Is Hypervigilance a Cause or Symptom of PTSD? Pt. 4

by jphilo | Jan 7, 2016 | Different Dream, In Parents, PTSD

Is Hypervigilance a Cause or Symptom of PTSD? Pt. 4

The Different Dream’s series about special needs parenting stress, trauma, and PTSD is back in 2016 after a few weeks off for the holidays. The first post introduced the series, while the second explained the difference between trauma and PTSD. The third post answered two questions: Can the stress of raising a child with PTSD result in a parent with PTSD? What other kinds of parenting trauma can lead to PTSD? Today, child psychologist Liz Matheis takes a look at another question submitted by the stressed-out parent of a child with special needs. Does the state of hypervigilance that special needs parents experience lead to PTSD or is it a symptom? Read on to find out why the answer to the question isn’t a simple one.

People who experience anxiety tend to be exceptionally aware of their environment. They are familiar with where they are in space and time in relation to others. Some are always aware of the location of the closest exit. This extra aware state of mind is referred to as hypervigilance. It also kicks in when people with anxiety enter into a new or unfamiliar environments and are not familiar with the floor plan. They consider it a potential threat or harm. It is exhausting to live with the constant need to scan the environment and look for potential dangers.

Parents of children with special needs scan the environment for potential dangers or triggers for their kids. They are looking for new or unfamiliar environments that serve as potential triggers for a child with anxiety or a sensory processing disorder. Parents know that just entering a friend’s home or going to a birthday party are loud, scary, and smelly enough to trigger meltdowns or aggression.

At times, it is okay to be hypervigilant, especially when entering a novel situation, like a new job. Hypervigilance allows people to stay aware long enough to process the office culture, norms, worth ethic, and relationships. Eventually non-hypervigilant people let their guard down and function as they should. However, for someone who is anxious or under excessive stress, continual hypervigilance results in increased physical and psychological arousal that becomes physically exhausting over time. Constant hypervigilance leads to sweating, increased heart rate, shallow or rapid breathing, and an inability to ‘let go.’ This can result in a inability to sleep, engage in conversations, and maintain relationships.

Over time, this pattern of constant hypervigilance can become a bigger part of PTSD, especially if the parent feels traumatized by her/his child’s special needs and journey. In the early phases, hypervigilance is simply a sign of anxiety. But over time, a person who has been severely or repeatedly traumatized is likely to experience other symptoms of PTSD, also.

So the answer to the question Is hypervigilance a cause or symptom of PTSD? the answer is yes. Hypervigilance can cause PTSD if it continues over a long period of time. But it can be also be a symptom of PTSD, too.

Your Questions about Parenting Trauma and PTSD

Do you have questions about parenting trauma, stress, and PTSD? If so, you’re invited to leave them in the comment box for Dr. Liz. Who knows? Her answer may appear in one of the posts in this series.

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up box and the second at the bottom of this page.

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Dr. Liz Matheis is a clinical psychologist and school psychologist in Parsippany, NJ. She offers support, assessments, and advocacy for children who are managing Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD, learning disabilities, and behavioral difficulties, as well as their families. She is also a contributor to several popular magazines. Visit www.psychedconsult.com for more information.

Author Jolene Philo

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The answer to your question, “Can the stress of raising a child with PTSD result in a parent with PTSD?” is a resounding “Yes.” You, as a parent, are entering into the parenting scene with your own areas of strength and weakness. Sometimes they match up with your child’s needs, but sadly, sometimes they don’t. This can lead to feelings of helplessness and lack of control, which can be traumatizing and distressing. Let’s face it, when we become parents, there is no introductory period, trial period, or returns allowed. So even though we believed that parenthood should carry on in a particular way, it often does not. Then we have to grieve that loss of the family I hoped for or the parent I promised to be.

Parenting trauma can occur after any event or behavior that a parent finds overwhelming. For example: receiving a shocking diagnosis, being beaten by your child, feeling like you are the only person who can care for your child, having your child terminated from a preschool or private school program. There is no right or wrong way of becoming traumatized. Some people have a high tolerance for life’s surprise events, others are taken down right from the start, while others can take and take and take, but then become worn down.

Some examples of situations and events that can lead to parent PTSD are on-going stresses such as marital conflict, frequent hospitalizations for your child, frequent trips to the ER, having a child who was in the NICU or PICU, aggressive behavior issues (e.g., head banging, biting, punching, pinching, spitting). Other situations include difficulties in finding the right physician or therapist to provide the support your child needs (sensory-wise, medication, overall health) or difficulty in finding a school for your child where staff uses a humane approach to handle him.

Parent PTSD can also be activated when distressing experiences in raising your child that are being triggered by trauma you may have experienced as a child, adolescent or young adult. That is, pre-existing trauma that is re-triggered by the stress of parenting a child with special needs. Pre-existing traumas could include child abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, significant hospitalization or illness, rape, or even childbirth.

Although the symptoms of PTSD are often the same for parents and child, the triggers can be different. Your child with PTSD may have nightmares, flashbacks, numbness, and avoidance behaviors triggered by certain odors, scents, places, or faces. For parents the PTSD flashbacks and nightmares can spring from inability to control or manage the child’s aggressive behavior, nightmares, and other extreme emotions that accompany their fears. The stress of parenting a child with PTSD also means that both you and your child are regularly in fight mode for different reasons. So, you both may be sleep deprived yet hypervigilant, watching for triggers or potential dangers.

Your Questions about Parenting Trauma and PTSD

Do you have questions about parenting trauma, stress, and PTSD? If so, you’re invited to leave them in the comment box for Dr. Liz.

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up box and the second at the bottom of this page.

By

Dr. Liz Matheis is a clinical psychologist and school psychologist in Parsippany, NJ. She offers support, assessments, and advocacy for children who are managing Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD, learning disabilities, and behavioral difficulties, as well as their families. She is also a contributor to several popular magazines. Visit www.psychedconsult.com for more information.