Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition that develops after someone experiences a traumatic event. It involves the occurrence of intrusive symptoms like nightmares or distressing memories that are linked to the trauma and may cause the person to feel like they are reliving aspects of the traumatic event. These symptoms also lead to the avoidance of things that remind a person of the trauma. PTSD may cause various other issues such as difficulty sleeping, always being on guard for danger, panicking when reminded of the trauma, overwhelming guilt, shame, or sadness, self-destrictive behavior, being easily startled, jumpy or irritated, trouble concentrating, difficulty in interpersonal and social relationships.

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Trauma-Focused CBT

 

Scientific research has shown that trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) help people to recover from PTSD. These treatments provide a safe space for you to talk about what happened and how you have been feeling since, and will teach you ways to help you process your thoughts, feelings and memories and move past your trauma. Managing stress and planning for potential crises can also be important components of CBT treatment. The provider, with the patient work together in order to selecting which elements of cognitive behavioral therapy are likely to be most effective with any particular individual.

 

Memories of traumatic events are different from other memories. It can be really vivid, with sights, sounds, smells, and touches that take you right back to what you experienced. They bring back fear, helplessness or severe distress. And can make you feel like it’s happening all over again. It can bring back horrible thoughts you had at the time of the trauma. It can feel out of control, like they might appear at any time. Trauma-focused CBTs help you to make sense of these memories; so, they are less upsetting and come back to you less often.

 

Imagine a well-organized wardrobe. Each item is folded and put away carefully. When you need something it’s easy to find. There’s place for everything and you can easily close the door. This is what memories of normal events are like. You can take them out when we want them and put them back when we’re finished.

 

Now imagine a messy wardrobe. So messy that it is impossible to close the door. Things are everywhere in no order. You might be able to push the door hard, but eventually it will come open and clothes will fall out. Some days you might be able to ignore the mess. On others, the clothes will fall out everywhere.

 

Trauma memories are like these messy clothes, popping out and hard to handle. We want to shove them away and pretend the mess isn’t there, but we can’t. They keep falling out. To get the wardrobe sorted, we need to face it. Each bit of clothing needs to be taken out, folded up and put on a shelf. This is what trauma-focused CBT helps you to do. It helps to look at what has happened so that you can put it away. It doesn’t mean that the memories disappear. The clothes are still there; they’re just in a place where you can manage them. you can choose when to open the door to look at them and when you want to keep the door shut. You’re back in charge and your trauma no longer has to rule your life.