Symptoms of PTSD

PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, can result from experiencing trauma. Trauma can also occur with experiences that, rationally speaking, we should supposedly be able to process well. The main symptoms commonly associated with PTSD are:

• Re-experiencing the trauma/flashbacks
  This often manifests itself in so-called flashbacks or in dreams while sleeping. A situation or some other form of the experienced trauma shows up in brief moments of reliving a scene and this can also suddenly appear in everyday life, during work or other routine activities. Even just a smell, a sound, a taste, a word or even seemingly unconnected elements can lead to this.

• Negative feelings and thoughts
  All of a sudden, in various unrelated situations, your feelings may become overwhelming and you feel a sudden burst of anger, grief, guilt or a kind of emotional numbness, even if this is unrelated to the current situation that you are in.

• Repressing memories
  You no longer participate in certain activities or meet people who may remind you of your trauma. You are pushing places, thoughts or even feelings and emotions away from you subconsciously or consciously so that you don’t have to remember the painful situation or what you have experienced.

• Paranoid behavioral patterns
  Suddenly you don’t trust people anymore or you develop different behavioural patters such as locking your apartment hermetically every night, which you haven’t done before.

• Physical issues
  You seem to suddenly experience physical pain or discomfort and cannot identify where this is coming from.

• Mental issues
  People with PTSD can also suffer from depression, anxiety disorders or other mental illnesses and are often seen turning to alcohol or drugs in an attempt to make their life easier.

Due to these symptoms, PTSD often remains undetected by others for a long time and can also make you very lonely due to the isolation that often accompanies it. Symptoms can also appear in a form of which you are unaware that it is related to the trauma you have experienced. Suddenly you behave differently, think in a different way or otherwise experience unusual patterns in your everyday life. PTSD can also appear some time after the traumatic event, so it doesn’t always have to appear immediately after. People who notice that something is different about them, often tend to hide such symptoms because they may feel uncomfortable and like „they are just not like that“. PTSD does not just get better on its own, it urgently requires treatment, otherwise it can lead to further mental and thus physical problems.

If you recognize yourself in the description above, then please do contact a professionally trained and experienced therapist. Hypnotherapy can also help with PTSD in a most efficient way to „dissolve“ this trauma in the subconscious and to embed new thought patterns. Whatever form of therapy you ultimately choose, it is important that you seek help.