Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Trauma Of The Past Trickling Into Your Present

Have you ever experienced anything that is completely normal to you in one moment, but the very next moment, it feels like something is off? Blimey right, it feels like a light is twinkling enough to make your heart skip a beat, or a regular street suddenly gives a strange twist in your stomach? Your brain is hell-bent on proving nothing is wrong, but your body reacts anyway. Tensing shoulders, shortening of breath, accompanied by sharp senses as if something will happen suddenly. This mismatch between what one feels and what one knows is disturbing. This tug-of-war between your normal surroundings and intense reactions is what opens the door to understanding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.    

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not just your common niggling fear or inconvenience. It is your brain’s response to overwhelming experiences that reshape emotional and psychological functioning long after the specific event ends. People all over the world, who have overcome accidents, violence, abuse, natural disasters, war, and medical emergencies, silently carry this weight. Despite its serious nature, many cases remain unidentified and misunderstood. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are often neglected as just stress or being too sensitive. Being aware is vital; with early understanding and timely support, one can prevent years of silent suffering. 

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Scars You Do Not See, But Battles You Still Fight

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that usually develops after being exposed to alarming situations. It goes beyond a normal episode of stress reaction, making you feel evocative, threatened, and overdriven emotionally long after the incident is done.

Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms continue for more than a month and can interfere with day-to-day activities, relationships, work, and emotional wellness. Unlike the physical wounds, post-traumatic stress disorder often hides below the surface, making it important to understand how and why it develops.

The Silent Sabotage: How Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Modifies The Brain

During a traumatic episode, the amygdala, known as the fear centre of the brain, becomes hyperactive, which triggers strong fight, flight, and freeze responses.
Another part inside the brain, known as the hippocampus, which is usually tasked with organising memories, PTSD may cause it to shrink or not perform its work properly. This is what makes the traumatic memories feel more scattered, vivid, and difficult to distinguish from the present in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. The part of the brain that deals with logic and decision-making becomes less effective in relaxing these signals. The result of this is the brain replaying the fear responses without permission.

This proves why patients suffering from PTSD feel unsafe or emotionally overwhelmed because the brain is not weak; it is trying to protect itself using an emergency switch, which fails to turn itself off.

Four Ways Your Past Resists Silence: Types of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

While officially, post-traumatic stress disorder is classified as a single condition. Doctors often classify post-traumatic stress disorder or refer to it under various types and subtypes. This is because symptoms of PTSD present themselves differently in each individual who is affected.

• Uncomplicated post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as typical post-traumatic stress disorder, is generally the outcome of a single traumatic event. Symptoms are composed under four criteria, namely intrusive memories, active avoidance of reminders, negative changes in thinking/mood, and increased activeness.
• Complex post-traumatic stress disorder is a result of long, repeated trauma. Along with common symptoms of PTSD, individuals experience difficulties in regulating emotions, negative self-perception, and issues with personal relationships.
• Dissociative post-traumatic stress disorder is where the patient feels depersonalization, that is, detachment from their own body processes, and derealization, a feeling of the world being a stranger or dreamlike, respectively.
• Delayed onset post-traumatic stress disorder, a person completes the criteria for being post-traumatic, but does not show any symptoms until at least six months after the event.
• Co-morbid post-traumatic stress disorder is a type of PTSD, where PTSD occurs in combination with other mental problems like depression, anxiety, substance-related disorders, and personality-related disorders.

Why Do Some Brains Develop PTSD After Trauma?

Some brains develop PTSD after trauma because the response to a traumatic event depends on a mix of biological, psychological, and social factors, not just the event itself. Trauma, such as violence, accidents, disasters, combat, or repeated exposure to distressing events, can trigger physical and chemical changes in the brain, affecting stress hormones and the fight-or-flight response. The risk of PTSD is influenced by pre-trauma factors like genetics, past trauma, mental health history, age, personality, and gender (with women at higher risk); peri-trauma factors such as the severity of the event and feelings of helplessness; and post-trauma factors including lack of social support, ongoing stress, and poor coping mechanisms. This explains why not everyone who experiences trauma goes on to develop PTSD.

When Past Trauma Continues to Affect the Present: Understanding PTSD Symptoms

The symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder are categorised into four main clusters, namely intrusion, that is, re-experiencing the event through unwanted memories, nightmares, or flashbacks. Avoidance is a deliberate effort to avoid trauma-related thoughts, feelings, places, or conversations. Negative alterations in cognition and mood involve difficulty in remembering aspects of trauma, negative self-perceptions, detachment, or the inability to experience any positive emotions. Arousal and reactivity symptoms include hypervigilance, angry outbursts, irritability, difficulty sleeping, and engaging in aggressive behaviour.

The symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder are age-specific and gender-specific

Not only are human emotions affected during post-traumatic stress disorder, but it also affects every corner of life.

Relationships are negatively affected as loved ones close to the patient may feel that the person is getting farther, irritable, and withdrawn.

In work and education, individuals with PTSD might find it hard to concentrate, have memory issues, and experience anxiety. There is a massive drop in productivity.

Post-traumatic stress disorder leads to constant headaches, fatigue, and muscle problems, along with common digestive issues and sleep problems.

Not everyone who goes through a trauma develops post-traumatic stress disorder. A normal stress response fades over time. Some of the basic differences between the two responses are
      

Diagnosing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is diagnosed by a licensed mental health professional through detailed clinical interviews, symptom assessment, and review of a person’s trauma history. The gold-standard tool used is the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-5), which evaluates the presence, severity, and impact of symptoms on daily life. Doctors may also use validated questionnaires and screening tools to understand trauma exposure, emotional responses, dissociation, and functional difficulties. Medical conditions that could mimic symptoms are ruled out, and symptoms are monitored over time to ensure an accurate diagnosis and appropriate care.

Transformative Treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

• The effective treatment for Post-traumatic stress disorder centres of attention is to decrease the effect of symptoms, improve functioning, and help individuals in regaining a sense of safety and control.
• Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (Tf-CBT) is the most evidence-based psychological treatment that helps in reframing distorted trauma-related thoughts and decreasing avoidance.
• Prolonged exposure therapy is a structured therapy that gradually exposes patients to memories of trauma and avoided situations, which reduces responses of fear and avoidance behaviours.
• Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) uses guided eye movements while recalling trauma, which helps the brain in reprocessing traumatic memories and decreases the emotional intensity.
• Cognitive processing therapy focuses on the identification and modification of unhelpful trauma-related beliefs like guilt, shame, and blame. Sertraline, paroxetine, fluoxetine, and venlafaxine are medicines that decrease anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and symptoms dependent on mood. Prazosin is often used for trauma-related nightmares, with sleep hygiene and behavioural strategies also being vital.
• Grounding, relaxation, and emotional regulation are used to process deep traumas, along with group therapy that provides community, reduces loneliness and enables healing. This technique has been quite helpful in cases of veterans, abuse survivors, and disaster survivors.
• Regular exercise, sleep hygiene, balanced diet, avoiding alcohol, and substance use combined with mindfulness meditation, and yoga reduce hyperarousal and reconnect the body awareness.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder can recur due to stress, so long-term monitoring and booster therapy sessions help in maintaining the recovery phase.

Strength Behind the PTSD Struggle

Individuals who survive post-traumatic stress disorder show extraordinary strength and flexibility as they navigate the signs and symptoms that widely affect mood, memory, and daily functioning. Each step towards getting stable and recovering reflects measurable progress in the brain’s journey of getting itself right. Their determination in getting treated, using coping strategies, and regaining control is proof of both strength and clinical improvement.

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