Post Traumatic Stress
What is Traumatic Stress?
According to the American Psychological Association Traumatic stress is a normal reaction to an abnormal event.
Over the course of a lifetime, it’s common to be exposed to a traumatic event, whether it is a violent act, a serious injury, a sexual violation or other shocking event. In response, many will experience traumatic stress — a normal reaction to an abnormal event. People may even experience traumatic stress by just witnessing a highly distressing event or having a close family member or friend experience such an event.
In the days and weeks following such a trauma, it’s common for people to have a flurry of unpredictable emotions and physical symptoms. They include:
Sadness
Feeling nervous, jumpy or on high alert
Irritability or anger
Difficulty sleeping
Relationship problems
Intrusive thoughts, flashbacks or nightmares
Trouble feeling positive emotions
Avoiding people, places, memories or thoughts associated with the traumatic event
Usually, these symptoms get better with time. But for some people, more intense symptoms linger or interfere with their daily lives and do not go away on their own. Some people may develop acute stress disorder in which they have extreme symptoms of stress that significantly interfere with daily life, school, work or social functioning in the month after a traumatic event. Others can develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with symptoms that interfere with daily life and last for more than a month after the trauma.
Ashley Beatty-Smith discusses her experiences with a medically complex child. In this video she discusses her post traumatic stress, what some of her triggers are and how she copes. She also touches on her older daughter’s post traumatic stress brought on by having a younger sibling with significant medical complexities.
Kelly Patterson’s Story
Kelly Patterson has three daughters. Charlotte (Charly) was born in March of 2017 far from home. Kelly was with Charly through her entire NICU stay in St. Petersburg, Florida at Johns Hopkins all Children’s Hospital. Josh and Willow went back to Phoenix, AZ once Charly was stable and visited as often as they could. Kelly shares her battle with severe post-partum depression with KVUE in Austin, TX. Many CDH mothers have post-partum depression linked to post traumatic stress. Watch her story here.