Health REAL LIFE
Disclaimer: Medical advice provided is for interest only and should never be substituted for seeing a doctor or seeking medical advice. If you have specific medical concerns please seek advice from a qualified medical professional.
What is PSTD?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition which can develop in people after experiencing or witnessing traumatic, life-threatening events or serious injury.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be a soldier or a witness to war to have PTSD either.
Traumatic events are defined by their ability to evoke fear, helplessness, or horror, often in response to the threat of harm or danger.
Some examples of traumatic events include assault, road accidents, natural disasters, domestic or child abuse, war, acts of terrorism or traumatic childbirth.
After witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event, you might feel scared, vulnerable, like you’re lacking control, and you may find it hard to feel safe or trust other people, too.
For those with PTSD, these symptoms can persist for months or even years after the traumatic event, too.
And, you don’t have to have witnessed a traumatic event first-hand to experience these symptoms either.
Learning that someone close to you has experienced a traumatic event, or repeatedly seeing graphic details of a traumatic event can trigger PTSD symptoms, too.
•For more, please visit: ptsduk.org
Know the signs
People with PTSD most commonly experience four distinct groups of symptoms. According to the charity PTSD UK, these can include:
Reliving the traumatic event through flashbacks, nightmares or intrusive memories.
Avoiding situations that serve as reminders of the traumatic event.
Undergoing negative shifts in their beliefs and feelings.
Constantly feeling on edge.
However, for those with Complex PTSD, also known as C-PTSD – which is caused by being exposed to sustained, repeated or multiple forms of traumatic events – there are three other groups of common symptoms, too. These include:
Difficulties with controlling your own emotions.
An impaired sense of self-worth.
Difficulty maintaining relationships and trusting others.
TRAUMA RESPONSE
Settling into my seat, the opening scene of PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie f lashed across the screen.
I was treating my son Kaiser, eight, to a cinema trip in October last year.
We didn’t usually get to spend time one-on-one, what with my other children Ayron, 13, and my twins Arabecca and Matilda, four.
Fishing around inside his cold drink, Kaiser popped an ice cube into his
