Did you know that June is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) month? Post traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events or set of circumstances. Once thought to primarily affect military service members, law enforcement personnel, and first responders, we now know that people of all ages and across a number of different professions and walks of life can be diagnosed with PTSD. Adverse childhood experiences, significant emotional events, and racial trauma can lead to the need to seek treatment. An individual may experience these as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening and may affect mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual well-being. Some examples are natural disasters, serious accidents, war/combat, rape/sexual assault, historical trauma, intimate partner/domestic violence and bullying.
Treatment options to address PTSD vary to include Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PET) to name a few. Please consider reaching out for treatment if you’re having PTSD related symptoms such as being easily startled or frightened, memory problems, including not remembering important aspects of the traumatic event, avoiding places/activities/people that remind you of the traumatic event, and/or severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of the traumatic event.
References:
What is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?. Psychiatry.org – What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? (n.d.). https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/ptsd/what-is-ptsd
Va.gov: Veterans Affairs. Racial Trauma. (2021, August 16). https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/types/racial_trauma.asp
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2022, December 13). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20355967