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Posttraumatic stress disorder
(PTSD)
A
traumatic event during which one experiences life
threat, serious injury or a threat to ones physical
integrity (or witnessing the like), and during
which one reacts with intensive fear, horror or
helplessness, can lead to the development of
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Examples of
various traumatic events that can result in
posttraumatic stress disorder includes rape,
physical violence, robbery, accidents, natural
disasters, war, torture etc.
The following are the symptoms in posttraumatic
disorder:
1. Re-experiences of the
traumatic event (thoughts and memories, nightmares,
flashbacks, emotional upsets or/and physiological
reactions).
2. Avoidance of reminders of the trauma
(thoughts, feelings, situations, persons,
conversations, activities).
3. Feelings of numbness (diminished interest
in activities, distancing from other people,
difficulties in experiencing feelings, and/or
experiences of ones future as shortened).
4. Physiological activation (sleeping
difficulties, irritability, concentration
difficulties, hypervigilance, startle
responses).
5. The symptoms lead to psychological suffering and
often to a diminished occupational and social
functioning.
Posttraumatic stress disorder is a result of an
insufficiently emotionally processed traumatic
memory. When such a memory is activated due to
reminders of the trauma it results in very strong
reactions, erroneous beliefs and assumptions that
the whole world is very dangerous, that oneself is
an incompetent individual, and that other people
are unreliable and unsupportive. A successful
emotional processing and/or cognitive processing of
the traumatic memory should lead to a recovery from
PTSD.
© Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) specialist in
Stockholm, 2005-2008, www.kbterapi.se
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