What is PTSD? 

In this article, you will learn about what Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is, its symptoms and how it can be effectively reduced using EFT Tapping Therapy which has proven to help individuals cope with symptoms of post-traumatic stress and help heal the root cause. 

At every moment, we feel life is difficult. Every day seems to be filled with anxiety after anxiety, stress after stress, and there appears to be no way out. Living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a constant fight - those who suffer and fight from it are truly life survivors.

WHAT IS PTSD?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition or a psychiatric disorder in people that is triggered by a terrifying event - either the people are experiencing the event or witnessing it.

It can result from experiencing extremely stressful situations like war, accidents, or even sexual assault (1).

PTSD is a long-term effect of traumatic experiences that result in extreme fear, helplessness, or horror.

The majority of people experience traumatic situations in their lives and find it extremely difficult to adjust and cope, but with proper self-care, they usually improve.

However, if your symptoms worsen and begin to interfere with your regular activities, you may be suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

People with PTSD have powerful, unsettling thoughts and sensations about the traumatic incident that continue long after it has occurred.

They may have flashbacks or nightmares about the event, and they may feel sad, fearful, or angry, as well as detached or estranged from others.

Individuals with PTSD may avoid situations or people that remind them of the traumatic experience, and they may have intense unpleasant reactions to relatively harmless things like loud noises or unintentional touches.

WHAT ARE THE symptoms of ptsd?

Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder can occur as soon as a month after a traumatic experience, but they can also take years to appear.

These symptoms generate major issues in social and work circumstances, as well as in relationships. They can also make it difficult for you to carry out your routine everyday activities.

Intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in thought and attitude, and changes in physical and emotional reactions are the four types of PTSD symptoms. Symptoms can change over time or from one person to the next.

Intrusive memories:

This can cause the following symptoms:

• Unwanted, uncomfortable recollections of the terrible incident
• Reliving the terrible incident as if it were happening for the first time (flashbacks)
• Dreams or nightmares concerning the terrible experience are upsetting
• Physical or emotional reactions to something that reminds you of the traumatic incident

Avoidance:

Symptoms of avoidance may include:

• Attempting to avoid thinking about or discussing the painful occurrence
• Avoiding situations, activities, or people that bring up memories of the terrible occurrence

Negative changes in thoughts and attitude:

Symptoms of this may include:

• Negative feelings against oneself, others, or the world
• Uncertainty about the future
  
• Memory issues, such as forgetting critical details about the traumatic incident
• Maintaining close relationships is difficult
• Distancing yourself from family and friends
  
• Lack of enthusiasm for activities you used to enjoy
  
• Positive emotions are difficult to come by
  
• Experiencing emotional numbness
• Mental health problems, such as depression, phobias and anxiety

Changes in physical and emotional reactions: 

Symptoms of these reactions (also called arousal symptoms) may include:

• Being easily frightened or startled
• Always on the lookout for danger
• Self-destructive behaviour such as binge drinking or speeding
• Having trouble sleeping or concentrating
• Irritability, furious outbursts, or aggressive behaviour are all signs of irritability
• Guilt or humiliation that is overwhelming
• Emotional mood swings
• A weakened immune system can lead to more frequent infections
• Some physical effects include sweating, shaking, headaches, dizziness, stomach problems, aches and pains, and chest pain

Signs and symptoms for children aged 6 and younger may include:

• Frightening dreams that may or may not involve components of the traumatic event
• Re-enacting the painful event or aspects of the traumatic event through play

The severity of PTSD symptoms changes with time. When you're anxious in general, or when you're reminded of what happened to you, you may have greater PTSD symptoms.

For example, you may see a report on the news about a sexual assault and feel overcome by memories of your assault.

Talk to your doctor or a mental health professional if you've been having troubling thoughts and feelings about a traumatic event for more than a month, if they're severe, or if you're having difficulties regaining control of your life.

Getting treated as soon as possible can help to avoid the symptoms of PTSD from worsening (2).

what are the CAUSES AND RISK FACTORS OF PTSD?

When you experience, witness, or learn about any situation that triggers fear, shock, horror, or helplessness,  involving real or threatened death, significant injury, or sexual violation, you may develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

Doctors are puzzled as to why certain people develop PTSD. PTSD is likely caused by a complicated mix of factors, as is the case with most mental health issues:

• Inherited mental health risks, such as a family history of anxiety and depression
• Stressful experiences, including the amount and intensity of trauma you've experienced in your life
• Military confrontation
• Natural disasters
• Serious accidents
• Terrorist attacks
• Loss of a loved one, whether or not this involved violence
• Rape or other types of abuse
• Personal assault
• Being a victim of crime
• Receiving a life-threatening diagnosis

PTSD affects around one out of every three people who have been through a traumatic event. It is unclear why some people have the illness while others do not.

However, several circumstances appear to increase the risk of developing PTSD in some people.

Post-traumatic stress disorder can affect people of any age. Some risk factors are as follows:

• Anxiety or depression, among other mental health issues
• Have issues with substance abuse, such as binge drinking or drug use
• A lack of a strong family and social support system
• The hippocampus appears to be different in those with PTSD compared to others, according to brain scans. The hippocampus is involved in the processing of emotions and memories, and it may have an impact on the likelihood of flashbacks
• In patients with PTSD, levels of hormones that are ordinarily released in a fight-or-flight situation appear to be different.
• According to studies, while men are more likely to be victims of violence, women are more likely to have PTSD (3).

what are the possible COMPLICATIONS of ptsd?

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can affect every aspect of your life, including your career, relationships, health, and enjoyment of regular activities.

PTSD can raise your risk of developing other mental health issues, such as:

• Anxiety and depression
• Drug or alcohol abuse problems
• Eating disorder
• Suicidal ideas and behaviour

PREVENTION OF PTSD

Many people experience PTSD-like symptoms after surviving a terrible event, such as being unable to stop thinking about what happened. Trauma can cause feelings of fear, worry, wrath, depression, and guilt.

The number of individuals who are subjected to trauma, on the other hand, do not acquire long-term post-traumatic stress disorder.

Getting aid and support as soon as possible might help prevent typical stress reactions from becoming worse and leading to PTSD. This may entail reaching out to family and friends who can listen and provide support.

It could involve seeing a mental health expert for a short period of therapy. Some people may find it beneficial to seek help from their faith community (4).

TREATMENT of ptsd

The purpose of PTSD treatment is to relieve mental and physical symptoms, improve everyday functioning, and assist the person in better managing the triggering incident.

Psychotherapy (a form of counselling), medicine, or both may be used to treat PTSD.

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) involves recognising and changing thought patterns that contribute to negative emotions, feelings, and behaviour is part of this process
• Prolonged Exposure Therapy involves reliving the traumatic incident or exposing the person to objects or situations that generate anxiety are examples of cognitive behavioral therapy
• Group therapy involves allowing the person to discuss their ideas, worries, and feelings with other people who have been through terrible circumstances might be beneficial
• Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) involves tapping on points of the body, and is an alternate therapeutic mind-body method which is also clinically proven 

It is really important to have a self-help tool that helps you to treat your PTSD.

What if you could let go of all the trauma and disturbing emotions you've been holding on to? Accepting that you are going through anything and that you require assistance is the first step.

Go ahead and seek expert assistance once you've realised you need it. After all, overcoming PTSD will only help you reach your mental health goals and improve your quality of life.

Emotional Freedom Techniques can now help you get relief from your past traumas. EFT Tapping gets to the base of the root cause of the trauma, or whatever is disturbing you, and makes you feel better.

For those new to EFT Tapping, it is also known as Tapping Therapy, which combines tapping on acupressure points while saying statements out loud to accept situations. 

If you would like to experience the power of EFT Tapping first hand, just download the EFT Tapping Booklet below.

EFT TAPPING FOR PTSD

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a technique that aids people in overcoming physical, emotional and mental difficulties. It has been demonstrated to be successful and long-lasting. At the same time, it takes very little time to implement.

EFT Tapping for PTSD promotes the body's ability to let go of or release any trauma that may have been formed as a result of a previous traumatic experience.

EFT Tapping for PTSD treatment has also been shown to be effective and long-lasting for people who previously had significant levels of stressful trauma but no longer do because of EFT.

EFT Tapping is very effective in reducing PTSD symptoms. The reasons are mentioned below:

• EFT Tapping helps to reduce stress by making your body calmer. This helps your body to shift all your systems to a more relaxed state of functioning.
• EFT Tapping helps to reduce the intensity of Emotional Trauma.
• EFT Tapping changes the way in which our brain processes emotional information that causes PTSD.

