Post Traumatic Stress Disorders

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

PTSD is a real illness. People may get PTSD after living through a terrible and scary experience. It can be treated with medicine and therapy. You can get PTSD after you have been:

Raped or sexually abused
Hit or harmed by someone in your family
A victim of a violent crime
In an airplane or car crash
In a hurricane, tornado, or fire
In a war
In an event where you thought you might be killed
Or, after you have witnessed any of these events

Symptoms

PTSD has four types of symptoms:

Reliving the event (flashbacks): Memories of the trauma can strike at any time, day or night. You may have nightmares or feel like you are going through the trauma again.
Avoiding situations: you may try to avoid people or things that remind you of the event.
Negative emotional and mental changes: The way you think about yourself and others changes because of the trauma. You may have trouble experiencing your emotions, think no one can be trusted, or feel guilt or shame.
Feeling keyed up or tense: You feel a constant need to be on the lookout for danger. You might suddenly become angry, irritable or jittery. This is known as hyper-arousal.

Treatment

Today, there are good treatments available for PTSD. When you have PTSD, dealing with the past can be hard. Instead of telling others how you feel, you may bury your feelings inside. However, talking with one of our therapists can help you get better. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one type of counseling that we use to treat PTSD. Research has shown this type of therapy to be the most effective for treating PTSD.

Don’t let PTSD get in the way of your enjoyment of life. If left untreated, it can hurt your relationships or cause problems for you at work or school. We can help. Our office is a safe environment, where you will meet with an empathetic counselor who will listen to you and work with you at your pace. Let us help you get back to being free from trauma.