Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that’s caused by witnessing or experiencing a deeply distressing and shocking event (trauma), or series of events (repeated trauma) happening over a longer period of time.
Events that can cause PTSD vary significantly, but — for instance — can include war experiences, witnessing or experiencing physical or sexual assault, ongoing mental or physical abuse, any type of physical accident, natural disasters, and so on.
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It’s thought that about six out of every hundred people will experience PTSD at some point in their lives although these numbers (with regard to prevalence and frequency) depend very much on the person, specific group of people, and/or particular situation. For instance, in a country in war PTSD numbers will be significantly higher, as is also the case for rape victims, physical assault victims, or individuals who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, to give some examples.
Symptoms of PTSD may include flashbacks (emotionally and physically reliving the traumatic event), nightmares, severe anxiety and uncontrollable, distressing thoughts and memories about the event and physical signs of stress. Symptoms also express themselves in avoidance patterns, such as staying away from places, events, or objects that remind of the traumatic experience, and avoiding thoughts or feelings related to the distressing event.
In addition, people with PTSD are often easily scared or startled, experience negative emotions such as fear (even when they are not in danger), panic attacks, anger, guilt or shame, are tensed, irritable and on guard, have difficulty concentrating, falling asleep or staying asleep, may have suicidal thoughts, have sudden anger or aggressive outbursts, may engage in reckless or destructive behavior, have problems remembering important details of the traumatic event, have negative thoughts and feelings about themselves or the world, feel socially isolated, disconnected and depressed, and lose interest in things they liked before.
However, younger children may have other symptoms, such as wetting the bed after they had already outgrown it, forgetting how to talk or not being able to talk, reenacting the traumatic events during playtime, and/or being overly attached to a parent or other adult.
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There’s also a growing awareness that PTSD symptoms express themselves as somatic patterns in the body, that is, traumatic events can get body-trapped in the form of physical tensions and contractions, numbness and insensitivity of body parts, increased blood pressure and heart rate, shallow breathing patterns, dysfunctional body postures, among other somatic (bodily) phenomena.
These “trapped” or “stuck” somatic symptoms or somatic phenomena, also known as Body Armouring (in US English written as Body Armoring), tend to keep the body in a constant situation of either freeze, flight, or fight modus, and hence cause or enforce mental PTSD symptoms of stress, fear, confusion, and anxiety, which again lead to or strengthen physical health issues, mental/psychological distress, and a vicious circle of mental health and psychosomatic problems.
In general, PTSD symptoms begin within three months of the traumatic event, but sometimes later. The official definition is that people need to have symptoms that interfere with their daily life for longer than a month to “qualify” as having PTSD.
Anyone can develop PTSD at any age, but not everyone develops PTSD after a traumatic event. People may experience a range of bewildering emotional reactions after trauma (which is completely normal), but most recover from the initial symptoms in due time. Only those who continue to experience problems may be diagnosed with PTSD.
Many factors play a role in eventually developing PTSD. This include factors that were present before the trauma, having been exposed to previous traumatic experiences, getting hurt or seeing people hurt or killed, feeling extreme disgust, helplessness, or fear, having little or no social support after the event, additional stress after the event, such as losing of a loved one, pain, or loss of a job or home, having a personal or family history of mental illness or substance use, readiness i.e. preparedness for the type of event, having or not having a coping strategy, among other factors.
Most people gradually and automatically recover within six months, while others have symptoms that last much longer — even for many years — and need specific professional help or treatment. In addition, it’s common that people with PTSD have accompanying conditions, such as chronic depression, substance use, or one or more anxiety disorders.
Treatment methods and techniques of PTSD may vary. Nevertheless, commonly applied treatments include Trauma-Focused Psychotherapy (typically Talk Therapy, which often includes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing [EMDR] and/or Exposure Therapy), medications (such as antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs), Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), or a combination of the above mentioned treatments.
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In addition to the above, there’s an increase in using Somatic Therapy — also known as Mind-Body Therapy — as a means of dealing with PTSD, either as the sole treatment method or in combination with Psychotherapy and/or medication.
In contrast to conventional Talk Therapy (Psychotherapy) which usually only engages the mind (and tries to change/desensitize the mind through the mind), Somatic Therapy takes conscious awareness of the body and its physical sensations of trauma as the starting point for treatment, helping people to become aware of how their bodily states relate to certain thoughts, emotions, and memories.
Somatic Therapy rather follows an approach of changing bodily patterns and resolving bodily restrictions and tensions — often called Body De-Armoring — which is thought to release trauma, resolve disturbing or distressful mental symptoms, and alleviate or heal associated physical health issues, sometimes even without the need of additional Talk Therapy. Somatic Trauma Release therapies use a variety of techniques, which may include massage, acupressure, pendulation, titration, resourcing, breathwork, movement, dance, and (physical) exercises, among other practices.
