Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Characteristics of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental and emotional condition that has its origins in a physical and/or mentally traumatic event that occurred anywhere from a few days to several years in the past. PTSD can develop by one overwhelming trauma as in 9/11 or by a series of smaller traumas or abuses occurring over several years such as living in an alcoholic home. It can be recognized from symptoms such as recurrent and persistent recollections of the traumatic event and recurring dreams of the event.

Advancements in Treating PTSD

Psychology has made great strides in recent years in the treatment of PTSD. Recent powerful psychology techniques such as Neuro-Emotional Technique™ or NET™, TFT, and EMDR have proven to be particularly effective in treating this disorder.

The characteristics of PTSD include the following symptoms:

1. Recurrent and persistent recollections of the traumatic event.
2. Recurrent dreams of the event
3. Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event is happening all over again
4. Intense distress related to internal or external events that remind one of the traumatic occurence.
5. Efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations assoicated with the trauma.
6. Efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that might be associated with the trauma.
7. An inability to remember important aspects of the traumatic event.
8. Decreased interest or participation in certain activites.
9. Feelings of detachment or estrangement from others.
10. The inability to have certain feelings.
11. A sense that time is short, and there is no future.
12. Difficulty falling and/or staying asleep.
13. Inability or angry outbursts.
14. Difficulty concentrating.
15. Hyper-vigliance.

PTSD Develops from Frequent Abuse

One type of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder develops when frequent abuse occurs in the home. This can have grave consequences for developing relationships in general and intimate relationships in particular.

It is a cliché that before you can be in a healthy love relationship you at first must be in love with yourself. This is a very true cliché. For someone to be loved they have to love themselves. But to love themselves they have to be first truly loved and cherished by their parents. Parents often feel love for their children, but it is much rarer to show the action of love in a consistent fashion. This means treating a child in a healthy, non-judgmental way. Often parents are too demanding in their expectations or have too many needs of their own, to be able to show that type of love. Even if they do, we live in such a perfectionist culture that children often do not feel that they measure up.

Abandonment Issues

Whenever a child feels abandonment from one or both of their parents they internalize the hurt and the result is a feeling of not being good enough to be loved. This feeling is the feeling of shame. Even if parents are relatively healthy and loving a child can feel tremendous abandonment if their parents get divorced, if a parent is alcoholic, or if they simply work too much and not spend the amount of quality time a child needs. This often leads to a deep emotional belief that they are unlovable.

Later, they might realize on a conscious level that they are loveable and in turn desire real love. Consciously they look for healthy love, but subconsciously they search out those people who are incapable of showing real love. This is called a repetition compulsion. This problem becomes worse if the child has been physically, emotionally, or sexually abused.

They find true love boring and yearn for people to treat them poorly, which ratifies their feeling unlovable. They often become addicted to these abusive relationships and feel that they cannot live without them. They become intensity junkies instead of trying to experience true intimacy. Finding partners who cannot commit is another variation on this theme.

PTSD Develops Within Dysfunctional Families

When a child is repeatedly abused in childhood, as is often the case in alcoholic families and families where a parent has sexually abused a child, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder will likely develop in that child. PTSD is traumatic stress that overloads a persons’ nervous system. This overwhelming stress creates shock in a person and dissociation between the three major brains and the body/brain. The dissociation also causes repressed energy that cannot be released fully so that the individual returns to balance or homeostasis.