Trauma, PTSD, and Burnout
I’m a counselling psychologist with twenty years’ experience, specialising in trauma and EMDR. I work with those affected by traumatic experiences, PTSD and burnout, including individuals whose work brings them into repeated contact with distress and suffering. This includes police officers, NHS staff, senior leaders NGO workers and journalists.
Trauma
It doesn’t have to be ‘extreme’ to be serious. It can be the steady drip of human suffering and the sense that the goalposts of what is normal and what isn’t have shifted. You may no longer think there’s anything good about human nature at all. You no longer feel that there’s anything else except the world you’ve been immersed in.
In my experience, allowing frank discussions about the burden of the work can lead to a sense of relief that it’s been talked about. You often can’t take it home to those close to you, as it’s just too much. Talking to someone like myself can help you to feel lighter and less burdened.
PTSD
PTSD feels like the sense that the event has only just happened. There’s a recency to the way that it’s described, and if you’ve got a good visual memory, the images will feel very close to you, almost as though they are in front of your eyes or right next to you. When they intrude upon your awareness, you’ll have a very strong emotional or physical reaction. you’ll avoid reminders, places and even particular thoughts.
Post traumatic stress can have a profound effect on your sleep, your mood your relationships and the way you see the future. It can be profoundly life limiting and constricting, also leading to marked low mood and anxiety.
When I meet someone with severe PTSD, they are preoccupied and anxious. Their lives are constricted as they are constantly negotiating trying to avoid reminders, places and thoughts of what’s happened to them or what they’ve witnessed. Insomnia and nightmares are the most debilitating symptoms, and can lead to feelings of ‘craziness’ and loss of control.
PTSD affects relationships profoundly. The irritability and anger can be alienating, and I often hear about partnerships and friendships being under huge amounts of strain. Sex and intimacy is also massively affected as are relationships with many others. Your life becomes smaller and smaller. If untreated anxieties can sadly generalise. A person in a car accident may then avoid all forms of transport, for example leading to further life limiting constriction.
Burnout
Burnout feels like a chronic debilitating tiredness. Those with burnout feel flat and low. They dread work and can also dread being at home too. Time off work is spent desperately trying to recoup a sense of energy and enthusiasm, but it rarely works, and the cycle of dreading work begins again.
You may be experiencing illness in a way that you haven’t before, as the possible chronic stress may be taking a toll on your body, and you may be taking time off sick, almost looking forward to being ill yet dreading the avalanche of work when you return.
I can help you to make difficult decisions: whether to stay in a role or job or whether to just quit. Burnout is often about boundaries. They have to be redrawn, and renegotiated. Once that’s done, you’ll feel more positive, you may even look forward to work or be more able to re-negotiate what you do.
Get in touch:
If you'd like to discuss whether therapy might be helpful, please contact me. We can arrange an initial appointment to talk about what you're experiencing and whether I can help.