Traumatic Stress Flashcards
What is another word for a trauma?
a wound
What is the difference between an anxiety disorder and PTSD?
Anxiety disorder: if you’re exposed to the stimulus that you’re afraid of that’s associated with a feared outcome you’re going to have a strong reaction (but may not necessarily be traumatic)
- fear resolves on it’s own
PTSD: An unexpected past event occurs that was a terrifying or life-threatening leading to different possible symptoms
- fear gets stuck for a longer period of time
What is a happens with a psychological trauma?
Blowing out a psychological structure (a belief structure)
Does every potentially traumatic experience have the likelihood of causing a trauma-related psychological disorder?
No, not every experience.
- You can develop PTSD from a natural disaster, but you are less likely to develop it from the ND than another person doing something to you (interpersonal violation is more likely to cause PTSD)
Are traumas expected or unexpected?
A trauma is something unexpected and something you didn’t see coming, and once it’s occurred it’s something you have a hard time understanding (what does this mean about myself, how did this happen, what does this mean about the world)
What is a Criterion A trauma, and what is the likelihood of it?
Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence directed towards you or that you witness firsthand or hear about in a very close loved one, also if repeatedly exposed to extreme details in a work setting
- found to be pretty common among undergraduate students
- but not everyone who experiences a traumatic event goes on to having PTSD
what is an example of an event that almost always causes PTSD?
witnessing the violent death of a loved one
are relationship betrayals considered traumatic events?
not considered traumatic events according to DSM criteria, but relationship researchers suggest that it can produce a PTSD like syndrome, it blows up beliefs in a similar way, challenged belief about self/other/trust/intimacy… has the potential
What must occur along with criterion A to define PTSD? Examples of ways it manifests in a person
feeling haunted by the unexpected event
- The memories come back to you intrusively in an unexpected way
- “I wish I wasn’t thinking about this but my mind keeps re-presenting it to me again and again”
(Can occur through dreams (the actual event or themes) - Flashbacks (dissociative reactions) - feels like the event is happening again
- Distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the event (ex: ambulance, sensory details (like red shirt and white pants that are the colors of an ambulance))
- Avoidance of stimuli associated with the traumatic event (memories, thoughts, feelings, external reminders)
- Negative alterations in cognitions and mood associated with the traumatic event(s)
- Marked alterations in arousal and reactivity associated with the traumatic event(s) (ex: hypervigilance, sleep disturbance)
What emotions are highly associated with traumatic events?
feelings like shame, guilt, intense fear, horror
What is an adult intervention for PTSD?
Cognitive Processing Therapy
Created and validated at first for
- Veterans + women who had experienced extreme sexual assaults
○ Now applied much more broadly
What are the 2 emotions dicussed in CPT?
- Natural emotion: like grief (starts and burns its course)
- Normal to have after expected and unexpected losses
- Manufactured emotion: also like a fire that’s burning (shame + guilt)
- Goes up and stays up, it doesn’t go out (creating the prolonged stress)
What feeds manufactured emotions?
cognitions, thoughts, beliefs (likely false beliefs about what the event was, your own responsibility, what it now means about yourself/other people/the world)
what is a stuck point? what are the two types?
Described in CPT as thoughts that you have that keep you stuck from recovering
- concise statements - longer than 1 word, can be if-then statements, use extreme language (ex: “never”, “always”)
1.thoughts about the understanding of the event
2. thoughts about yourself
What are the two types of stuck points?
- Thoughts about your understanding of why the traumatic event happened - about the past (the event itself - why did it happen, what happened) (ASSIMILATED)
- thoughts about yourself, others, and the world that have changed dramatically as a result of the traumatic event (the present and the future that have changed because of how you interpreted the event, “I can’t trust myself anymore” (OVERACCOMODATED)
What is a common reason that people misinterpret a traumatic event?
mixing up the order of events during the experience
ex: paramedic getting physically attacked, but he pushed the family members first
Example of assimilated and overaccommodated thoughts:
Assimilated: “I should have known he would hurt me.”
overaccommodated: “I don’t deserve to live when other people lost their lives”
In what order do we want to catch these 2 types of stuck points in CPT?
- assimilated (about the event)
- overaccommodated (about the self)
1 might have caused, 2 so if you crack 1, 2 may go away
What is safety planning for PTSD in the MATCH protocol for children?
- noticing if you are currently in a safer position or not
- for the example of the child whose mom has a lot of allergic reactions, safety planning may look like:
“what are the actual signs of an allergic reaction that you can look for” otherwise she’s hypervigilant for everything (ex: a cough)”, “what do you do when that starts happening”, “how do you call 911”, lets practice calling 911”, “lets practice giving the EPIPEN
How does the “true alarm” play a part in safety planning?
A trauma is true alarm so we want the child to learn how to detect the true alarm the next time around and not the false one ( they are worried that the trauma will happen again every day)
What is trauma narrative for PTSD in the MATCH protocol for children?
Writing a story book but the story book contains the story for the traumatic event, including before the event, the event, and after the event
- It is a way the clinician tries to catch the stuck points (ex: mistaken beliefs of order of events, of responsibility)
- Helps put the pieces of the story together and in the correct order, and shows the person they are strong enough to talk about it
