PTSD awareness month
- Louise Coughlin
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
True to form, having not written a blog in ages here I am posting 2 in a month. I couldn’t let Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) awareness month pass by without a comment. The 27th June is international PTSD awareness day. I know we have awareness days for everything now...a quick Internet search tells me that the USA has a national ball point pen day, the UK has a national tea day....tea time alarm anyone? (for anyone who missed the joke What is the tea time alarm? The viral joke taking over social media - BBC Bitesize https://share.google/0iIXPVUe05VxrBf7s) …but there are certain things that personally I think we should raise awareness for, PTSD is one of those things.
It doesn’t go unnoticed to me that Pride month shares the month of June....for anyone wanting to know the history of Pride Month (LGBT+ History Month 2026 | Stonewall UK https://share.google/aDkN3pATPT3z5kJ0f). Why do I raise this as relevant? Many people can experience PTSD from all walks of life but those in the LGBTQ+ community have a disproportionately higher incidence of PTSD compared to those who identify as heterosexual (Post-traumatic stress disorder among LGBTQ people: a systematic review and meta-analysis – PMC https://share.google/j47GSyIaZ3swHUkiE).
Trauma can affect us all, I talk about different traumas in an earlier blog (https://www.louisecoughlinpsychology.com/post/my-clients-are-amazing). PTSD has 4 clusters of symptoms; reexperiencing of symptoms (flashbacks, nightmares, distressing intrusive thoughts and images, physical sensations such as sweating and feeling sick); avoidance symptoms (staying away from reminders of the situation, feeling the need to keep busy, using alcohol or drugs, feeling emotionally numb, being unable to remember details of the trauma); alertness and reactivity symptoms (being jumpy and easily startled, feeling tense and on guard – hypervigilant, difficulty concentrating, panic attacks, feeling irritable, self-destructive behaviour; Feelings and mood symptoms (feeling like you cannot trust anyone, distorted thoughts about the trauma including blame and guilty feelings towards self, overwhelming negative emotions, loss of interest in previously pleasurable activities, feeling nowhere is safe (https://www.ptsduk.org/what-is-ptsd/symptoms-of-ptsd/).
PTSD is usually the response to a single Trauma, complex PTSD has similar symptoms but the cause is usually multiple, long lasting or repeated incidents. CPTSD has only relatively recently been considered as a separate diagnosis to PTSD. The PTSD UK site has some very informative descriptions about CPTSD ( Complex PTSD – PTSD UK https://share.google/v94OLQTINaw35TLcr) and PTSD ( PTSD Explained – PTSD UK https://share.google/YcPKtXnsxASXewUdN).
I see many clients who have either PTSD or CPTSD. Many who say that people in their life do not understand why a Trauma that happened many years ago still affects them now. If it was aa easy to ‘get over it’ then of course you would have done. For those people still affected by trauma therapy can help you overcome this. There are two recognised treatment for PTSD in the UK, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (TFCBT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR). I offer EMDR in my clinic and continue to be amazed by the results I see. Sometimes massive changes occur in the first session, sometimes they take longer but changes do happen. Don’t take my word for it....have a look at this site. How effective is EMDR? – PTSD UK https://share.google/jlAhbKjJVPChCeZqs
I would direct readers to my testimonials. Whilst some talk about me specifically a lot talk about EMDR...don’t just listen to me harping on about how great EMDR is see what others say (https://www.louisecoughlinpsychology.com/testimonials-1) . I have been on both sides of the room, as well as being an EMDR therapist I have also been an EMDR client. I didn’t have PTSD but I certainly had trauma and had some PTSD symptoms albeit infrequently. I am not being over dramatic when I say EMDR changed my life. I no longer get triggered and places I avoided I have visited and enjoyed. I navigate my relationships in a different way and although I didn’t realise how heavy the weight of my traumas was, that weight has now gone and I feel lighter.
Having PTSD or CPTSD is in the word of many of my clients ‘shit’ but life doesn’t have to be ‘shit’ because of it.
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