Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is another diagnostic area that is highly associated with the severe trauma of childhood sexual abuse. PTSD applies to all types of trauma, such as seen after such traumatic events like wars and combat zones, natural disasters, earthquakes, life-threatening car wrecks, witnessing a violent crime, date rape, bombings, shark attacks, etc.

PTSD can affect a traumatized person at any age, including childhood. PTSD is considered an anxiety disorder, but put in simple terms, it refers to the type of symptoms that occur after a person has experienced one or more excessively traumatic incidents.

Some of the symptoms of PTSD include:

Disturbing flashbacks – feeling like the traumatic event is happening again
Distressing dreams or nightmares about the trauma
Emotional “numbing” and an overall lack of feeling
Detachment (emotional separateness) from other people or pets
Little to no interest in activities, events, relationships, etc
Hyperalertness – hypervigilence – being excessively aware of the environment
Being very jumpy and very easily startled
Difficulties falling asleep
Feeling guilty about surviving, especially if other people died in the trauma
Difficulties concentrating or staying task-focused
A strong avoidance of anything or anybody that is a reminder of the trauma
A sudden increase in the above listed difficulties if confronted with a reminder of the trauma

Any adult or child that has been sexually abused even once has been exposed to a traumatic event, and will have some degree of difficulty after that event. Typically speaking, any trauma that is extremely violent and repeated will cause more PTSD symptoms than a lesser trauma -- the greater the abuse, the greater the PTSD.

Also, PTSD symptoms may be delayed for a course of time, but will surface eventually. So remember, even if the child is not directly exhibiting symptoms today, the child may experience the PTSD symptoms in the following months or even years to come.

Appropriate treatment for these issues is necessary for on-going health, personal well-being, and genuine healing. It is best for the therapeutic intervention to follow as closely to the actual time frame of the trauma as possible in order to minimize the long-term negative effects of the trauma. Effective therapeutic attention to these issues WILL reduce or totally eliminate many of these PTSD issues.

If you need to process any PTSD symptoms with a therapist, please consider a clinical consultation.