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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Office Hours
    • Leadership Team
    • Membership Information
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Testimonials
    • Guest Speaker Interest
  • The Bandana Project
    • Involvement in the Bandana Project
    • Humans of The Bandana Project
  • Workshop
  • Resources
    • Anxiety
    • Bipolar Disorder
    • Depression
    • LGBTQ+
    • Disability Resources
    • Eating Disorders
    • Friends/Family Resources
    • On and Off Campus Help
    • Psych. Degree Resources @UW
    • PTSD
    • Self Care
    • Substance Use Disorders
    • Suicide
    • Veterans
    • Workplace Mental Health
  • Blog

Post traumatic stress disorder specific resources

Symptoms
A diagnosis of PTSD requires a discussion with a trained professional. Symptoms of PTSD generally fall into these broad categories:
  • Re-experiencing type symptoms, such as recurring, involuntary and intrusive distressing memories, which can include flashbacks of the trauma, bad dreams and intrusive thoughts.
  • Avoidance, which can include staying away from certain places or objects that are reminders of the traumatic event. A person might actively avoid a place or person that might activate overwhelming symptoms.
  • Cognitive and mood symptoms, which can include trouble recalling the event, negative thoughts about one’s self. A person may also feel numb, guilty, worried or depressed and have difficulty remembering the traumatic event. Cognitive symptoms can in some instances extend to include out-of-body experiences or feeling that the world is "not real" (derealization).
  • Arousal symptoms, such as hypervigilance. Examples might include being intensely startled by stimuli that resembles the trauma, trouble sleeping or outbursts of anger.
Causes
PTSD can occur at any age and is directly associated with exposure to trauma. Adults and children  who have PTSD represent a relatively small portion of those who have been exposed to trauma. This difference is not yet well understood but we do know that there are risk factors that can increase a person’s likelihood to develop PTSD. Risk factors can include  prior experiences of trauma, and factors that may promote resilience, such as social support. This is also an ongoing area of research.
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We do know that for some, our “fight-or-flight” biological instincts, which can be life-saving during a crisis, can leave us with ongoing symptoms. Because the body is busy increasing its heart rate, pumping blood to muscles, preparing the body to fight or flee, all our physical resources and energy are focused on getting out of harm’s way. Therefore, there has been discussion that the posttraumatic stress response may not a disorder per se, but rather a variant of a human response to trauma.
Whether you think of these symptoms as a stress response variant or PTSD, consider them a consequence of our body’s inability to effectively return to “normal” in the months after its extraordinary response to a traumatic event.

Treatment
Though PTSD cannot be cured, it can be treated and managed in several ways. Please visit our PTSD Treatment page for more in-depth information.
  • Psychotherapy, such as cognitive processing therapy or group therapy
  • Medications
  • Self-management strategies, such as self-soothing and mindfulness, are helpful to ground a person and bring her back to reality after a flashback
  • Service animals, especially dogs, can help soothe some of the symptoms of PTSD




Resources
APA
​NAMI
National PTSD Center
​NIMH
​Rogers
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