Areas of Expertise

TRAUMA - POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can occur after one has seen or experienced a traumatic event that involved the threat of injury or death. It is not entirely clear as to why two different people can experience the same type of event and one will develop symptoms and another may not. PTSD can occur at any age and can be related to natural disasters, assaults, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, accidents or combat. PTSD is an anxiety disorder, and not surprisingly includes symptoms associated with anxiety.

There are three main categories of symptoms identified as Reliving, Avoidance, and Arousal. Reliving is characterized by flashbacks of the event during which a person actually re-experiences the event over and over, persistent and upsetting memories of the event, repeated nightmares of the event, and strong reactions to situations which remind one of the event. Avoidance is characterized as emotional numbing or apathy, feeling detached, blocking memories of the event, loss of interest in normal activities, avoiding places, people or thoughts that remind you of the event, and feeling hopeless about the future. Arousal is characterized by difficulty concentrating, startling easily with an exaggerated response, hypervigilance (constantly scanning for danger), irritability, anger, trouble falling or staying asleep.

There are also what is known as non-clinical PTSD in which a person may have experienced frequent long term abuse or neglect, perhaps as a child or adult, and experiences some of the above symptoms without ever making the connection between their history and their current symptoms. PTSD is treatable and manageable through either medication, psychotherapy or both.