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SearchNot all people respond to traumatic events in the same way. Physical wounds may have healed, yet unseen scars left on the heart and mind are often painful and difficult to recover from, especially when they’ve developed into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But, with the right PTSD treatment, even the most severe psychological damage from traumatic events is treatable.
Natural disasters, transportation accidents, or brushes with death are unexpected, sudden, and can be emotionally overwhelming. Traumas that come in the form of physical, emotional, and verbal abuse may outwardly leave no visible signs of injury but can deal devastating blows to your inner self.
What Does PTSD Look Like?
When trauma symptoms intensify and persist, they can lead to a diagnosis of PTSD.
PTSD symptoms call into three categories:
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1. Hyper-arousal
Hyper-arousal occurs from an inability to reset after a traumatizing experience, leaving your bodily processes and mental state set in overdrive. If you are suffering from hyper-arousal, you may experience difficulty sleeping and concentrating, being easily startled, and enduring increased irritability. You may also express heightened levels of anger, agitation, panic, and hypervigilance, or be hyper-alert to supposed dangers, real or imagined. -
2. Re-experiencing
Invasive memories, nightmares, flashbacks, and exaggerated reactions to reminders of the traumatic event are symptoms of re-experiencing, which may cause you to endure the manifestation of original physical or bodily harm during focused remembering of those traumas. -
3. Avoidance
Traumatic experiences may leave some victims feeling robotic, or as if they are on automatic pilot. This numbing, or sense of severe disconnectedness from their mental state and from life, can extend to the perception of living in a so called deadness. Symptoms of numbing include a lack or total loss of interest in life and people, hopelessness, loneliness, direct aversion of thoughts and feelings related to the traumatic events, accompanied by feelings of detachment or estrangement from others, depression, and emotional suppression. Avoiding discussing the trauma or denying the expressing of feelings and thoughts connected to the trauma may also become a central focus of the survivor’s life.
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Treating PTSD
Many people suffering from PTSD fail to seek treatment because of misidentifying or failing to recognize their symptoms. They may also not realize that their PTSD is treatable.
It can be challenging for victims of PTSD to come forward and seek help. In addition, those who have gone through a traumatic event may feel shame, guilt, fear, or mistrust. They may also want to avoid thinking about the experience, which can sometimes lead to co-occurring substance abuse or addiction.
At Clearview Treatment Programs, we help our clients heal from their PTSD symptoms that prevent them from moving forward. We help clients resume functioning as they did before. Our specialized treatment services help clients recognize and recover through comprehensive care, an active patient-clinician connection, and encouraging support. We address each client’s individualized needs in a nurturing environment at our residential treatment and outpatient treatment programs. With Clearview’s guidance, there’s a way through the hurt, fear, and burden of traumatic life events.
PTSD FAQs
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is relatively common, with about 6% of the U.S. population experiencing it at some point in their lives. According to the National Center for PTSD, approximately 12 million adults in the U.S. are affected by PTSD annually. While it can develop after exposure to a traumatic event like combat, natural disasters, accidents, or assault, not everyone who experiences trauma will develop PTSD. Certain risk factors, including the severity and duration of the trauma, previous trauma exposure, and pre-existing mental health conditions, can influence who develops it.
There is no set time at which post-traumatic stress disorder develops. Symptoms of PTSD can develop relatively soon after a traumatic event or can take years to develop. Delayed PTSD often occurs in people who have experienced childhood sexual or physical abuse. Hidden by emotional constraint or complete emotional severance for years, it is common for symptoms of PTSD to manifest suddenly following a major traumatic life event, heightened stress, or an accumulation of stressors over a short period of time that challenge the victim’s emotional defenses.