Last Thursday, Frances Finn, recently voted UK Radio Personality of the Year 2010 at the Sony Academy Awards, invited me, as resident psychotherapist on her Morning Show at BBC Radio Nottingham, to discuss her experiences on getting back on her motorbike after her horrendous accident last August.

Fran’s memory of the impact and immediate aftermath is blank as she was mostly unconscious, and she has not reported experiencing any Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms such as feeling like she was reliving the accident or flashbacks leading to panic attacks etc. However, at the time, it was so serious that it was initially thought to be a fatal accident. Fortunately those reports were incorrect and although horribly injured facially, Fran has gone on to heal unscarred and make a full recovery.  For various reasons she has not had opportunity to ride her beloved Fireblade since then and Weds evening was her first attempt.  She recorded her thoughts and feelings and played it on air.

As is typical, Fran was worried about re-visiting the scene of the accident on her motorbike and this triggering a frightening flash of memory out of the blue. (a possible sign of PTSD). This did not happen, and she feels fully confident to get back in the saddle from now on.

On the show, a caller also described his experiences of being injured as a result of an act of deliberate anti-social behaviour (The ladder he was using was shaken to cause him to fall).  He has recovered, but has never felt safe to get back on a ladder.  This avoidance is a common occurrence when someone has experienced a trauma and not fully come to terms with it, and can be one of the signs of PTSD.

A colleague broadcaster also described his experiences; after a serious car accident, he began to behave recklessly, taking potentially life-threatening risks.  This, too, can be an indicator of the continuing impact of the trauma, and PTSD, arising as a consequence of a sense of a foreshortened future – a kind of pointlessness about life. 

Not everyone who has a traumatic experience will develop PTSD. Many, many people come to terms psychologically with a bad shocking experience, naturally with the passage of time.

PTSD can occur when a person’s world view has been turned upside down so radically that the mind cannot adjust. 

Counselling can be helpful. If someone is experiencing the kind of symptoms described above; a course of therapy might focus on gently encouraging the person to gradually relate their story, of what happened, in the safe environment of the counselling room with the warm and understanding presence of the therapist. Together we assess and  monitor  levels of distress each time the story is related, and the changes that naturally occur as the person psychologically processes the experience (rather than avoiding it), and makes new sense and meaning of it, and adjusts his/her view of life.

Behaviourally  a therapist would support the person to face the feared experience, gradually building tolerance to the trigger, eg taking one step further up the ladder and confronting the unhelpful beliefs about what might go wrong at each stage. 

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) can be particularly effective.

There is a high level of success in overcoming PTSD ; approx 50% of people make a full recovery in 3 months.