Mental Health

What is Trauma, What is PTSD, Who is Affected, and How to Get Help

While Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is known as the hallmark of traumatic experiences, exposure to trauma can lead to a variety of mental health issues, often less well known to the public.

What is trauma?

While the word “trauma” is often used loosely in pop culture, there is a different definition for trauma in psychiatry. For example, people may label a stressful breakup or challenging professional experience as “traumatic.” But in psychiatric parlance, “trauma” is exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. Some examples include shootings, rapes, robberies, assaults, domestic violence, war, natural disasters, serious car accidents, and life-threatening illnesses.

The exposure does not necessarily have to be direct, and could occur by witnessing the event happening to others, or the aftermath of tragedies. This second form of exposure often occurs in first responders (firefighters, police officers, emergency medical personnel, dispatchers), combat-exposed veterans, refugees, and survivors of torture and human trafficking. Among all of these groups, PTSD is much more common (often affecting one in three to five people) than in the general public (affecting almost one in ten).

The immediate reaction to trauma varies in different people, but could include:

• shock
• Panic
• Fear and anxiety
• Confusion
• Feelings of loss of control or helplessness
• Continual thoughts about why this happened and trying to make sense of it
• Rapid heart rate and breathing
• Feeling nervous
• Insomnia, nausea,
• Anger, sadness and guilt.

When do we call it PTSD?

For many people, the symptoms go away over time, but for some, they may persist. When a certain number of symptoms continue for at least a month, such as recurrent sensory flashbacks, nightmares, nervousness, avoidance of any memory of the trauma, intrusive memories of the trauma, negative beliefs and emotions, guilt about what happened, anger and irritability. , and always being aware, this will be called PTSD.

Some people may not have all the symptoms of PTSD, but may still be very distressed or unable to function. Other people may still feel very anxious or just down. Often all of these occur together.

What happens in PTSD is that the brain goes into fight and flight mode and is constantly on alert to protect the person from a recurrence of the highly dangerous experience. But the problem is that you can’t come down from that high arousal state, even after you leave the dangerous situation and return to the safe living environment.

For example, for a veteran with PTSD (or a gunfight survivor), it would make sense to drop to the ground to the sound of an explosion in the combat zone. But the brain cannot differentiate the context, and the person will react in a similar way in response to the fireworks on the 4th of July.

Who is Vulnerable?

Although we have made significant progress in understanding the changes in the brain and the biological factors of vulnerability to the impacts of trauma, we still cannot know who is more or less vulnerable. More importantly, even what appears to be the same traumatic experience on the surface could be very different for different people based on their biology, their previous experiences (including prior trauma), and their proximity to and degree of involvement in the incident, and current and current. future support and stress.

That is why it is important to avoid making judgments about those who develop a higher level of symptoms and disability. I have seen the toughest and strongest veterans, firefighters and police officers avoid seeking treatment and help for years, suffering in silence, because they thought it was a sign of weakness. We are all, as humans, vulnerable, and depending on numerous variables, each of us can develop symptoms when exposed to trauma.

Child Trauma

Childhood trauma – physical and sexual abuse, or witnessing abuse and tragedies – is all too common and sadly underreported and often ignored. If left unaddressed, childhood trauma can lead to PTSD, depression, anxiety, learning difficulties, impaired academic functioning, oppositional behavior, and mental and physical illnesses in later life (such as diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure).

There is hope and help

If you or a loved one have had traumatic experiences, it is important to know that effective interventions are available. No one deserves continuous suffering. The key guide to knowing when someone needs help is the high level of distress caused by the symptoms or the deterioration in academic, social, occupational, and personal functioning.

Help is available in the form of:

  • Psychotherapy (talking), which focuses on addressing thoughts, beliefs, and interpretations in reaction to trauma. For example, feelings of guilt, believing that the person is forever damaged, or that this happened to them because they deserved it or did something wrong, will be challenged and shifted to more realistic and adaptable thoughts and beliefs.
  • Therapy also helps trauma survivors gradually feel more comfortable in safe situations that they have been avoiding due to the trauma.
    • For example, many people with PTSD may avoid social interactions and public. A therapist will help them overcome this avoidance and become more functional.
    • There are also new and exciting methods that allow for more effective treatments. In our laboratory we have created mixed reality technologies to produce various immersive and interactive situations of human encounters with digital humans!
  • Medications help to reduce the high level of anxiety, depression and lack of motivation, to allow the person to become more in control of their emotions and act based on logical thinking, free from the control of fear and anxiety. These are usually the medications that are classified as antidepressants. They are safe, they are not addictive, and they do not change a person’s thinking. They simply reduce the intensity of negative emotions.

If you or a loved one needs help, the first step is to contact your primary care physician, who can make the appropriate referrals. You can also call your health insurance company to ask about trauma therapists or psychiatrists who are covered by your insurance. If you do not have insurance, you can contact mental health clinics in your local community.

in my next book “Fear: Understanding the Purpose of Fear and Harnessing the Power of Anxiety”In Chapter 9 “Haunting Memories: Trauma and PTSD,” I discuss in more detail the impact of trauma on genes, the brain, and the body, cutting-edge treatments, and some examples of people from different walks of life with PTSD and how they got better

If you or a loved one is suffering the impact of an unsettling past experience, get out there, get the help you need, and find the happiness and prosperity you deserve.


Check out these conversation blogs by Dr. Javanbakht

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