Any incident that a person perceives to be frightening, dangerous, or disturbing can set off post-traumatic stress disorder. Military war, natural disasters, violent crime, sexual harassment, physical assault, and traumatic incidents are only a few examples of severe traumas that can trigger long-term PTSD symptoms. Although these examples may seem severe, PTSD may develop from any situation in which a person is unable to fully process a traumatic event.
In fact, studies reveal that approximately 70% of adults in the United States have experienced some type of trauma that could result in PTSD. Furthermore, according to PTSD United, nearly 24.4 million people are affected by post-traumatic stress disorder at any given time.
What are some of the most common PTSD symptoms
Inability to sleep• Suffering from chronic pain
Tiredness
Retrospectives
Sleepless nights
Guilt and shame emotions
Suspicious feelings
Isolation from feelings
Nervousness
Sad mood
Although post-traumatic stress disorder can have a huge negative impact on a person’s quality of life, the good news is that many patients respond well to massage therapy.
Tightness and trigger points in the patient’s muscles and tissues are treated during a massage session. This will help a PTSD patient cope with some of the pain they’ve been feeling. Additionally, by loosening things up and allowing the patient more control, tension and anxiety can be minimised.
One of the most significant benefits of using massage to treat post-traumatic stress disorder is that it aids general relaxation. As a result, this can have a lot of positive effects on people who are suffering from PTSD. Increased relaxation can lead to more regular sleep cycles, reduced discomfort, and a more optimistic outlook.
Massage therapy also has a few special advantages for PTSD patients. A massage therapist’s job is to provide meaningful, kind, relaxing, and inspiring human contact. This will help patients feel at ease and healthy during the procedure, two emotions they may have been dealing with.
Although and case and reaction are special, massage can help with the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in a variety of ways.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs in certain people who have encountered or undergone an incident that is disturbing, frightening, or dangerous, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. These incidents may be linked to war, or they may include aggression, harassment, or trauma.
PTSD United, an organisation committed to providing care and services for people who suffer from PTSD, estimates that 24.4 million people are affected by the condition at any given time. While almost everyone has been subjected to a traumatic experience at some stage in their life, those who develop PTSD have their responses to the trauma linger rather than resolving spontaneously over time. And when they aren’t in risk, people with PTSD sometimes feel overwhelmed.
Pamela Fitch, author of Talking Body, Listening Hands: A Guide to Professionalism, Communication, and the Therapeutic Partnership and a massage therapist with extensive experience working with clients with PTSD, states, “People experience PTSD when their choices about what happens to their bodies are stripped away from them.” “No position or individual feels secure when acts are taken over which they have no influence. When you put in the sense of how a person was loved or not loved, the trauma becomes much more difficult to overcome.”
What Are the Signs and Symptoms
PTSD is extremely individualised, which means that no two individuals can have the same experience. Knowing some of the more common symptoms, on the other hand, will help you better understand how massage therapy can help. Symptoms can present themselves in a variety of ways, according to Fitch:
Hyperarousal is the state of being too excited
Hyperarousal is a term that describes a rise in psychological and physiological stress. The person may, for example, be nervous or exhausted, or suffer from insomnia. Furthermore, their pain tolerance may decrease, while their startle responses may become amplified. Personality characteristics can be amplified in this situation as well.
Excessive caution
Hypervigilance is described as an abnormal knowledge of environmental stimuli or being alert and attentive to potential threats. You may also find clients clenching their fingers or holding their breath.
Shame and guilt
Clients suffering from PTSD may often feel guilty or embarrassed, blaming themselves for what occurred or feeling humiliated and unworthy.
Dissociation is a term used to describe a state
Regardless of how and when symptoms arise, many people with PTSD find that their symptoms have a huge impact on their everyday lives, Dissociation is the process by which an individual separates themselves from a traumatic event. Some people may seem emotionally disconnected, absent, or unconscious. Others with PTSD can experience “time travel” and be unable to recall key details of the trauma, for example. Dissociation may also include panic, nausea, and fear.
Thoughts that trouble you:
Recurrent, unwanted, and distressing memories of the traumatic event, as well as disturbing dreams or flashbacks, can occur. According to the Mayo Clinic, PTSD symptoms normally start three months after the incident, although it can take years for symptoms to appear.
making it difficult to function and establish and sustain personal and professional relationships.
When dealing with PTSD clients, keep in mind that even though you recognise the signs, you must still remain within the area of practise. “It is not within the scope of practise for a massage therapist to consciously participate in conversation about the trauma, other than to listen, help, and refer,” Fitch says.
Treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder
The aim is to help the individual better function through the trauma.For example, cognitive therapy is a form of talk therapy that focuses on helping people understand patterns in their thinking that hold them “stuck,” such as misinterpreting ordinary situations as dangerous. Exposure therapy, which involves a person working to re-enter the environment where the trauma happened, often using virtual reality, seeks to help people with PTSD comfortably face what they find threatening or disturbing in order to learn to cope more effectively with the traumatic incident.
In certain cases, anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medications are used in conjunction with talk therapy (such as cognitive therapy) and exposure therapy.
Working through their trauma history with an accomplished psychologist or psychotherapist is a must for clients with PTSD seeking massage therapy, according to Fitch. “If clients with PTSD pursue massage therapy before talking to a psychotherapist about their symptoms, they can intensify their symptoms, become triggered by the touch, or become depressed or angry,” she says.
How Does Massage Therapy Help PTSD Patients
Massage can provide clients with a variety of benefits, including stress relief, anxiety reduction, depression reduction, and improved mood. Furthermore, participants who received massage therapy showed substantial reductions in physical pain, stress, irritability, anxiety/worry, and depression in a 2012 study focusing on how integrative therapies can help facilitate reintegration among veterans. 2
According to Cynthia Price, a research professor at the University of Washington and a massage therapist, another recent study of Somali women refugees with chronic pain—the majority of whom reported military and/or sexual abuse—massage therapy offered tremendous relief for distressing physical and psychological symptoms primarily due to trauma exposure.3
