Anke Ehlers, clinical psychologist and professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, tells us what she would want to know about PTSD.

I cannot stop awful memories of what happened from popping into my mind. Does it mean I'm having a mental breakdown?

Having vivid, frequent memories of an extremely traumatic event is understandably very upsetting. It is, however, a common and well-known response to an extreme experience. It shows that your mind is trying to come to terms with what happened, not that you're going mad or losing control of your thoughts.

When will this stop and can I do anything to make it any better?

It takes a few weeks or months for the mind and body to adjust but, for most people, the symptoms of PTSD will decline with time. In the early days after a trauma, it's important to look after yourself by doing simple things, such as eating well, staying active, spending time with family and friends, and keeping up a regular routine. In the following weeks, try doing things that were important to you before the trauma, even if you don't feel like doing much.

What if my symptoms aren't improving?

Between 30 and 50% of people with severe PTSD symptoms can become stuck during their natural recovery. A person suffering from PTSD for more than three months after the original event is likely to benefit from one of the forms of psychological or 'talking therapies' indicated in the NICE guidelines. If the symptoms are very severe and strongly interfere with the person’s life, earlier treatment is helpful. PTSD is very treatable and following a course of therapy, the majority of people are no longer disabled by the symptoms.

How could something that happened a long time ago cause PTSD?

While it's happening, a trauma is overwhelming and no one can fully grasp what is going on and what it means. As a consequence, a trauma memory is not like a memory of other events, which are processed by the mind and 'filed away', and rarely pop into our minds if we don't want to think about them. Memories of a trauma, however, remain unprocessed and can very easily be triggered. When they come to mind, they appear to be in the present ('flashbacks') rather than from the past. To get over a trauma, a person needs to process the memories.

Wouldn’t talking about the trauma make it worse? Isn’t it better to just try to forget?

Unfortunately, just pushing the memories out of one's mind does not work and may make the 'flashback' memories more frequent. PTSD is one of a number of anxiety-related conditions for which special 'talking therapies' are particularly useful. One approach - trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) - involves talking to a therapist about the trauma and learning how to change your thinking and feeling about it. Working through such memories isn't easy but your therapist will support you and make sure it's not overwhelming.