Traumapsycholoog

Traumapsycholoog written by: costar

For most people, PTSD is just a meaningless abbreviation. For others, it is associated with battle-scarred soldiers. What you need to know is that PTSD can be caused by any distressing and uncontrollable life event and that it can be treated with the help of a Gold Coast trauma/PTSD psychologist. Het more information about sportpsycholoog.

What is PTSD?

PTSD stands for Post traumatic Stress Disorder and it refers to a psychiatric disorder occurring after experiencing life-threatening events. PTSD can develop after witnessing or being involved in natural disasters, serious accidents, military combats, and terrorist incidents. This condition can also be caused by sexual or physical assault in both children and adults.

Response to trauma such as anxiety, bad dreams and finding it difficult to stop thinking about what happened are normal for a short period of time. In people with PTSD, these normal reactions to shattering events don’t fade off within weeks, but instead they gradually worsen. The persisting psychological shock is hard to eliminate in people suffering from PTSD and it affects various aspects of their everyday life.

How do you know you need to see a Gold Coast trauma/PTSD psychologist?

As mentioned before, short-lived response to trauma is normal. You need to worry if you are persistently experiencing the following symptoms, which indicate PTSD:

Unavoidable and upsetting memories of the event; flashbacks
Nightmares of the traumatic event or of other terrifying events
Feeling extremely distressed and having intense physical reactions when recalling the event
Being pessimistic about your future
Feeling emotionally numb and detached
Having no interest in life and activities
Avoiding things that remind you the trauma
Being on a constant alert and having trouble sleeping
Finding it difficult to concentrate
Anger outburst and irritability. PTSD treatments

The earlier you get treatment from a Gold Coast trauma/PTSD psychologist, the better. Symptoms become worse in time and they begin affecting your family life, too. Additionally, PTSD can have negative effects on your physical health status, since this psychiatric condition has been associated with heart disease.

Because PTSD affects personality in different ways (beliefs, emotions, self-image), treatment focuses on the person as a whole.

Treatment includes cognitive-behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (cognitive-behavioral therapy combined with rhythmic guided eye movements which change your brain’s processing system), family and group therapy, exposure therapy, brief psycho-dynamic psychotherapy and medication. PTSD treatment lasts several months, depending on the severity of symptoms.

As a result of getting PTSD or trauma therapy, you will be able to reduce your symptoms, learn new ways to live with them and you will find how you can deal with other problems associated with this disorder. Your life quality will improve substantially and your memories and negative feelings will stop haunting you.