We have misconceptions about people who suffer from PTSD. It’s not only combat veterans and civilians who have lived in war-torn countries. Anyone can get PTSD from a traumatic experience, even if that experience doesn’t seem like it “qualifies.” PTSD is complicated, and its symptoms don’t present the same in everyone. It can be easy to underdiagnose or misdiagnose, so it’s important to know the signs and treatments of PTSD.
What is PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health disorder that develops after a traumatic event. PTSD can develop in anyone from any background, age group, race, or gender. Symptoms of PTSD can include:
- frequent nightmares
- flashbacks of reliving the event
- avoiding places, people, or situations that are reminiscent of the event
- anger issues
- trouble concentrating
- irritability
- hyperarousal (fight-or-flight mode)
- memory issues
- substance abuse
If the traumas someone experiences take place over a longer period of time, they may instead develop C-PTSD or complex post-traumatic stress disorder. It can be due to prolonged exposure to fear, violence, and stress caused by events such as childhood abuse, a long-term emotionally abusive relationship, or chronic illness. C-PTSD shares many of the same symptoms as PTSD, but what might be more prevalent are feelings of guilt, struggling with adult relationships, and periods of dissociation.
Why PTSD can be invisible.
Overlap with other mental health disorders.
PTSD’s telltale symptoms, like mood swings, aggression, insomnia, and hyperarousal, are also symptoms of other major mental health issues like bipolar, attention deficit hyperactivity, generalized anxiety, and major depressive disorders.
C-PTSD can even look like a personality disorder, such as borderline. If someone is diagnosed with one of these, they may be receiving treatment and haven’t considered the possibility their symptoms are caused by another issue. Sometimes, people seek treatment for one disorder for a long time before recognizing that something is missing and that they need a different diagnosis.
Age and gender make a difference.
Women and younger people tend to be underdiagnosed with PTSD. This can be due to our expectations of who can have PTSD—older men fit our preconceived notions better than other demographics. The kinds of traumas that may have led to their PTSD might be more difficult for women and younger people seeking treatment to divulge. For example, it can be hard to talk about sexual assault or, in some cases, to even consider it a traumatic experience.
You might not even recognize it.
We’re incentivized to work hard, push through emotional pain, and try for perfection. This leaves little room for emotional vulnerability. Even if you’re suffering from PTSD or C-PTSD symptoms, you may not even recognize that they’re an issue with a cause rooted in trauma. Maybe you’ve had sleep problems for years but chalked it up to a stressful job.
Or you had an emotionally abusive mother and have only had tumultuous relationships as an adult and never made a connection between the two. Because so many of these symptoms are normalized, it’s easy to wave them away as no big deal or untreatable.
Seeking treatment.
Even though PTSD can feel isolating and inescapable, therapy can help. If you think you’re suffering from PTSD, look for a trauma-focused therapist. There are a variety of approaches to treating PTSD, so you can choose one that feels right to you after a therapy consultation. In particular, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) are good options for walking through your trauma and getting you to relearn your responses to stressful situations.
To learn more about how therapy can jumpstart the treatment of your PTSD, please reach out to us.