What is PTSD?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can occur after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. While it can affect anyone, it is particularly common among Veterans, military personnel, law enforcement, frontline workers, and first responders due to the nature of their work.

What is Trauma?

Trauma is an emotional response to an overwhelming life experience, which can include:

• Combat and High-Stress Occupations: Exposure to violent conflicts, witnessing death, and experiencing life-threatening situations.

• Sexual Assault: Experiencing sexual violence or harassment, leading to profound emotional and psychological distress.

• Witnessing Traumatic Events: Observing severe accidents, natural disasters, or violence, which can be as impactful as experiencing the event directly.

• Complex Trauma: Repeated exposure to traumatic events, often of an interpersonal nature, such as ongoing abuse or neglect, which can profoundly affect one’s mental and emotional health over time.

How PTSD Affects People

• Intrusive Memories: These unwanted memories, flashbacks, or nightmares can disrupt daily life and make it hard to concentrate on tasks, affecting job performance and personal relationships.

• Avoidance: Steering clear of reminders of the trauma can lead to isolation from friends and family, creating feelings of loneliness and disconnect from loved ones.

• Negative Thoughts and Mood: Persistent negative thoughts, feelings of hopelessness, and a skewed view of the world can strain relationships and affect both personal and professional life.

• Changes in Physical and Emotional Reactions: Being easily startled, always on guard, or having trouble sleeping can lead to fatigue, irritability, and even physical health issues, such as headaches and digestive problems.

• Hypervigilance: Constantly feeling on edge and being excessively aware of surroundings can cause chronic stress and prevent relaxation, impacting one's ability to enjoy life.

• Emotional Numbness and Detachment: Feeling detached from others and losing interest in activities once enjoyed. This emotional blunting can make it hard to connect with loved ones, leading to a sense of isolation and difficulty in maintaining personal relationships.

• Guilt and Shame: Survivors of trauma may blame themselves or feel shame about the event, which can lead to low self-esteem and hinder recovery.

How Therapy Helps With PTSD

Reframing Thoughts Learn to interpret and remember past events in a more balanced way, so you can release the guilty, shame, regret, and anger you feel about them

Memory Processing Overwhelming life events, or trauma, are a brain memory processing issue. Recategorize those memories, so they stop popping up in unexpected and unwelcome ways.

Coping Strategies Tools to deal with the bull-shit without the anger, rage, and pain. Use strategies that don’t involve avoidance, numbing, or shutting down.

Present-focused Practices Helps the past stay in the past, so you can be here to enjoy the present.