How To Diagnose PTSD and Treatment
Causes of post-traumatic stress disorder:
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can occur after a person experiences a very stressful event. The person experiences the event as traumatic.
Characteristics of PTSD include:
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Exposure to an event where the person experienced, witnessed, or faced a threat of death or serious injury. The event may also have threatened their physical well-being.
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The person’s response would also involve intense fear, helplessness, or horror.
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The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced (flashbacks, intrusive memories, nightmares, etc.)
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The person persistently avoiding anything that they associate with the trauma.
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Persistent hyper-vigilance, sleep difficulties, irritability, difficulty concentrating or
other signs of increased arousal. -
The disturbance causes impairment or distress in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. (Source: Diagnostic Criteria from the DSM IV)
Although this is the formal definition of PTSD, I have seen people develop PTSD symptoms from less severe events. Anything that sufficiently overwhelms an individual to the extent that the intensity does not fade would be considered traumatic. If we use a scale from 0 to 10, 0 means no distress.
A 10 means the worst distress. Anything that bothers you in the 7 to 10 range would be traumatic. That level of intensity does not typically dissipate without effective therapeutic intervention. (See the “Highly Useful” therapies below.)
PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms
If you have several of these symptoms more than once a month after trauma, consider getting professional help.
The Anxiety Disorder Association of America recommends seeing a mental health professional. Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder could include:
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Recurrent and uncontrollable thoughts, memories or dreams about the trauma
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Acting or feeling as if the trauma is happening in the present
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Intense emotional or physiological reactions to reminders of the trauma
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Going to extreme lengths to avoid reminders of the trauma
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Inability to feel emotionally close to others
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Inability to remember important details about the trauma
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Difficulty falling or staying asleep
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Greater irritability than before the trauma
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Extreme wariness (e.g., avoiding crowded places)
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Being easily startled
Other symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) may include headaches and fatigue. You may also have a pounding heart and sweats, especially at night. Other symptoms include diarrhea and abdominal pain.
You may feel muscle aches and pains. You may startle easily and urinate often. (Source: Brian B. Doyle, M.D., Georgetown Medical School)
PTSD is a treatable anxiety disorder. Although many people have post-traumatic stress syndrome, there is no need to suffer from post-traumatic stress in silence.
Treating PTSD with Hypnotherapy
Treating PTSD With Hypnotherapy has emerged as a credible, evidence-based treatment option for sufferers of PTSD.
PTSD consists of a series of symptoms that arise from a traumatic event which occurs in one’s life.
We mostly hear about PTSD treatment for service members returning from war and combat. It is common for soldiers to live in chaos for a while and then struggle to return to normal life at home.
This disorder is not only for soldiers returning from war. If you are the victim of a crime, especially a violent crime, you may be experiencing some of these symptoms.
If you have ever been the victim of abuse including verbal and sexual abuse, you may have symptoms of PTSD.
People in emergency response, like police, firefighters, and EMTs, have high PTSD rates. Their work often involves traumatic events.
Ways Hypnotherapy is Effectively Used in the Treating PTSD
Ways Hypnotherapy is Effectively Used in the Treating PTSD
Audio recordings of PTSD hypnotherapy sessions can be made.
Clients can listen at any time to help relieve symptoms.
-The hypnotherapist focuses on each person’s specific triggers. This helps change the mental patterns they have developed.
This will then change his or her reactions to the triggers in Treating PTSD.
-The hypnotherapist works with the client to identify each PTSD trigger. This helps the client feel more control in daily situations. These situations once would have been hard for them.
-Being in a state of hypnosis for PTSD is a dissociative state.
This means the client feels very relaxed.
They may feel as if they are not in their body.
They may also feel less connected to negative thoughts.
Even after you come out of hypnosis, the strong benefits of physical and mental relaxation can last for days.
-The hypnotherapist can also teach the client how to use self-hypnosis. This is extremely useful for treating PTSD. It gives the client the ability to be in control and bring peace and comfort to themselves at any time.
Services-“Kelly-Johnston Counseling, PLLC”
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