Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: By Brain Injury Lawyer Gary A. Newland

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a form of Brain Injury. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder otherwise known as PTSD can develop following an exposure to an extreme and traumatic event involving a death or serious bodily harm or it can also be caused from witnessing an event that involves death, injury or a threat of physical integrity of another person. The individual’s response to an event must involve intense fear and a sense of helplessness or horror. PTSD can be caused in children as well as adults.

The characteristic symptoms of PTSD include re-experiencing the traumatic event, avoiding the stimuli that is somehow associated with that event, persistent symptoms of what is called ‘increased arousal’ and the symptoms must persist for at least one month to be determined to have clinically significant impairment in the social occupational end or other aspects of life.

Traumatic events that can impact individuals to such a degree that they can cause Post Traumatic Stress are sexual assault, physical attack, robbery, mugging, kidnapping being taken hostage, torture, auto accidents, and the list goes on.

At Newland & Newland, LLP, brain injury attorney Gary Newland has represented Post Traumatic Stress victims that have been physically assaulted, involved in airline accidents, run over by motor vehicles, car and bus crashes, found dead bodies, been witnesses to crimes and been witnesses to horrific events in general. Gary has also represented many children that have been diagnosed with PTSD from vehicle crashes and dog bites.

There are many types of treatments that can be successful in helping a person diagnosed with PTSD. PTSD is a traumatic brain injury commonly refered to as TBI. When one is inflicted with PTSD, the syndrome can impact every aspect of their life including one’s physical wellbeing. If an individual has persistent symptoms of anxiety or increased arousal that did not exist prior to a trauma then they should be evaluated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

There are 2 different types of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:

ACUTE Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is defined as someone having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for a period of no more than 3 months.

CHRONIC Post Traumatic Stress Disorder lasts 3 months or longer. With respect to treatment many believe that eye movement desensitization and reprocessing otherwise known as EMDR is a comprehensive integrative psychotherapy approach that helps those suffering from post traumatic stress most effectively. With respect to EMDR there are 8 phases of the treatment and after the completion of the treatment many have elimination of symptoms or at least greatly reduced and they also find that they obtained cognitive insights.

If you have any questions regarding Post Traumatic Stress and Brain Injuries in General Please feel free to contact Traumatic Brain injury Lawyer Gary Newland at Newland & Newland, LLP.