 factors that play a part in whether a person will develop PTSD: Risk Factors and Resilience Factors. Risk Factors Living through dangerous events and traumas. Having a history of mental illness. Getting hurt. Seeing people hurt or killed. Feeling horror, helplessness or extreme fear. Having little or no social support after the event. Dealing with extra stress after the event, such as a loss of a loved one, pain and injury or loss of a job or home. Resilience Factors Seeking out support from other people. Finding a support group after a traumatic event. Feeling good about ones own actions in the face of danger. Having a coping strategy, or a way of getting through the bad event and learning from it. Being able to act and respond effectively despite feeling fear. A3 Last year Terrence in my car. Resilience of children.

PTSD F Effects of PTSD Impacts everybody close to you. A3 o After burglary. o Cried when got home. o Made him get a gun. o Got a gun. Self-medicating by using alcohol or other drugs. We cant solve a problem with a problem. Struggle to deal with the grief, guilt and anger and that can lead to depression. A3 o C guilt about telling them theres no safe There could also be the risk of suicide when they feel it wont get better. Panic disorder. Anger issues.

PTSD F Treatment options Currently there are two type of CBT that appears to be the most effective counselling for PTSD: Cognitive Therapy Exposure Therapy Cognitive Therapy The therapist helps you understand and change how you think about your trauma and its aftermath. Your goal is to understand how certain thoughts about your trauma causes you stress and make your symptoms worse. You learn to replace these thoughts with more accurate and less distressing thoughts. Exposure Therapy The goal is to have less fear about your memories. It is based on the idea that people learn to fear thoughts, feelings and situations that remind them of a past traumatic event. By talking about your trauma repeatedly with a therapist, youll learn to get control of your thoughts and feelings. You change how you react to the stressful memories. Focussing on the less upsetting memories is called desensitization. When the therapist asks you to remember a lot of bad memories at once its called flooding.

PTSD EMDR With Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing you focus on other stimuli like eye movements, hand taps and sounds while thinking of or talking about our memories. For example, the therapist will move her hand near your face, and youll follow this movement with your eyes. Group Therapy Sharing your story with others may help you feel more comfortable talking about your trauma. Group therapy helps you build relationships with others who understand what youve been through. It can also help build self-confidence and trust. Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Here you learn ways of dealing with emotional conflicts caused by your trauma. This therapy helps you understand how your past affects the way you feel now. You identify what triggers your stressful memories and other symptoms. Find ways to cope with intense feelings about the past. Become more aware of your thoughts and feelings, so you can change your reactions to them. Raise your self-esteem.

PTSD Family Therapy A therapist helps you and your family to communicate, maintain good relationships and cope with tough emotions. In family therapy, each person can express his or her fears and concerns. Pharmacological Approaches Medication Complementary and Alternative Therapies People are often nervous to consider other forms of therapy such as hypnotherapy, massage therapy or other modalities like yoga, or acupuncture, breathing and relaxation technique, Art therapy, biofeedback, etc. Different strokes. Hypnotherapy works on the subconscious. In some cases NLP techniques are incorporated. Massage Therapy assists in the release of the trauma being stuck in different parts of the body. Lack of evidence. Ecstasy Shes tried it all!!!

PTSD CS Talking Client held up. After therapy empowered could say no Nobodys pointing a gun at me. Behavioural Elderly gentleman fell. 8 months prior car accident. Now would not drive, would not walk. Hypno Client with hearing problem. Faith healer.