Overcoming Trauma

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can develop in people of any age following a stressful event or situation of an exceptionally threatening or catastrophic nature. The most common trauma that any person in the UK and Ireland is likely to experience is caused by road traffic collision, either as a driver, passenger or a pedestrian.

People involved in a Road Traffic Collision may develop psychological symptoms irrespective of any physical injury. Sometimes relatively minor RTC’s may have distressing consequences because the person involved may have felt powerless by the inevitability of the accident and their lack of control.

After an RTC, a person may typically become more irritable, and short-tempered. Mood may be low or numbed and sleep may be disturbed. They may lose interest in previously valued activities and people. The person may feel anxious, expecting something catastrophic to happen particularly when faced with reminders of the event, such as getting back in a car. The world does not feel like a safe or reliable place any longer. They may even start thinking about their own death if they anticipated, even for a brief moment, that they, or another person, were going to die in the accident. Some individuals feel so overwhelmed by the accident that they may experience nightmares, relive the accident and avoid reminders of the accident.

Most of these feelings are normal reactions which may last up to one month after the accident. After one month if these feelings continue they become a cause for concern. The psychological injuries that might arise varies widely. It may take the form of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or anxiety, depression or travel anxiety or phobia.

In the UK, RTC’s are the commonest cause of PTSD. About one in ten of those involved in a serious road traffic accident will develop PTSD and a year after the accident one in twenty will still have PTSD.

Evidence from National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence(NICE) suggests that counselling is not beneficial in treating PTSD as it is non-focused and does not address specific symptoms. Instead NICE recommends Trauma Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR) as most the successful approaches.

  • In the UK road traffic accidents are the most common cause of PTSD.
  • One in ten of those involved in a serious road accident will develop PTSD and a year after the accident about one in twenty will still have PTSD.
  • Counselling" does not seem to be beneficial in treating PTSD as it is non-focused and does not address specific symptoms.

All our psychotherapists are experts in providing the most effective psychological treatments available to overcome the distress of a traumatic event.

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