Have you experienced a bad event that keeps haunting you? Do you keep reliving that event or do certain places, sounds, objects or people make you panic? If so, you may have developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an anxiety disorder with a clear cause: trauma, in one form or another. The trauma is now over, but the stress reaction it caused is permanent or recurring. Therapy can help you process the trauma.
Causes PTSD
Unlike other anxiety disorders, PTSD occurs in response to a specific, shocking event. In psychological terms, this is called trauma. Trauma includes different types of experiences. For example, there are traumas that have to do with the sudden death or serious injury of persons, such as war, violence, or a terrorist attack. Or traumas that deal with interpersonal violence, such as a robbery, mugging, or rape. They may also involve serious accidents, such as an airplane crash or natural disaster.
Symptoms of PTSD
If you suffer from PTSD, you have not sufficiently processed the traumatic experience. As a result, even though the threat of trauma has disappeared, you continue to suffer from the emotions that the trauma evoked at the time in your daily life. You are anxious, experience stress or sadness, or suffer from shame. This leads to the following symptoms:
- Avoidance: you avoid activities, places, people, conversations, or thoughts that remind you of the trauma. You may have put some thoughts so far away that you can’t remember certain parts of the trauma. You withdraw and don’t talk about your feelings. As a result, you may feel like you don’t belong anywhere and are gloomy about the future.
- Re-experiencing: when you can’t avoid your thoughts, or when you find yourself in a situation that reminds you of the trauma, you suffer from re-experiencing. You have the feeling that the trauma is happening again, including the accompanying stress reaction. You panic or are paralyzed by fear. You may also suffer from nightmares.
- Tension: you live almost every day with an anxious feeling and are constantly on your guard. As a result, you have trouble sleeping, are hypersensitive, irritable, and jumpy, and have difficulty concentrating. You may also suffer from fits of anger.
Choose your online therapist
PTSD Therapy
When you have PTSD, it’s not easy to ask for help. After all, you prefer to pay as little attention to the trauma as possible. However, therapy for PTSD is effective. In many cases, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) makes a lot of progress, but there are also other treatment methods. Cognitive behavioral therapy, in which you slowly change your behavior and way of thinking, is often effective. This reduces complaints such as constant distrust. Finally, some therapists work with ‘exposure therapy’. In exposure therapy, you gradually expose yourself to the things you are still avoiding.
Our therapists understand that for people with PTSD therapy can be frightening at first. Your therapist will therefore guide you step by step, at your pace, so that you remain comfortable. Your treatment will be tailored to your specific situation and symptoms.
Online therapist for PTSD
The Online Therapists wants to make therapy as accessible and approachable as possible. Do you have PTSD and are you afraid to go out and look for help? Then an online therapist might be a solution for you. You follow the therapy from the familiar environment of your own home. Even if you spend a lot of time abroad or are an expat, you can see an online therapist in your own language.