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SurreyTherapies provide specialist counselling to help deal with PTSD. Our approach is design to be quick and easy, and can be done without talking about the original event. Click this link to find out more about PTSD counselling in Surrey.
Sometimes PTSD gives people suicidal thoughts to end the pain. That is the PTSD speaking. It does not help you. If you have suicidal thoughts, call the Samaritans and your GP. In emergency situations, all 999 or visit an A&E unit. Things can only get better if you are alive.
What Are The Top 6 Signs of PTSD?
The Top 6 Signs of PTSD Trauma Are:
- A Traumatic Event
- Re-experiencing
- Avoidance
- Hypnerarousal
- Numbing
- Secondary Issues
Everybody with PTSD will experience it slightly differently, and may not experience all these symptoms.
Before we get into the details of the top 6 signs of PTSD, lets review what PTSD actually is.
What is PTSD?
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a sustained emotional response, following a significant event or events, which is negatively impacting that person’s ability to live their normal life.
What Causes PTSD?
PTSD is typically triggered by an EMLI:
- An Event that seems life threatening to the individual or other people.
- That is Meaningful to the individual.
- That happened when there was a stressful Landscape (background) for the individual.
- That seemed mentally or physically Inescapable at the time.
PTSD is estimates to affect about 1 in 3 people who experience a traumatic EMLI event.
How Many People Have PTSD in the UK?
It is estimated that 3 in 100 people in the UK have PTSD. That is 1 in 33. This is based on a large scale study, although actual rates may differ.
PTSD: Top 6 Signs
1) Traumatic Event
Most important is that event that is still creating the disturbance.
Many people associate PTSD with the military, “shell shock” and “combat stress”.
However, research shows that levels of PTSD in the general population is about the same as it is in the military.
PTSD may be caused by an explosion, life threatening incident for yourself or someone else, a fire, being attacked, rape, being in a car crash, having a miscarriage, or being burgled.
PTSD may also be triggered by watching people in life threatening situations, such as sensational media coverage of wars, floods, fire, famine, health issues or other incidents.
PTSD may be triggered by losing a loved one.
PTSD may be triggered by physical or psychological abuse, including childhood abuse when growing up.
2) Re-Experiencing
The events will still be prominent in the person’s mind and will also have strong feelings attached to them.
When the person is reminded of the event, their brain may physically respond as though they are there again, known as a flashback.
The brain will release stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline, preparing the body to fight or flight again, with increased heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, feeling sick, trembling, etc.
The event may also regularly appear in dreams, as nightmares, as the brain tries to deal with the emotions of the memory. This creates disturbed sleep and uses a huge amount of energy, often leaving the person feeling even more tired when they wake up.
3) Avoidance
To reduce re-experiencing, the person is likely to start avoiding situations that trigger their PTSD.
Over time, the things they learn to avoid may start to increase, so the PTSD increasingly takes over their lives.
4) Hypnerarousal
The brain may act as though it is still under attack, and create feelings of fear, phobia, anxiety, worry, stress or tension.
Being on alert all the time is hard work and may leave the person overwhelmed or with brain fog.
Along with further sleep issues and insomnia, this may also increase irritability or anger outbursts.
5) Numbing
The body won’t have enough energy to keep the person on high alert all the time, so may start numbing other feelings.
The person may start to feel empty or flat, as emotions get restricted. This can include positive emotions, such as joy or happiness. This can also contribute to feeling sad, down or depressed, which can be assessed using out PHQ assessment.
6) Secondary Symptoms
The brain and body will keep looking for other ways to self-heal, which it ironically often does through self-harming. Common examples including:
- Drug use.
- Alchohol use.
- Overeating.
- Dangerous activities.
- Auto-immune issues, such as fibromyalgia or Hashimotos.
4 out of 5 people with PTSD with have an additional mental health issue.
Help For PTSD And Trauma
At Surrey Therapies, we have a range of Counselling approaches that can help with PTSD.
Our approach is not for you to accept those feelings. Our aim is to quicky disconnect the emotional component of those memories, so that you can remember what happened, but without the pain or symptoms of PTSD. We combine various therapies for PTSD, including Counselling, EMDR+, EFT, NLP and Havening.
If you’d like to find out more, call 0800 292 2126, send us a WhatsApp:
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