Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is an extreme example of an excess of demands on a person which is beyond their ability to cope. It is so extreme that the person may know they are in a bad place but have no idea how far from normality they are. Only when normality returns can the person then see how far away from normality they were. The effects often affect the family of the person to a disruptive degree.

PTSD can affect anybody: Military personnel after the horrors they deal with in the line of their duty; an adult after a car crash or bereavement; a child after sexual abuse or the loss of a parent. Any overwhelming shock can cause PTSD.

Symptoms include:

• Re-experiencing – flashbacks, nightmares, intrusive and distressing images.

• Avoidance – avoiding people, situations or circumstances reminding you of the experience.

• Hyper arousal – hyper vigilance for a repeat or threat of a repeat experience, exaggerated startle response, sleep problems, irritability, poor concentration.

• Emotional numbing – lack of ability to feel emotions, feeling detached from other people, withdrawing from previously significant activities, amnesia for significant parts of the experience.

• Depression – something has happened which you did not want to happen or something has not happened which you did want to happen. The result is that you have a reduction or loss of ability to find pleasure in your life.

• Drug or alcohol misuse or abuse – this may seem like the only escape.

• Anger – of course you are angry; not only has something terrible happened but you were not able to do anything about it.

• Unexplained physical symptoms – you may repeatedly visit your GP with a physical problem they are unable to diagnose or treat successfully.

• A belief that it can happen again.

• No sense of the future – you are frozen so solidly in time that, for you, now is so enormous that there is no future.

• Choosing safety – you may do things like cancel a taxi at the last minute, just in case.

• Inability to describe your feelings – the part of the brain responsible for words and speech shuts down during such an experience. You truly do not have any words to describe what you experienced.

Mark can enable you to recall and relive the experience, in a safe and controlled environment, and desensitise yourself to the shock, thus releasing you from its grip. Instead of the experience overpowering you, the situation can be reversed and you can diminish the strength of the experience, leaving yourself the stronger of the two.

Self respect and a sense of worth and belonging can return to someone who knows they had lost these things to which they have a right. You can walk again in the world with your head held high and feeling free; just like you used to.