The Not So Simple Definition of PTSD/Trauma

Dr. Elaine Dilbeck LPC CTSS CFTP CPCS

How do you even begin to define PTSD – Post Trauma Stress Disorder. So, let me be the first to say that it is not a disorder. The consensus now among mental health professionals is to drop the D for disorder. Now it is put into a new way of thinking. Let’s look at the definition according to the DSM – 5, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition. It is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to one or more traumatic events. Emotional reactions to the traumatic event such as fear, helplessness, horror. In some individuals, fear-based, re-experiencing emotional, and behavioral symptoms may predominate. In others, anhedonic or dysphoric mood states and negative cognitions may be most distressing. In some others, arousal and reactive externalizing symptoms are prominent, while in others, dissociative symptoms predominate. ​ Long clinical definition for saying, I feel like I am going crazy, I can’t control my emotions, I am screwed up. According to the DSM, it is an exposure to any event such as war, serious injury, or sexual violence. This includes even witnessing violence. It was thought for a long time and still with some people that only the military can be diagnosed with PTS. This is far from true. Being a trauma therapist, as well as being a trauma survivor, I can honestly tell you that civilians do have PTS. I see people every day that have some trauma-related issue. There are many reasons for this being so dominating in our society. ​ We look to our parents and others around us to teach us how to look at life, to learn right from wrong, to understand the world around us as well as process our emotions. When we experience an event in which our world feels unsafe to us, we will experience emotions that attach to that event. When we express that emotional reaction, we look to those around us to show or teach how to process them. When we do not find that we left to our own devices, becoming emotionally stuck in that place. When we become emotionally stuck, we will process our world in that place, at that age where we became stuck. In many cases, the very people who were to teach us this are the very ones that caused the trauma. What do you do then? That is an article for a different time. ​ Some of the most difficult avenues to navigate is trying to explain to someone what you are feeling when you don’t understand it yourself. It is trying to make sense out of something you can’t sense out of. So, how can you explain to someone else what you don’t understand yourself? Let’s take just a little bit deeper look at how the brain is looking at trauma. ​ You spend your life after a trauma asking yourself the question of “why?” This one word, three-letter question consumes you like nothing else. It causes your mind to race like the race at the Daytona 500. Playing the event(s) out in your head until you are exhausted. But you never find the answer, you never will. You never will find the answers to those million and one questions that all begin with that one word, “why?”. You find yourself frustrated and confused, trying to make sense of it all until you become so angry. That anger so consuming that it becomes the fuel for the racetrack. But in most cases, it is not anger but hurt, underneath that hurt is the feeling of being betrayed. Being betrayed by the person/people who you thought loved you and you trusted. Anger/hurt at the perpetrator, anger at the protector, then anger at self. This is where we get into the “ifing” ourselves to death. Hoping in some way or somehow, we can make it all come out differently. No matter how much we play or if, it will change nothing. ​ This is just the beginning of attempting to define trauma. I told you not so simple. So now you don’t feel so crazy.

Please feel free to reach out to me for questions. You can find me on Facebook or www.dilbeckcounseling.com. I look forward to sharing more information with you in the coming weeks.

May God Bless and Keep you. May He give you peace in trouble times.

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