Trauma, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Everyone has experienced at least one horrendous event in our life. When people are exposed to a terribly stressful event, they often can’t get the haunting images of it out of their waking thoughts or dreams at night. Anything remotely resembling that event will upset them excessively. Sometimes, an experience that only lasts a few minutes can affect you for a lifetime. These aftershocks are called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Life threatening events such as natural disasters, war, physical or sexual assault, robbery, accidents, threats of harm and terminal illness are often life threatening. Other terrifying events that cause trauma are: Medical or dental procedures or emergencies, fender benders, seeing your house burn down, the sudden death of a loved one, or being humiliated by a teacher in front of the class in childhood. Living in an abusive family, experiencing incest or long-term sexual abuse, enduring domestic violence and fighting in combat are just as serious. You could even be overwhelmed just hearing about something awful happening to a loved one or seeing a disaster on TV or in a graphic film like what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.

If you react with intense anger, sadness or fear when thinking about a terrible past event, as if reliving it, you need treatment for these flashbacks. You may be suffering from trauma and not know it. It is as if you are still living in the “then,” not the “now.” Victims of trauma create a number of ways to cope when the experience is too horrible for the mind to handle. Many people “tough it out” or downplay the impact of what has happened, yet are plagued by nightmares. Others go into a state of denial and downplay the horror of the event.

Trauma sufferers often develop behaviors to avoid any reminders of the event by organizing their lives around not feeling any upsetting emotions. Many won’t drive on particular streets or visit places associated with their trauma. Use of alcohol and drugs deadens feelings and avoids intrusive thoughts and memories. PTSD sufferers become hyper-alert and startle easily. It is as if the danger is just around the corner and they have to protect themselves at all times.Those who endured psychological physical or sexual abuse in childhood frequently believe it was their fault, secretly thinking they are basically bad or flawed and deserved the ghastly treatment. As a result many harm themselves compulsively. Self-inflicted pain seems to relieve the agony of the emotional pain.

Energy Psychology techniques such as EFT, TAT, REMAP and Seemorg Matrix (AIT) raise the Serotonin in the brain which can create relaxation and peace. This chemical floods the part of the brain that is triggering these memories. The fear loop becomes disconnectedand the trauma victim stops reliving the original event. Although the memory remains, there is no more reaction.

 

Gloria Arenson is a Southern California based psychotherapist with a private therapy practice in Santa Barbara. She helps people to recover successfully from eating disorders, compulsive spending, anxiety, fears, phobias, PTSD, panic disorder and other problems. Gloria is a licensed hypnotherapist and is trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Psychosynthesis, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). She specializes in cutting edge energy therapies such as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), an acupressure based therapy method, Thought Field Therapy (TFT), and Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT).