PTSD is a mental health problem that often requires treatment by a therapist. 

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The resources on this page will hopefully grow, but for now I am posting a resource that looks as preventing PTSD when someone has been through a traumatic event.

 

Typically therapists work with treating PTSD after the symptoms has developed, but prevention has been on my mind during the COVID-19 outbreak given the statistics around the number of people who go on to develop PTSD after spending time in ICU, and reports of frontline workers developing PTSD symptoms. 

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There is a good amount of evidence that post-traumatic rumination can play a role in the development of PTSD, and study after study consistently shows that support after a traumatic event plays a role in whether someone goes on to develop PTSD. I have tried to bring these ideas together in this simple 3 page comic. 

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As you can see this one has not been illustrated by Mark Bennett, again I am hoping that this may be done in the future, in the meantime there is my artwork. You may also notice it also includes more text than some of my other comics, if I work out a lower text way of making the same point I will incorporate that in to a later version. 

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While this resource is designed as information for the prevention of PTSD, it may also be used to provide a rationale for treatment, or for psychoeducation.

• Page 1 provides psychoeducation about perseverative thinking processes such as worry and rumination, which feature in several diagnoses. 

• Pages 1 and 2 combined may provide a rationale for cognitive therapy for PTSD where cognitive therapy is looking at correcting unhelpful beliefs or appraisals that have developed.

• Pages 1, 2 and 3 combined provide evidence based information on how to minimise the likelihood of developing PTSD after going through a traumatic event. 

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