What is Medical PTSD?
-
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder related to medical/health trauma
-
Patients with inflammatory bowel disease may have medical PTSD for a variety of reasons: traumatic experiences in clinic, with symptoms, or even extreme fear/uncertainty/anxiety from living with a chronic illness
-
Trauma is a subjective experience! Patients may go through the same experience, and one may experience it as traumatic while the other does not
-
Trauma can be a threat of death or fear of being near death, or being very scared of the unknown
-
Patients do not get to choose what they experience as traumatic and what they do not
Supporting Someone with Medical PTSD:
-
Validate their experience, even if you do not understand it
-
If the source of trauma is from medical malpractice, support the patient if they wish to seek accountability
-
Understand that avoidance is the #1 outcome of traumatic experiences
-
Patients may strongly avoid the source of trauma
-
Although it can be impossible to avoid all triggers, some are able to be removed
-
-
Providers: actively listen and validate your patients' trauma and ensure triggers are removed or respected if possible
-
Listening and validating is the most important step towards healing
-
Gaslighting can be invalidating and triggering in itself
-
In Collaboration with Noel Jacobs, PhD, Oklahoma University Health Science Center