Common Symptoms of Medical PTSD
What is Medical PTSD and What are the Symptoms?
I was recently interviewed by, Fortesa Latifi for an article about Medical PTSD and it made me wonder if more people might benefit from learning about this topic. Many people experience horrifying and upsetting medical procedures and experiences, leaving them feeling completely overwhelmed in the aftermath. If you have experienced trauma symptoms after an upsetting or life-threatening medical event, Medical PTSD might be an appropriate label for your experience.
Medical PTSD
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a clinical diagnosis for the symptoms that arise after a someone experiences a traumatic event or events. This collection of symptoms are common after trauma, but the diagnosis can still vary across individuals.
Adding the term “medical” in front of PTSD is simply a descriptor. We might say “combat PTSD” for a veteran that has PTSD from their combat experience, or “childhood PTSD” for the post-traumatic symptoms that arise after someone has experienced childhood trauma.
When we say “medical PTSD”, we are simply saying that a post-traumatic stress response has occurred after a traumatic medical experience. While the term “medical PTSD” is not a diagnosis that is technically differentiated from other forms of PTSD, practitioners and survivors in the trauma world use this descriptor to name the felt experience of trauma in a helpful way.
Common Causes of Medical PTSD
There are a myriad of reasons that someone might develop PTSD after a horrifying medical experience. Here are some of the big categories of experiences that can lead to a post-traumatic response.
1️⃣ Not being believed by doctors or medical staff.
Similar to other traumatic experiences, when you experience pain, distress, or are in need of immediate help, you need others to believe you and help you. If a medical professional is withholding belief, help, or not paying attention to your symptoms, this can lead you to feel helpless or dissociative in the aftermath. It is common to hear stories of being dismissed, told to not worry, or plain ignored.
2️⃣ Life-threatening events fundamentally changing the way you see and interact with the world.
Experiencing a life-threatening medical event can leave you feeling like the world around you has fundamentally changed. This increases your sense of helplessness and depression as you take on the painful task of finding safety in your body and in the world again.
3️⃣ Loss of consciousness or being in a coma preventing ability to consent.
A trauma response is often caused when the ability to consent has been removed, violated, or stolen. When assessing your ability to process a medical trauma, ask yourself, “Where did things happen without consent?” In dire medical situations, consent is often stripped from a person when they are unconscious and unable to consent to life-altering medical decisions.
4️⃣ Chronic pain or illness blamed on “psychosomatic” patient.
Those that struggle with chronic pain or illness are often seen as the “difficult” or “psychosomatic” patients. But dismissing chronic pain or a patient’s trauma as merely a physical manifestation of their inner psychological experience (i.e. psychosomatic), sends a message that implies that they are making up or exaggerating their pain for manipulative means. When a patient’s chronic pain is suspected as manipulative they cannot explore their needs, concerns, and treatment goals in a psychologically healthy space.
5️⃣ Childhood illness and life-threatening medical conditions.
One of the things trauma therapists asses is the number of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs Inventory) a patient might have experienced. Chronic illness, life-threatening medical conditions, or violating medical procedures, are some of the ways that children experience trauma. Children have a limited capacity to understand the nuances of medical procedures and medications that make them ill, often leading to a post-traumatic stress responses that carries into adulthood.
Common Symptoms of Medical PSTD
1️⃣ Intrusive Memories
Intrusive memories are unwanted and unpleasant memories that remind a survivor of their trauma. These can happen with:
Memories of:
Actual medical events
Traumatizing interactions with medical professionals
Nightmares about:
Previous experiences
Words from doctors
Pain of lived through procedures
2️⃣ Negative Changes in Thinking and Mood
After experiencing a life-altering trauma, the sudden shift in how you see yourself and the world around you can lead to negative changes in thinking and mood. This can happen in the following ways:
Intrusive thoughts about:
Previous medical procedures
Words from professionals
Receiving difficult diagnoses
Believing the world is fundamentally bad or unsafe after a medical trauma has challenged your sense of safety
Negative beliefs or a chronic sense of unease around all medical professionals due to lack of empathy from medical staff
Depression or anxiety about medical conditions or physical experiences
3️⃣ Avoidance
Avoidance is one of the key signs that indicates whether something was traumatic for a patient. If the patient feels a deep need to avoid the memory, reminders, or feelings associated with the event, then it likely had a traumatic impact. This becomes apparent in the following ways:
Avoidance of appointments, despite problematic symptoms
Avoidance of difficult conversations with medical professionals
Avoidance of tests, medical procedures, surgeries, or medications
4️⃣ Changes in Physical or Emotional Reactions
Another important trauma indicator are changes in physical or emotional reactions. The following reactions are worth noting if you wonder if your physical/emotional reactions to your environment have suddenly changed after a traumatizing medical encounter:
Intense anxiety before, during and after medical appointments or memories of medical appointments
Shame over body’s dysfunction
Anger over chronic pain or feeling ill
Anger or disgust over loss of life experiences due to illness
As with all trauma, support and education are crucial in helping you overcome the cycle of trauma. If you are interested in whether your experience qualifies as trauma, check out our blog here. If you’d like more information about other forms of PTSD, we’ve got information about Complex PTSD, Sexual Trauma, Religious Trauma, Betrayal Trauma, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Trauma, Postpartum Trauma, and Foster and Adoption Trauma.
Are there other trauma or PTSD topics you’d like to learn about? If so, email us at hello@gideonpsych.com and we will cover your topic!
If you are a California resident, you can also get professional and specialized support to overcome your PTSD symptoms. Book a free consultation with one of our trauma therapists. We provide online therapy and have therapists who are trained in emdr therapy. We also offer many different types of trauma therapy groups. All of our therapists specialize in trauma informed care, and informed trauma therapy
All therapists at Woven Together Trauma Therapy are trauma-informed and specialize in treating all forms of trauma. We also offer EMDR therapy, Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy, and Brainspotting therapy which all have shown to be extremely effective in treating and healing trauma. Want to read more about our unique therapy options?
These blogs talk more about the basics of EMDR therapy:
You can read more about Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy here:
If you would like to learn more about Brainspotting therapy, check out our blog: What is Brainspotting?