PTSD Symptoms

According to the DSM-5, there are four types of symptoms that can indicate posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): avoidance symptoms, re-experiencing symptoms, hyperarousal symptoms and negative mood/cognition symptoms. In other words, people with PTSD often feel intense emotions such as fear, anger, sadness, and detachment from friends, family, and community members. They often avoid people and situations that remind them of the traumatic event. Ordinary sounds or incidents such as a door banging or accidental touch in a crowd may cause a strong and uncontrollable reaction.

How Can Treatment Help?

There are a variety of treatments that can be used to treat PTSD. However, there are three specific techniques that are consistently gaining research-based evidence of their effectiveness in successfully treating PTSD.

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – CBT is a form of talk therapy that focuses on how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are related to one another. The goal of a CBT therapist is to help a client with PTSD return to a place of hope with a greater sense of being in control of their thoughts and behaviors.
• Cognitive Processing Therapy – This modality focuses on how a person perceives a traumatic event and processes it. A therapist can help their client work through stuck points, which are certain thoughts related to the trauma that prevents the person from recovering. 
• EMDR* – EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. This technique uses bilateral sensory input such as side-to-side eye movements to stimulate the brain to process difficult thoughts, memories, and emotions.

_{*Note: I am not a certified EMDR therapist. If you would like to learn more about EMDR or are interested in participating in that treatment I would be happy to provide referral information.}