TRAUMA & PTSD | Center For Cognitive Growth

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Complex Trauma & Chronic Pain

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing a shocking, dangerous, or life-threatening event. Symptoms include intrusive memories, flashbacks, avoidance behaviors, and severe anxiety. PTSD disrupts your brain’s natural "fight-or-flight" mechanism, leaving you feeling frightened or stressed even when you are safe.

Traumatic events capable of causing PTSD include military combat, physical or sexual assault, natural disasters, serious accidents, or the sudden loss of a loved one. Triggers are environmental or emotional cues (like a loud sound, a smell, or a specific phrase) that unknowingly spark memories or symptoms of the past trauma.

Intrusive memories

Symptoms of intrusive memories may include:

Unwanted, distressing memories of a traumatic event that come back over and over again.
Reliving a traumatic event as if it were happening again, also known as flashbacks.
Upsetting dreams or nightmares about a traumatic event.
Severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of a traumatic event.

Avoidance

Symptoms of avoidance may include:

Trying not to think or talk about a traumatic event.
Staying away from places, activities or people that remind you of a traumatic event.

Negative changes in thinking and mood

Symptoms of negative changes in thinking and mood may include:

Negative thoughts about yourself, other people or the world.
Ongoing negative emotions of fear, blame, guilt, anger or shame.
Memory problems, including not remembering important aspects of a traumatic event.
Feeling detached from family and friends.
Not being interested in activities you once enjoyed.
Having a hard time feeling positive emotions.
Feeling emotionally numb.

Changes in physical and emotional reactions

Symptoms of changes in physical and emotional reactions, also called arousal symptoms, may include:

Being easily startled or frightened.
Always being on guard for danger.
Self-destructive behavior, such as drinking too much or driving too fast.
Trouble sleeping.
Trouble concentrating.
Irritability, angry outbursts or aggressive behavior.
Physical reactions, such as sweating, rapid breathing, fast heartbeat or shaking.

Chronic pain is persistent pain lasting more than 3 to 6 months, often outlasting the typical healing time of an injury or illness. It is a complex condition affecting the nervous system and is commonly treated through a "whole-person" multimodal approach.

Neurofeedback (NFB) for chronic pain is a non-invasive therapy that uses real-time brainwave monitoring to help patients retrain their nervous system, reduce hypersensitivity, and modulate pain signals. It aims to alter dysfunctional brain activity, offering a potential drug-free complement to standard pain management. Most neurofeedback protocols focus on adjusting the brain's oscillatory rhythms to calm down central nervous system hyperactivity.

Neurofeedback treats PTSD by training the brain to self-regulate dysregulated brainwaves and reduce hyperarousal. Through real-time monitoring and audio-visual rewards, individuals learn to shift their nervous system out of "fight or flight" states, improving emotional control and decreasing trauma symptoms without needing to verbally process past events.

Trauma often causes an overactive amygdala and an underactive frontal cortex. Neurofeedback trains the brain to increase calming alpha waves and reduce the high-frequency waves associated with anxiety and flashbacks. By regaining control over emotional responses, patients often experience fewer vivid re-experiences, better sleep, and decreased emotional reactivity.