Contents PTSD. Wat is PTSD?. ‘Symptoms PTSD. ‘Types PTSS. Important to know Trauma therapy. Methods EMDR. Imaginaire Exposure NET... PTSD Wat is PTSD? PTSD stands for "post-traumatic stress disorder," a set of emotional problems that can occur after someone has experienced a terrible, stressful event. PTSD means post traumatic stress disorder after trauma stress/anxiety reaction Symptoms PTSD 1. You have survived a trauma: an event beyond your control, in which you have experienced or witnessed a physical threat (sexual abuse, physical violence, acts of war, seeing someone being killed, experiencing a hurricane, a car accident). 2. Your response to the trauma consisted of intense helplessness, fear, or horror (ar, when you were a child at the time of the trauma, agitated or disorganized behavior), 3. After the trauma, you had one of the following problems for more than a month: - re-experiences ~ the trauma comes up in your mind, even if you don't want to, for example in nightmares, flashbacks or images; = denial - you are ‘numb’, you feel ‘detached’, you avoid memories of the trauma; ~ arousal ~ you feel stimulated (quickly hit, sleep problems, anger); ~ impaired functioning - you have problems in relationships, work, or other important matters in life.Types PTSS There are two types of PTSD. 'Simple PTSD’ occurs after a single event (such as a car accident or a tornado). "Complex PTSD" is caused by repeated events, such as domestic violence or abuse at a very young age. This form has more symptoms, including problems of automutilation, suicide, dissociation (the loss of sense of time), relationships, memory, sexuality, health, anger, shame, guilt, numbness, loss of trust and hope, and feeling damaged. Important to know ~ Your symptoms of PTSD are normal after what you've experienced. You're not crazy, limp, or bad. That is why PTSD is also called: 'a normal reaction to abnormal events'. PTSD is considered an anxiety disorder because it is characterized by an overwhelming feeling of anxiety during or after the trauma. It is a psychiatric illness, but it is certainly possible to cure it. Preventing PTSD: 61% of men go through a traumatic experience during their lifetime, with 5% developing PTSD. 51% of women go through a traumatic experience, with 10% developing PTSD. Why do some people develop PTSD after trauma and others don't? This is not fully known, but some risk factors include severe trauma, repeated trauma and/or previous trauma, poverty, parents who had PTSD and stress in general. ~ Itis possible to recover from PTSD. A few celebrities have also succeeded, including Oprah (TV personality}, Melanie Griffith (actress) and Maya Angelou (writer).Trauma therapy The therapist will ask you to think back to the event, including the associated images, thoughts, and feelings. First this is done to gather more information about the traumatic experience. After that, the processing process is started. The therapist will ask to recall the event. Methods EMDR EMDR is a first-choice treatment to help you get rid of these complaints. Recalling the event now happens in combination with a distracting stimulus. In many cases, this is the hand of the therapist or through sounds that are offered alternately left and right by means of, headphones. We work with ‘sets’ (= series) of stimuli After each set, a break is taken. The therapist will ask the client what comes up in his mind. The EMR procedure usually triggers a stream of thoughts and images, but sometimes also feelings and physical sensations. Often something changes. After each set, the client is asked to focus on the most noticeable change, after which a new set follows. Securities EMDR can also be an intensive therapy. Therefore, the therapist will not only tell what he is going to do and why, but also discuss extensively how the client can stay in control of his emotions as well as possible. EMDR usually works quickly. The sets will gradually cause the memory to lose its power and emotional charge. So it becomes easier and easier to think back to the original event. In many cases, the memory images themselves also change and become blurrier or smaller, for example. But it may also be that less unpleasant aspects of the same situation come to the fore. Another possibility is that new thoughts or insights arise spontaneously that give a different, less threatening, meaning to the event. These effects contribute to the fact that the shocking experience increasingly finds a place in the person's life history. How come it works One explanation for the efficacy of EMDR is that remembering a bad memory in combination with making eye movements ensures that the natural processing system is stimulated. Because a traumatic memory when taken into mind is both vivid and intense, it takes up a relatively large amount of memory capacity. But following the therapist's fingers as quickly as possible, as happens with EMDR, also costs memory capacity. Due to this competition of working memory tasks, there is little room for the liveliness and the nastyness of the memory. This gives the patient the opportunity to give a different meaning to the event.Imaginaire Exposure ‘At Imaginaire Exposure, you discuss the whole story of the shocking event in detail and possibly write it down. On the basis of this story, the therapist initially exposes you to these memories repeatedly and for a long time. In most cases, the therapist makes a sound recording of each meeting that you have to listen to daily. urities After three to four sessions you notice that the severity of the anxiety is less high at the beginning of the session and decreases further during the session. After five to six sessions you notice that the severity of the fear decreases faster. On average, 10 sessions are enough to permanently reduce anxiety to an acceptable level. How come it works By describing your traumatic event over and over again, you will avoid the memory less. This way there is room for processing. By telling repeatedly, you get used to the fear and it gradually decreases. NET A variant of exposure therapy is narrative exposure therapy. The difference with Imaginary Exposure is that NET also talks about pleasant and beautiful events in your life history. We always start with laying a lifeline with stones (difficult memories) and flowers (good memories). In the following sessions, ‘exposure! is used, just like with Imaginaire Exposure. Securities The duration of therapy depends on the number of unpleasant events you have experienced, but does not exceed 16 to 20 sessions. How come it works In addition to the effect described in Imaginaire Exposure, an effect occurs by speaking about pleasant and beautiful events in your life. This costs this relatively large amount of memory capacity, just like speaking about the traumatic experiences. This competition of working memory tasks reduces the place for the vibrancy of a group of memories. Usually this concerns the group of traumatic memories. When you're happy, feelings of anger, sadness, and fear usually subside or fade into the background.