A 5-Part Trauma Series: Trauma(PTSD) Symptoms and Treatment Anxiety

Part 1: Anxiety, Hypervigilance and Trauma

Trauma(PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: Introduction

This blog with introduce a 5-part series on trauma symptoms and treatment.

You will recognize the trauma symptoms from the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as this is the reference used if you saw a psychologist or psychiatrist to get a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. This would then be used to direct treatment. These trauma (PTSD) symptoms are comprehensive and likely the ones referred to in pop culture and on social media as well.

Our clinic is trauma specialized and does not diagnose, offering non-medicinal treatment. This blog is a guide to aid understanding, help you see yourself and find the right treatment to get you back to feeling optimal.

While I have used PTSD symptoms to guide this series, it will be less formal, using the over 50 combined years of the team’s experience to talk about the symptoms people with trauma present to us to get treatment.

The 5 parts will include 1) Hypervigilance/Anxiety symptoms 2) Depressive symptoms 3) Avoidance/Dissociation symptoms 4) Physical/Somatic symptoms and finally 5) Treatment. Each piece will be released approximately every 2-3 weeks.

Trauma(PTSD) What is it and How it Works

Trauma describes the symptoms we experience when we are flooded with a situation(s) we find upsetting, distressing and disturbing in nature. Trauma(s) can include child abuse sexual, physical, emotional. It can include war trauma. It can include being assaulted.

Any experience in which you feel terror and harm and then develop the symptoms we will outline in this trauma series is considered trauma, leading to trauma anxiety symptoms. You know when you have experienced trauma because your body will tell you.

Trauma is encoded in the brain and body in a way that is unhelpful to us long-term. The system gets overwhelmed. Intense emotions/feelings related to the trauma are held in the amygdala, or reptilian part of our brain responsible for feelings and memories. This leads to trauma anxiety symptoms

The neocortex that takes care of the logical parts of us, thoughts and cognitive/executive functioning is offline while we are experiencing the trauma. If you were a child the neocortex is not yet developed. When you are having trauma symptoms this is what happened to you, the symptoms tell us your trauma is held in different parts of the brain and body.

Healing trauma needs to integrate these trauma memories, while you are in as calm a state as possible so your neocortex is online, enabling the complete, integrative processing of the trauma. The goal is to mitigate trauma symptoms so it is another memory, or series of memories and part of your human narrative, less distressing. 

Let's get started in understanding what is happening to you!

Trauma(PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: Hypervigilance

Hypervigilance is really the main source that leads to the other anxiety fueled trauma symptoms seen below. The overwhelm in the system creates hyperarousal. This will likely be more intense if your trauma is recent or complex. If your childhood was traumatic you are more likely to experience trauma and generalized anxiety symptoms, feeling anxious and agitated as your baseline.

If you are experiencing trauma (PTSD) anxiety may feel you are alert all the time, scanning people and the environment for threat and danger. This threat can take many forms including physical and relational Ex. Can I trust this new boss at work? You are constantly working hard to feel safe, but never able to do so. Your body is still in the trauma on less conscious levels. Your heart rate and blood pressure are elevated leading to health problems over the long term. Trauma (PTSD) anxiety symptoms can lead to you having a strong startle response, seeming to react to everything. It is simply exhausting to never feel safe. Or you have created a very rigid safe space that you try not to leave often, your safe space. Ex. Your bedroom.

Trauma(PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: Nightmares/Terrors and Flashbacks

Believe it or not, nightmares and flashbacks \are the body trying to heal you.

It keeps bringing the trauma to the surface so it can fully process the traumatic events, enabling recovery. The problem is your "old friend", hyperarousal.

We need to be calm to learn new things and process through the neocortex, our “adult” brain. When treatment includes calming your central nervous system and then the processing of traumatic memories your system learns "I am safe now. The trauma(s) are over". This cannot happen until you are in a calmer state. This is foundational.

When we are hyperaroused we are more likely to get all the symptoms described here, including flashbacks and nightmares. When these increase your body is working hard to heal, time to get help.

Trauma(PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: General Anxiety, Fear and Horror

Generalized Anxiety(GAD) is a fancy way of saying you feel fear and nervousness in your gut often. You live in a fear state, awaiting an unseen disaster. You may worry all the time and it even affects your daily functioning, ability to go to work, even get out of bed some days. It can feel debilitating at times. You may feel shaky or a sense of doom descending. This likely feels uncontrollable and can last days. It may feel out of nowhere or triggered by a seemingly small event Ex. Your colleague seemed off today.

Trauma(PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: Panic Attacks

The adrenaline and cortisol chemicals released by stress and anxiety are meant to help us flee quickly and get help in an emergency. But the constant release when we are simply living our lives can result in panic attacks.

Most people will have or have had a panic attack in their lifetime. It may feel out of nowhere or suddenly when you feel slightly overwhelmed Ex. A local hockey game. You are suddenly flooded with fear, panic and have heart palpitations, feel sweaty, agitated and are convinced you can’t breathe or take a deep breath. You are convinced are going to die and may end up in emergency rooms, convinced this is a heart attack.

There are also "Atypical Panic Attacks" in which you feel may flooded by anger and irritation, out of control. You may suddenly need to clean and scour your place. You might feel "uncomfortable in your own skin".

Trauma(PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: Frequent Triggering

Do you ever feel fragile?

Neurotic like you can’t do anything?

You have to cancel plans with friends because the idea of being with people, in public spaces feels impossible today?

Maybe you feel like everything triggers you. Other people’s feelings, noises on the street, smells, certain facial expressions? You simply feel triggered frequently and all the time.

This seeming oversensitivity is related to hyperarousal. It can make you feel like you can't cope, frustrating as people deem you oversensitive and unreliable.

Trauma(PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: Sleep Problems

When you are flooded with adrenaline and cortisol often is makes sense you can't sleep right? It is seemingly impossible to relax into sleep even when you are exhausted and desperately need it.

You may be aware nightmares await you there too. It sounds funny, but we need to both surrender and trust to fall asleep as well focus our mind to calm, sleepy thoughts.

So worries, thinking about the next day’s tasks are sleep killers. But we would stop if we could, right?

I also find people that sleep fine generally will start getting panicky feelings when trying to relax into sleep, seemingly free floating and for no reason. There is likely an unconscious trigger that is plaguing you. There are ways to identify and process this trigger.

Any of this sound familiar? You are not broken. But you are distressed and need to heal, have a safe place to bring your thoughts, worries and feelings.

Conclusion and Next Steps

You know when you get so exhausted you burnout?

Feel numb, down, can barely move?

Stay tuned in a few weeks for the trauma symptoms we have placed in the depressive category.

We will support you in self insight so you see yourself. We will then talk in some detail about treatment and feeling better.

Thanks for reading.

Time to get help?

CONTACT US

Lisa S.