PTSD
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a condition that can affect a person who has witnessed violence or abuse, or has been subjected to the same. Symptoms of PTSD can arise from a single event, or over prolonged exposure to traumatic situations or experiences. These symptoms occur over four distinct clusters and can vary from day to day and across situations. Stimuli in the environment can also trigger symptom expression and intensity. Intrusion Symptoms include memories, dreams, thoughts and even physical reenactments of the traumatic event. Avoidance Symptoms involve avoiding all people, places and things that might remind them of the trauma. Cognitive Alterations refers to loss of memory, irrational negative beliefs, mood changes, and dissociation. Finally, the fourth domain, Arousal and Reactivity is perhaps the most devastating for sufferers and loved ones alike. Arousal symptoms may include angry outbursts, violent actions, reckless behavior, and general over-reactivity to situations.
The good news is that PTSD is treatable, and in many cases people have made great gains in reducing symptom severity and frequency. Yet few research-based programs are being implemented in the areas that need it most. Many populations in developing nations who have experiences with trauma are either neglected of treatment altogether, or have been offered help by someone untrained or inexperienced. In my clinical experience I have seen a wide variety of symptom presentations that ebb and flow within each person across different situations. Depending on one’s mood, symptoms of grief from trauma can range from tense alertness to complete detachment from reality. A person may feel overly alert and vigilant in one situation, or numb and virtually non-responsive the next.
Treatment for PTSD and trauma-related grief begins with a supportive, respectful, and trusting relationship where a client can confess to the therapist their most painful memories and experiences in confidence, knowing that they will be supported and understood--truly validated. The process of working through the trauma can be painful at times, but ultimately necessary to help break down the physiological associations which form in our brains during times of severe stress and danger. When these mental associations to physical symptoms are separated, it allows a person to feel more "themself" again, and helps free them from re-experiencing the trauma.
For further reading on PTSD and treatment have a look at Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman, and Achilles in Vietnam by Jonathan Shay.