Look after your mental health and get treatment after going through a traumatic event

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition arising after a person faces extreme stressors such as being a victim of assault or sexual abuse, experiencing or witnessing a crime, natural disaster, accident or any event that has a strong impact on a person’s life.

In the days and weeks after experiencing a traumatic event, the person begins to exhibit symptoms such as:
• Mood swings, easily annoyed
• Anxiety
• Fear
• A feeling that “something bad” is going to happen
• Survivor’s guilt
• Recurrent intrusive recollections of the event, reliving memories of the traumatic event and experiencing the fear and anxiety all over again
• Interpersonal and work-related problems due to lack of concentration
• Sleep disorders, nightmares
• Avoidance of reminders of the trauma (events, places or situations)
• Feeling of isolation

“A person who undergoes a traumatic event avoids talking about it; however, the body expresses itself through flashbacks and memories (nightmares), among others.  When faced with a traumatic situation, we process the information through our senses.  This information must be reprogrammed so that it doesn’t hurt us”, points out Veronica Castro, clinical psychologist at Clinica Biblica Hospital.  

Treatment

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapeutic methodology that incorporates elements from other therapeutic approaches.  When a person goes through a traumatic event, the assimilation of events is interrupted due to the intense emotions experienced.

  Since this event is not processed, it is dysfunctionally stored in memory networks and the experience goes “undigested” and this is what causes the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.  

EMDR is available at Clinica Biblica Hospital and is provided by highly experienced professionals trained in EMDR.