I was raped when I was 25 years old. For a long time, I spoke about the rape as though it was something that happened to someone else. I was very aware that it had happened to me, but there was just no feeling.  Then I started having flashbacks. They kind of came over me like a splash of water. I would be terrified. Suddenly I was reliving the rape. Every instant was startling. I wasn't aware of anything around me, I was in a bubble, just kind of floating. And it was scary. Having a flashback can wring you out. The rape happened the week before Thanksgiving, and I can't believe the anxiety and fear I feel every year around the anniversary date. It's as though I've seen a werewolf. I can't relax, can't sleep, don't want to be with anyone. I wonder whether I'll ever be free of this terrible problem.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops after a terrifying ordeal that involved physical harm or the threat of physical harm. The person who develops PTSD may have been the one who was harmed, the harm may have happened to a loved one, or the person may have witnessed a harmful event that happened to loved ones or strangers.

PTSD was first brought to public attention in relation to war veterans, but it can result from a variety of traumatic incidents, such as mugging, rape, torture, being kidnapped or held captive, child abuse, car accidents, train wrecks, plane crashes, bombings, or natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes.

People with PTSD may startle easily, become emotionally numb (especially in relation to people with whom they used to be close), lose interest in things they used to enjoy, have trouble feeling affectionate, be irritable, become more aggressive, or even become violent.

They avoid situations that remind them of the original incident, and anniversaries of the incident are often very difficult. PTSD symptoms seem to be worse if the event that triggered them was deliberately initiated by another person, as in a mugging or a kidnapping.

Most people with PTSD repeatedly relive the trauma in their thoughts during the day and in nightmares when they sleep. These are called flashbacks. Flashbacks may consist of images, sounds, smells, or feelings, and are often triggered by ordinary occurrences, such as a door slamming or a car backfiring on the street. A person having a flashback may lose touch with reality and believe that the traumatic incident is happening all over again.

Not every traumatized person develops full-blown or even minor PTSD. Symptoms usually begin within 3 months of the incident but occasionally emerge years afterward. They must last more than a month to be considered PTSD. The course of the illness varies. Some people recover within 6 months, while others have symptoms that last much longer. In some people, the condition becomes chronic.

PTSD affects about 7.7 million American adults, but it can occur at any age, including childhood. Women are more likely to develop PTSD than men, and there is some evidence that susceptibility to the disorder may run in families. PTSD is often accompanied by depression, substance abuse, or one or more of the other anxiety disorders.

Individuals suffering from PTSD often respond well to a combination of medication and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.  Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a type of anti-depressant medicine that have been useful for people suffering with PTSD. 

In the cognitive component of therapy, the therapist at the Florida Anxiety Clinic will help you understand how certain thoughts about your trauma worsen your symptoms and teaches you methods to change these stress-evoking thoughts. 

In the exposure component, patients are exposed to memories, thoughts, images, and situations that evoke the negative emotions.  By repeated, systematic exposure, patients learn to have less fear about their memories of the past traumatic event. They also learn how to control their thoughts and feelings about the trauma so they are no longer overwhelming to them.  With the help of your therapist, patients learn how to react calmly to the stressful memories.

Flooding is an intense form of exposure in which patients are exposure to a lot of negative memories and stimuli at once until the anxiety reaction eventually extinguishes an the patient no longer feels overwhelmed.  Relaxation strategies, such as breathing retraining, are often used in conjunction with the exposure exercises.

Another relatively new therapy, called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), is also used to treat PTSD.  Because its efficacy is not as well-established as the cognitive-behavioral treatment of PTSD, the Florida Anxiety Clinic does not use the EMDR therapy.