Sufferers of PTSD store the memories of past events in their thoughts as if they were happening now, with flashbacks, hypervigilance, nightmares, jumpiness, and other physiological symptoms.

They may have also isolated themselves from normal life because they see the world to be unsafe, causing them to disconnect and withdraw from both physical and emotional engagement.

EFT methods for working with trauma are:

• Tearless Trauma: This is a very gentle way of using double dissociation to keep the client safe from abreaction and is usually the best starting point when working with a specific traumatic event. In short, locate a specific trauma and put it on a movie screen and tap around it until the intensity comes down. 
• The Movie Technique: This is the same principle as Tearless Trauma only without the double dissociation. If the trauma is not perceived as too intense then this would be a safe starting place too. Here, you create a mini-movie of the incident and measure the intensity. You can stop the movie anytime the intensity increases and tap around it. Keep going until the whole movie is clear of any emotional intensity.
• Telling The Story: This is an excellent way of testing your results and clearing up any remaining undetected aspects. Ideally, use this once you feel you have reduced the intensity to an acceptable level, or cleared it completely. However, sometimes you will need to use it immediately, as detailed above. Here, you narrate the event that is triggering and tap around it at every stage. Test by asking yourself to tell the entire story from start to finish. Your work is completed when you can do this and remain calm throughout.

DOES EFT TAPPING WORK FOR PTSD?

There was a recent study done on war veterans with symptoms of PTSD.

It was proven that EFT Tapping is effective in eliminating symptoms of PTSD and in one clinical trial, veterans’ symptoms dropped by 64% after just 6 hours long session.

Some of the symptoms of PTSD include constant nightmares, insomnia, anger, disconnecting from the external world, and in extreme cases even causing self-harm.

In such a situation a 64% drop in the symptoms could be life-transforming!

In fact, Kaiser Permanente one of the largest hospital systems in the US, taking care of more than 10 million patients each year,  says that EFT treats PTSD successfully in 10 sessions or less.

A sergeant who served as a US Army Medic in Desert Storm says, “After EFT, I felt released from an emotional prison. My severe hyper-vigilance has been dissolved, I now frequently experience joy and happiness, mental blocks to creativity and prosperity have been removed.”

A systematic review of databases was undertaken to identify RCTs investigating EFT Tapping in the treatment of PTSD. The RCTs were evaluated for quality using evidence-based standards provided by the American Psychological Association Division 12 Task Force on Empirically Validated Therapies.

Those meeting the criteria were assessed using a meta-analysis that synthesized the data to determine effect sizes. While uncontrolled outcome studies were excluded, they were examined for clinical implications of treatment that can extend knowledge of this condition. 

The results showed that EFT Tapping is efficacious and reliable as a treatment for PTSD in time frames ranging from four to ten sessions. EFT Tapping is safe and can be used as a self-help practice as well as a primary evidence-based treatment for PTSD (5).

Seventy-seven male Haitian seminarians following the 2010 earthquake were assessed for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using the PTSD Checklist (PCL).

Forty-eight (62%) exhibited scores in the clinical range (>49). The mean score of the entire sample was 54. Participants received 2 days of instruction in Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

The results are consistent with other published reports of EFT’s efficacy in treating PTSD symptoms in traumatized populations, such as war veterans and genocide survivors (6).

In conclusion, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is an extremely scientific tool to help out every aspect of PTSD, even the symptoms.

Just imagine if such profound transformations can occur in war veterans, how much more can you benefit from using EFT Tapping in your life.

Although overcoming post-traumatic stress disorder can be tough, there is hope to live a life free from all the trauma.

Hope is what will lead you to a happy life!

Love,

Dr Rangana Rupavi Choudhuri (PhD)

P.S. Want to discover if EFT Tapping is right for you? Book a Complimentary Discovery Call. 

In summary, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is very scary but your life can get better if it no longer controls you and your happiness. You can overcome it by using a clinically proven method. EFT Tapping is a very powerful tool to deal with the symptoms of PTSD. By using EFT Tapping you can reduce tension, promote a deeper mind-body connection, and manage symptoms of trauma, anxiety, depression or stress.

  References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posttraumatic_stress_disorder
2. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20355967 
3. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156285#risk-factors 
4. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/can-posttraumatic-stress-disorder-be-prevented 
5. https://www.eftuniverse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12007 
6. https://www.eftuniverse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10780