You or someone close to you has survived a traumatic situation. Maybe it happened recently, maybe it was long ago, or maybe you’re not even sure whether or not to even call it a trauma. All you know is that you’re struggling emotionally. Whether the struggle started right away or has reared its head after you’ve been functioning well for a while, you know that you need to pay attention to it. It’s possible that you have PTSD.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is something that people can develop as the result of undergoing trauma.
To this day, many people think that PTSD only happens to people who have experienced extreme things in situations such as war. It is certainly true that war veterans, refugees, and even the journalists who cover news in war zones all experience trauma that can lead to PTSD.
However, there are many different kinds of trauma. Sometimes trauma is a one-time serious event. That kind of trauma may be caused by:
Oftentimes, though, trauma is not one single event that is easy to point to. Trauma can be a series of stressors that add up over time. One of the more common forms is childhood abuse, including emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. This abuse may come in varying degrees, but it is traumatic and complex because of its repeated and ongoing nature.
You can also experience the effects of trauma even if something doesn’t happen to you but you are a direct witness to it. That is called vicarious traumatization and it is also a very common form of trauma. It can occur when someone watches a parent go through domestic violence, for example, or is witness to a death. The experience of trauma comes in many shapes and forms, it is caused by many things, and you have the right to get treatment to help you overcome it.
PTSD Therap can help you cope with the symptoms of trauma while also overcoming the underlying issues so that you can thrive in the future.
People dealing with trauma may experience a wide variety of both physical and psychological symptoms. You may have PTSD if you:
Sometimes traditional talk therapy sometimes doesn’t work for people dealing with PTSD. If you can’t remember the trauma, or if remembering it causes you a lot of emotional pain, then talking about it can feel awful. PTSD therapists understand this and use a variety of other techniques to assist you in processing the trauma without having to go through each detail of the traumatic event.
It’s tempting to avoid dealing with trauma because you don’t want to re-trigger the negative feelings. However, there are healthy ways to get past trauma and we can help.
You may not identify with the word trauma right now. Many people have trouble seeing themselves as trauma survivors. This is due in part to a society that mistakenly tells us things like: It wasn’t that bad. That was a long time ago. Get over it. Other people have had it worse…
In fact, you might be surprised to learn that others who have lived through traumas frequently do not identify with the word “trauma.” Sometimes this means they have denied their own suffering, or have suffered alone for years. They have suffered in silence, and perhaps you are, too.
Your trauma was real and your reaction to it is valid. There is nothing wrong with you for having challenges as you overcome the past. We can help you begin dealing with trauma in new, healthy ways so that you can move forward into the fulfilling life that you wish to have. You can put the trauma into its proper place in the past and thrive in the years to come. Reach out to us for help today.
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