Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Grief

PTSD is commonly associated with veterans returning from combat or with victims of abuse. But did you know it can also impair your ability to work through grief when suffering a loss? PTSD is often difficult to diagnose at first because it so closely mimics the grief cycle. But when healing doesn’t come, when anger builds, or when you find yourself reliving the event(s) surrounding your loved one’s death over and over and over, it is time to seek help. Other symptoms associated with PTSD include avoidance of anything that reminds you of the trauma, “numbing out” with drugs or alcohol and a sense of fear and vulnerability that pervades your life. You may also feel depressed and suicidal. People who tend to develop PTSD often lost their loved one violently, for instance in a sudden car crash, through murder or suicide. Sometimes they witness the death and are helpless to do anything about it. PTSD can develop soon after the event, or months later.

If you are experiencing difficulty moving through the grief process that doesn’t ease up, or if a friend or family member is suffering, you needn’t despair.You are not alone and there is help.

-The first and best thing you can do is seek counseling.There are many qualified counselors and therapists who specialize in trauma and PTSD. Your doctor can help you find one, or you can find someone by calling mental health clinics or your hospital’s trauma center. There are a variety of treatments they will use to guide you back to health.
-It is also important to reach out to others- perhaps in a support group, or online chat group.Others who have been where you are can offer insight and support.

-Avoid alcohol and drugs. It is too easy to avoid the very thing you need to confront to heal when you numb out.

Perhaps the toughest part of PTSD is that you must confront the source of your pain in order to work it through.It takes time and patience and is seldom something you can do on your own-though there are steps you can take that will help.  Take hope that many that have walked a similar journey and  have come full circle to health.