Looking at Trauma: Avoidance

Beyond the Couch with Dr. Sally Nazari

Overview:

We’ve been taking a closer look at the impact of posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD. We’ve discussed an overview of what happens in PTSD and explored in more depth how people with PTSD are impacted by the re-experiencing cluster of PTSD symptoms. We’ve also explored more thoroughly what the hyperarousal set of challenges we see in PTSD bring on for people. Today, we are going to look at the third symptom cluster, avoidance. Avoidance symptoms represent an effort to withdraw from certain situations that bring about body-level distress of trauma-related symptoms.

What We’ll Learn:

As part of our protective mechanisms, human beings have a tendency to withdraw from pain. With PTSD, since our experience is that this terrifying, disruptive event is truly a danger to us in the here and now, our natural mechanisms to pull and move away kick in automatically. Avoidance symptoms represent an effort to withdraw from certain situations that bring about body-level distress of trauma-related symptoms. We can also view these symptoms as the activities that people engage in to limit other types of distressing experiences. We look at ways avoidance in PTSD shows up and some options for treatment – such as CPT, linked below:

http://www.drsallynazari.com/CognitiveProcessingTherapyCPTforPTSD.en.html

You can get your free mini E-book on the Countdown Coping Grounding technique here: http://www.subscribepage.com/s8i9j3

Resources Mentioned:

http://www.drsallynazari.com

https://chrysalispsychotherapyholisticwellness.wordpress.com/

Thank you for tuning in. You can also Subscribe to auto-download new podcast episodes to your Apple or Android device. After you listen to a few episodes, please consider leaving an honest rating and review of how the podcast has helped your transformation journey. This helps the information reach more of the people who are going through the same journey.

Be sure to get an intro to Mindfulness with my cheat sheet and bonus audio sample here: http://www.subscribepage.com/w6h6i6