We have returned with more PTSD Facts to continue this series throughout the month of June as we observe PTSD Awareness Month 2020:
PTSD is not exclusively reserved for adults. In fact, it is not unusual at all for children to develop PTSD while they are still young. In fact, statistics show that 3% to 15% of girls develop PTSD while 1% to 6% of boys do. As you can likely assume, the initiating trauma may come from neglect or abuse, and the likelihood of PTSD development is directly related to the severity of the trauma.
Flashbacks, or feelings that you are back in a traumatic situation, can be awful, there is no denying that. They can be vivid and intense, and they can even be accompanied by sounds and smells that make it all the more real. Flashbacks can be incredibly disruptive, especially in cases where people aren’t fully aware of their triggers, making these symptoms difficult to manage. And while flashbacks are one of the most well-known symptoms of PTSD, not everybody experiences them.
Though it seems counterintuitive, reliving the experience, also called “exposure therapy”, can help some people learn how to manage their PTSD symptoms and they can adapt how they react to their triggers. If you feel like exposure therapy might be an avenue you’d like to explore in the course of your treatment, start off by having a conversation with your therapist.
Here are some additional resources for you, in case you want to learn a bit more about these PTSD Facts:
- A Review of PTSD in Children
- What Happens in Your Brain During a PTSD Flashback? | Talkspace
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Children
If you missed the any of the previous posts in our PTSD Facts series:
