What Is Trauma? What Is PTSD?

Trauma is caused by stressful life events that can break your sense of security, leaving you feeling helpless. These events can leave you overwhelmed with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that does not go away. They may also leave you feeling numb and disconnected from the outside world.

Proper care and treatment make it possible to live a life free from the symptoms of trauma and PTSD. At Origins, we are here to help you understand how PTSD and trauma may affect you and guide you on your path toward healing.

What Is Trauma?

You may believe that trauma involves a threat to your life or physical safety. While this may be the case for many people, it is important to understand that any situation that makes you feel overwhelmed and isolated can impact how you experience and perceive the world, even if it does not result in physical harm. It is not the objective circumstances of an event that determine whether it is a traumatic event. Rather, your subjective emotional experience of the event determines whether you internalize it as trauma. The more fear and helplessness you experience, the more likely you are to suffer a trauma.

Trauma may result from:

• The effects of one-time events, such as an accident, injury, or violent attack, especially if it was unexpected or occurred in childhood
• Emotional, mental, physical, or sexual abuse
• Neglect
• Surgery (especially within the first three years of life)
• The sudden death of a relative
• The end of a significant relationship
• An incident where someone was cruel

What Is Complex Trauma?

Complex trauma is a type of trauma that happens regularly or repeatedly in a person’s life. Often, these traumas begin at a young age. This type of trauma makes you feel frightened, distraught, or angry a lot of the time. It also may cause you to blame yourself when things go wrong.

Complex trauma may result from lifestyle factors, such as living through repeated natural disasters, fighting a life-threatening illness, experiencing bullying, domestic violence, or being neglected as a child.

Symptoms of Trauma

Trauma survivors may experience recurring physical effects after traumatic events. For instance, trauma can manifest as insomnia and may trigger memories that cause changes in your eating patterns.

Other symptoms may include:

• Anxiety
• Fear
• Socialization issues
• Relationship problems
• Compulsive behaviors
• Shock
• Irritability
• Anger
• Panic attacks
• Memory loss
• Extreme stress
• Nightmares

What Is PTSD?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that may result after you experience a traumatic event such as a sexual or physical assault, a natural disaster, or a military-combat situation.

PTSD symptoms can include:

• Recurrent episodes of unwanted, intrusive thoughts about a traumatic event
• Nightmares, distressing dreams, or “flashbacks”
• Emotional responses to reminders of the trauma
• Withdrawal from social circles and loved ones
• Continuous hypervigilance for cues that could indicate an additional danger
• Unwarranted anger
• Negative changes in feelings and beliefs
• Fluctuating mood, anxiety, or depression
• Dissociative mental experiences
• Inability to function day-to-day
• Exaggerated reaction to events or panic
• Inability to concentrate
• Insomnia

PTSD may be diagnosed when your symptoms last longer than three months, cause great distress, or disrupt your work, social, or home life.

What Happens When PTSD Is Triggered?

If you’re suffering from trauma or PTSD, you might have asked yourself, “What is PTSD caused by?” or “What is this happening to me?”. Any sensory reminder of the traumatic event (e.g., sounds, sights, smells, physical sensations, etc.) can trigger symptoms of PTSD.

When someone living with trauma and PTSD is exposed to a trigger, it can set off a chain reaction in the brain, causing excessive fear. This fear can manifest even when no real threat exists.

Triggers often cause the brain to go into overdrive, forcing a person to re-experience the traumatic event repeatedly through vivid memories, nightmares, or other intrusive thoughts. PTSD triggers are unpredictable and often appear unexpectedly. Origins can help you build coping mechanisms through evidence-based interventions to help you safely and effectively process any physical and emotional distress.

Types of Trauma Treatment

Exceptional clinical care for trauma is a hallmark of every Origins program, including our residential and outpatient programs. Our programs are designed to assist if you have experienced a deeply distressing or disturbing experience as a child or adult. If you have experienced or are currently experiencing the symptoms of trauma, we will weave support for trauma into your highly individualized care plan.

Trauma therapies include individual and group therapy and other evidence-based interventions, such as:

• Meditation training
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Biofeedback
• Neurofeedback

During treatment, we can incorporate other clinical or therapeutic approaches to help resolve trauma symptoms. Our goal is to help you learn to reframe your experience and manage your responses to feelings of distress. Our licensed and credentialed team is also prepared to teach you skills to regulate and work with your emotions in healthy ways. If you also have a co-occurring substance use disorder, we can provide you with a design for living that can help you avoid returning to alcohol or other drugs to cope when feelings of panic return.

Co-Occurring Addiction and PTSD

It is estimated that half of all individuals in treatment for addiction also suffer simultaneously from PTSD.

If you have PTSD, you may often seek relief with alcoholic beverages and other drugs.

Though these substances may provide temporary relief, they do not effectively manage PTSD and often aggravate your existing symptoms. Intoxication may also lead to more trauma. For instance, you may be involved in an accident or become the victim of physical violence or sexual abuse because drugs and alcohol can impair your judgment and decision-making capabilities. The misuse of substances may lead to the onset of PTSD or the aggravation of existing PTSD symptoms.

PTSD, Gender Issues, and Treatment

If you are experiencing PTSD and addiction, your care plan should include trauma-informed, evidence-based curriculums that are tailored to meet your individual needs, including programming that attends to gender issues while also treating co-occurring disorders. These gender-specific and gender-separate options can also create a space for you to work with your peers in a comfortable, safe setting.

Our Treatment Modalities

Trauma-related disorders such as PTSD and others require specialized therapies designed to address traumatizing experiences. These therapies are designed to help you reprocess memories and the associated reactions that follow the experience and help you develop healthier coping mechanisms. Origins Behavioral HealthCare’s goal is to treat the underlying trauma while empowering you with the skills needed to lead a happy and healthy life.

At our Center for Brain Recovery (CBR) in Florida, specialists work with your multidisciplinary treatment team to review your progress and identify any upcoming psychological difficulties. This might include PTSD or any other mental health concerns. Our licensed therapists and master’s-level clinicians offer custom care plans, including trauma-related topics and exercises. Based on your unique circumstances, we may offer evidence-based treatments such as:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Neurofeedback
• Biofeedback
• Mindfulness training and meditation
• Individual therapy or group therapy

These therapies have been proven effective for PTSD symptoms, including anticipating triggers, reducing anxiety and fear responses, managing mood swings and anger, and processing traumatic memories.

Are You Ready to Take the Next Step?

Our multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals has extensive experience in trauma-informed treatment and various other mental health concerns. We are dedicated to treating you with the care and compassion you deserve. Wellness is possible, and we’re here to guide you every step of the way. Call 561-841-1296 now.