Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

PTSD develops after experiencing or witnessing something overwhelming. It is not limited to combat or to a single catastrophic event. Assault, accidents, medical trauma, childbirth, sudden loss, and sustained abuse can all produce it, and so can repeated exposure to other people’s trauma through work.

The core of it is that the memory does not get filed. Ordinary memories settle into the past and stay there. A traumatic memory keeps arriving in the present, with the physiology intact, which is why a flashback is not a vivid recollection but something closer to the event happening again.

What you do not have to do

A common reason people avoid seeking help is the belief that treatment means describing the worst thing that happened to them, in detail, to a stranger.

You do not have to do that to start. The first appointment establishes what is happening now, how it is affecting your sleep, your relationships, and your ability to function, and what you want to change. You control how much detail you give and when.

There is also a clinical reason for that order. Trauma treatment works better when stability comes first. If you are not sleeping, are in crisis, or have no reliable ground to stand on, processing the trauma too early can make things worse rather than better. Stabilisation is not a delay before the real treatment. It is part of it.

What treatment can involve

Medication can meaningfully help the parts that make everything else harder: sleep, nightmares, hyperarousal, and the depression that frequently accompanies PTSD. That alone can create enough room to do the rest of the work.

Psychotherapy for PTSD has strong evidence behind it. Depending on what fits you, that may happen here or with a specialist in trauma-focused modalities, and being pointed somewhere better suited is not being passed along.

If you are in crisis

If you are in immediate danger or at risk of harming yourself, call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, call 911, or go to your nearest emergency room. This practice does not provide emergency services.