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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as acute trauma is extremely common and can be very destructive if not treated. In general (GP) practice, PTSD symptoms are often overlooked, not diagnosed, or diagnosed as anxiety, depression, or other issues.

More people have PTSD or unresolved trauma than they know or are aware of, including family members and friends. Once triggered, PTSD systems can develop, grow and cause chaos in a person’s life.

Extreme anxiety, panic, fear, depression and reoccurring suicidal thoughts persist with a constant mental battle and fight within the mind. This can lead to daily self-medication of excessive usage of alcohol or drug taking to alleviate the symptoms.

Suffering this daily can lead to extreme frustration, suspicion of others motives, paranoia, arguments, fights or even violence.

Physical as well as mental healthcare professionals, doctors and hospital staff in A&E, including police officers are exposed to patients who are at high risk of acute trauma and PTSD and may not even know it at first and see them as trouble makers or drunks with issues.

Due to occupational injury or assault, partners or family members are at risk of abuse or violence and may suffer in silence. For many patients, a healthcare professional may be the first or only “reality check” in a situation in which the patient is totally alone with their problems.

There are many guidelines for trauma teams and group crisis intervention, as well as personnel trainers to discourage, convalesce, and train healthcare professionals to avoid victimization and potential acute and long-term emotional injury. Healthcare professionals owe it to patients to brush up on their studies and better research, share, and become more proficient at recognizing, diagnosing, and treating this emotionally damaging injury.

What is post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD?

PTSD is a serious life changing condition where several incorrect reactions – symptoms appear and operate at the same time and can occur in some people who have experienced or witnessed a, serious motor accident, terrorist attack, unexpected death of a loved one, wars, a violent personal assault such as rape, mugging at knife point or other life-threatening events.

It’s a series of subconscious, faulty and incorrect reactions often producing many combined symptoms at the same time all in line with fight or flight responses of threat and danger to self.
While it is a normal reaction to experience fear during a dangerous situation, often the “fight-or-flight” reaction takes over and triggers a person to instantly respond against the danger at hand or to flee a situation. When a person suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, there are significant problems, such as how a person feels, thinks, and behaves, that can get in the way of developing or maintaining healthy relationships or that can interfere with the person’s ability to perform daily activities.

PTSD often is accompanied by depression, drug and alcohol abuse, or several other anxiety related disorders. It most often occurs in those who have experienced or witnessed a severe trauma that involved a threat to life or serious bodily harm. These traumas often leave people with lasting or lifelong symptoms.

In mainstream healthcare diagnosis at least three categories of symptoms combined are categorized as being necessary to determine whether a person has PTSD.

First are reliving symptoms, which are those that may cause a person to remember the trauma in disturbing ways such as vivid flashbacks. Second are symptoms of avoidance, which includes keeping away from certain locations, social events or situations, or objects that are triggers of the trauma.

Third are increased anxiety or emotional arousal symptoms, which include sleep difficulties, bursts of anger, and hypervigilance often called extreme awareness. These categories and their corresponding symptoms are the basis for determining whether a person has PTSD.

Effective non medicine treatments for some people can include EMDR, CBT and Curative Hypnotherapy to deal with the underlying causes of negative incorrect reactions.

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