About Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Changes that occur when an individual is traumatized:

• Individual holds his breath initially, and when breathing resumes, it is ragged and uneven
• Adrenaline is released into the system
• Heart rate quickens and blood pressure elevates
• Eyes may appear vacant and distant
• Face may lose color
• Skin may be cold to touch

Events occur from the outside, which in turn trigger internal changes.  As a result of  internal changes, the individual begins to see the world in a different way.  Trauma changes the way the brain sends and receives information.

The internal system becomes hyper-aroused, which affects an individual's level of arousal, vigilance, affect, behavioral irritability, locomotion, attention, response to stress, sleep, and startle response whenever the individual is exposed to a reminder of the traumatic event.

Possible Effects of Trauma/PTSD:

• Everyday cues take on different meanings
• Intense emotional reactions
• Flight or fight response
• Freeze or surrender response
• Dissociation
• Numbing
• Self-blaming for trauma
• Feelings of powerlessness
• Feelings of loss & betrayal
• Feeling different or stigmatized
• Eroticized behaviors
• Destructive behavior toward self or others or property
• Difficulty developing attachments or making indiscriminate attachments
• Eating problems
• Difficulty self-soothing/calming self
• Aggression or cruelty
• Toileting problems
• Sleep problems

Helping the PTSD/Traumatized Individual

• Be predictable and provide security for the individual
• Set clear expectations
• Provide times for the individual to rest or compose self
• Avoid power struggles
• Identify triggers and help the individual to desensitize to them

Updated January 12, 2005

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