Santa Barbara Psychotherapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
What is PTSD?
Trauma is an event that occurs as the result of a terrifying ordeal that affects our feelings of safety and survival. Traumatic events frighten us, unsettles our emotional well being, causes us to fear for our life and our psychological stability. Trauma results in a deep emotional wound that causes ongoing pain, confusion, and fear.
We all experience some form of trauma at some point in our lives. For instance an auto accident, the unexpected death of a love one, a natural disaster, a robbery. Depending on the severity of the trauma, we feel we can control the memories that resulted from the traumatic event.
When we feel danger we typically have a "flight or fight" response to defend ourselves. This natural response has kept people from harm throughout human history. In PTSD this reaction is damaged or disordered. People with PTSD often feel anxious and frightened even when they are no longer in danger.
When someone is significantly traumatized they are prone to relive the event in a variety of ways. The event can constantly be on someone's mind and/or "pop up" without warning.
A "triggering" moment can lead the person back to the actual scene(s) of the trauma, to the thoughts and feelings that occurred during that time. Sometimes people will feel guilt or shame even though the trauma was not their fault.
Often a trauma is hard to remember or accept so an individual may not understand that they have PTSD. As a result symptoms can be repressed or denied which results in feelings of "going crazy" because of a lack of understanding of the cause of the anxiety, tension, and "jumpiness".
Trauma can affect different aspects of daily life. Sleep is often disturbed, there can be anger "over nothing", it can become difficult to concentrate, and there can be feelings of alienation from "normal society".
Because of the intensity of reliving all, or parts, of traumatic experience, individuals can become disconnected from themselves and other people because they do not feel they are the person that they were or the person they want to be.
The public often believes that PTSD relates only to soldiers in war. Although it is true that PTSD often occurs in veterans, PTSD is not limited to those who have fought in war. There is a long history of medical and mental health professionals trying to understand trauma and its affect on the human experience.
In the 1860's trauma was seen as "railroad spine" because workers on railroads who were exposed to life threatening accidents were reluctant to return to work.
During the civil war trauma was known as "soldier's heart" because soldiers reported high levels of tension and a fast heart rate during battle and were fearful about returning to combat.
In World War II trauma evolved to "shell shock". Physicians believed that shelling caused small blood vessels in the brain to burst causing irritability, tremors, sleeping difficulties, and a host of physical problems.
In the Korean War trauma was described as "gross stress reaction" because of the emotional turmoil of combat and the emotional reactions of soldiers returning home after being prisoners of war.
During the Vietnam War traumas surfaced more clearly after soldiers returned home from the one year required combat tour (there was a draft during that time). The delay was called "delayed stress reaction" or "post-Vietnam syndrome."
"natural disasters"
"child abuse"
"rape"
"family violence"
In the 1970's the understanding of trauma extended beyond war to the traumas of daily life. Mental health professionals began to see war-like trauma symptoms in traumatic events in ordinary citizens such as "rape trauma", "battered woman syndrome", "police officer shooting trauma", "child abuse trauma", "natural disaster trauma", et al.
In the 1980's, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), which is used to diagnose mental health problems, included Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a legitimate mental health diagnosis. PTSD has remained a diagnosis in the various DSM revisions that have occurred since that time.
Prevalence of PTSD
The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have solidified our understanding of PTSD as well as the importance of its treatment. One in five veterans of those wars have been diagnosed with PTSD - over 300,000 by 2012.
Military life and the stress of these current wars are claiming many lives through suicide. Suicides among active-duty military personnel averaged over twenty per day in 2012. Veterans now account for 20 per cent of all suicides in the United States, with the youngest (24 and under) taking their lives at four times the rate compared with the older veteran groups.
It is not just veterans who experience PTSD. Statistics indicate that seventy per cent of the population will experience a trauma sometime in their lives. Twenty percent of that seventy per cent will go on to develop PTSD.
Around 3.5 per cent or more of the general U.S. population will experience PTSD in any given twelve month period. One out of every nine women will develop PTSD, twice as likely as men.
Highest rates of PTSD are found among survivors of rape, military combat and captivity, domestic violence, natural and violent disasters and child sexual abuse. Various jobs are at high risk of traumatic exposure: police, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel.
Is PTSD Treatment Effective?
Since 2000 there has been considerable research on the effectiveness of psychotherapy in the treatment of PTSD. Generally the use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been shown to be very effective. However there has been no definitive differences discovered between differing treatment approaches. Having an individual approach to each PTSD client has been found to be the most effective.
There are no quick fixes for PTSD. Although therapeutic interventions and, on occasion, medication can he helpful, the key to successful treatment is working with the therapist to handle the pain and suffering that accompanies the memories of the trauma.
We are often adverse to emotional pain in our culture. We want a quick fix. The key to the treatment of PTSD is to contain this tendency and see the importance of "working through" these feelings - not repressing but finding ways to integrate and cope with these emotions.
Trauma is a violation of the human psyche and heart. There are many ways to heal and avoid self destructive behavior. It is important that those surviving PTSD be open to the natural healing powers that all humans possess. These healing powers have allowed humanity to thrive and survive. On the other side of pain and suffering is relief, understanding, meaning, and a new sense of all the dimensions of life.
For the PTSD client it is also being open to the curative powers available in our communities that enhance the psychotherapeutic experience. Support groups can provide "I'm not in it alone" and "the spirit of survival of others which can inspire my own healing".
Ultimately effective treatment depends on a number of factors, the most important being a commitment to a process that challenges the attack on the spirit and the mind, finding the human curative powers within our heart and psyche to create a new life.
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it.Mary Englebreit
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