Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is classified as an anxiety disorder. A particular set of reactions can develop in individuals who have been through a traumatic event which were not present prior to having lived through the event.

Individuals may have experienced or witnessed an event or events whereby these occurrences  threatened their life or their safety, or even the safety of others. This might have led to intense feelings of helplessness or fear and any other negative emotion.

Whilst this website is associated with the effects from childhood trauma and child abuse it must be noted that Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) is very real and can be brought on from a wide variety of events. PTS can also show up in those having gone through war or torture, victims of rape or physical abuse, those who have been in serious accidents, natural disasters, family violence, in fact the list is certainly not restrictive to just those topics.

Some of the signs of PTS

A person might avoid certain activities, people, places, or avoid thoughts or feelings associated with the event as they bring up intensely painful memories.

It’s very common to see individuals who are on constant guard, always on alert looking for signs of danger. This can lead a person to experience difficulties with sleep, are easily startled, and lack of concentration.

There may also be intense physical or emotional reactions, such as panic, fear, sweating or heart palpitations when they are reminded about the event.

PTS and Child Abuse or Childhood Trauma

Post Traumatic Stress associated with Childhood Trauma can certainly develop after a single event whereby the individual has suffered some type of emotional discomfort.  Whilst a single significant event can bring on the effects of PTS we also need to be aware that sometimes its a combination of multiple experiences and events.

With Child Abuse it has been said that Post Traumatic Stress can also develop after a single event, however usually those that have gone through abuse have been exposed to it over a longer period of time. Thus it is also fair to say that many individuals who have suffered abuse at the hands of another person may also find that Post Traumatic Stress developed or is associated with having gone through multiple experiences.

Thus using a tool such as EFT to release the negative emotions connected with childhood could mean having to release the emotions linked with more than one event (or group).

– I hope I am making some sense, and not confusing everything..

EFT and Post Traumatic Stress

It might seem obvious that in almost all cases those individuals looking for help to overcome emotional trauma from child abuse are actually suffering from Post Traumatic Stress. I will go out on a limb and say that in all cases those suffering emotionally after these types of events usually do display some symptoms of post traumatic stress.

Helping an individual overcome the negative emotions associated with these types of experiences will in most cases also overcome their symptoms of post traumatic stress.

From an EFT perspective we usually tap on two areas; we firstly tap on the events themselves and also on the emotions felt surrounding these events.

The grass root of Post Traumatic Stress from my personal experience, is always associated with an event or events.  Thus once a person releases all the negative emotions surrounding the event or events then they typically resolve their symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress.