PTSD

 

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may develop following exposure to frightening or traumatic events. Individuals with PTSD may experience unwanted memories of a traumatic event in the form of flashbacks or nightmares, elevated levels of anxiety, low mood, and hypersensitivity. Reminders of the event may also trigger intrusive memories or heightened emotion that must be avoided at all costs.

“When something traumatic happens in your life it rocks you to the core. The world is no longer a safe place. It becomes somewhere that bad things can and do happen.”

Individuals who have experienced repeated, prolonged interpersonal trauma may develop complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) which is characterized by the symptoms of PTSD as well as alterations in attention (i.e., dissociation), difficulties in managing relationships, and very strong negative beliefs about the self, world, or future.

“It’s not that the event hasn’t happened; but how I look at the event and how it looks back at me has changed. I am able to look at the event from a different lens and it doesn’t haunt me like it once did.”