Title: General - Secondary PTSD - An Overview | My PTSD Forum
Headings: General
Secondary PTSD - An Overview

General Secondary PTSD - An Overview
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Content: But does this mean that it is safe to say that professional helpers are only infrequently affected by their secondary exposure to trauma survivors? I believe the answer is no. The development of dramatic PTSD symptoms is only one of the ways in which professional helpers are affected by their exposure to secondary traumatic stress
The ways in which professional helpers are affected may not be as obvious only because we don't think of them as symptoms. For example, can you imagine a professional helper coming home from performing a critical incident debriefing and going right to bed? It's highly unlikely. Why? Because we typically need to "unwind" after such experiences. We each tend to develop our own means of settling down when we get home--whether it be by reading a book, watching TV or cleaning the kitchen--because we are all dealing with the same issue; i.e., our arousal level is heightened. It is obviously so when we have been on the scene of a disaster.