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, journalists and everyone who feels affected by trauma.
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 of the events, 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 severely 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 often massively affected as are relationships with many others. Your life becomes smaller and smaller. For example, a person in a car accident may then avoid all forms of transport, leading to further life limiting constriction. PTSD is treatable though, these changes can be worked with, and undone. What seems immoveable can shift with the right kind of help.
Burnout
Burnout feels like a chronic debilitating tiredness. You may feel flat and low. You dread work but 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 redefined. Once that’s done, you’ll begin to be able to think more clearly about the future.
Get in touch:
If you'd like to discuss whether therapy might be helpful, please contact me. We can arrange an initial half an hour appointment on Zoom or the phone to talk about what you're experiencing and whether I can help.