Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that’s caused by a frightening incident — either suffering it or observing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, hallucinations and serious anxiety, as well as irrepressible thoughts about the incident. Most people who undergo upsetting events may have momentary trouble adjusting and managing, but with time and good self-care, they typically get better. If the symptoms deteriorate, go on for months or even years, and affect your everyday life, you may have the condition.
Symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Symptoms of PTSD may begin within one month of a shocking event, but occasionally symptoms may take to appear following the incident. These symptoms trigger substantial problems in social or work settings and in relationships. They can also affect your capacity to carry out your everyday functioning.
The condition’s symptoms are normally grouped into four types: intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, and changes in physical and emotional reactions. Symptoms can differ over time or differ from individual to individual.
Severity of symptoms
Over time, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder can differ in severity. When you’re generally stressed or when you come across flashbacks of what you underwent, you are likely to have more PTSD symptoms. For instance, you may hear a car boomerang and recall combat experiences. Or you may see a report on the news about a sexual attack and feel overwhelmed by memories of your own attack.
When to see a doctor for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
If you have worrying thoughts and feelings about a disturbing event for more than a month, if they’re critical, or if you think you’re having problem getting your life back under control, speak to your medic or a mental health expert. Getting treatment at the earliest can help avert PTSD symptoms from worsening.
Risk factors of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
The condition can affect people of all age groups. Nevertheless, you are more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder following a distressing event, such as experiencing strong or enduring trauma; having suffered other ordeal earlier in life, such as juvenile abuse; having a job that raises your risk of being exposed to disturbing events; having blood relatives with psychological health problems, including anxiety or depression, and more.
Types of traumatic events
The most common events leading to the development of PTSD include:
- Fight exposure
- Juvenile physical exploitation
- Sexual violence
- Physical attack
- An accident
Several other shocking events also can lead to the condition, such as fire, natural catastrophe, theft, burglary, plane crash, torture, abduction, fatal medical diagnosis, terrorist attack, and other dangerous or deadly events.
Prevention of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
After enduring a disturbing event, several people have PTSD-like symptoms at the outset, such as being incapable of stopping thinking about what’s occurred. Common reactions to trauma include fear, anxiety, fury, despair, and guilt. Still, the majority of people undergone a traumatic event do not develop lasting post-traumatic stress disorder.
Receiving opportune help and support may avert normal stress reactions from worsening and transforming into post-traumatic stress disorder. This may imply getting in touch with acquaintances who will listen and offer comfort. It may also mean looking for a psychological health expert for a brief course of therapy. Some people may also find it supportive to turn to their faith community, while help from others also may help prevent you from turning to unwholesome managing approaches, such as misuse of alcohol or drugs.
Diagnosis of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
To diagnose PTSD, your doctor is likely to carry out a physical examination to check for medical issues that may be troubling you; conduct a psychological assessment that consists of a discussion of your signs and symptoms and the event or events that made them happen.
Diagnosis of the condition needs exposure to an occurrence that involved the real or imaginable threat of death, violence or grave wound. Your exposure can occur in one or more of these ways:
- You directly underwent the shocking event
- You observed, personally, the upsetting incident happening to others
- You learned someone near you underwent or was threatened by the shocking event
You may have the condition if the glitches you face after this contact continue for more than a month and cause substantial problems in your capacity to work in social and work situations and negatively affect relationships.
Treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Treatment of PTSD can help you regain control over your emotions. The main treatment includes psychotherapy as well as medication. Merging these treatments can help enhance your symptoms by:
- Teaching you skills to address your symptoms
- Helping you think better about yourself, others and the world
- Learning ways to cope if any symptoms arise again
- Treating other problems often related to traumatic experiences, such as depression, anxiety, or misuse of alcohol or drugs
You don’t have to try to handle the burden of PTSD on your own.
Psychotherapy of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Several kinds of psychotherapy may be used to treat children and adults with the post-traumatic stress disorder. Some types of psychotherapy used in PTSD treatment include:
- Cognitive therapy.This type of therapy helps you identify the methods of thinking that are keeping you trapped — such as undesirable beliefs about yourself and the risk of disturbing things recurring. For post-traumatic stress disorder, this type of therapy often is used along with exposure therapy.
- Exposure therapy.This communicative therapy helps you securely face both circumstances and memories that you find scary so that you can learn to deal with them successfully. Exposure therapy can be mostly supportive for memories and dreams. One method uses virtual reality programs that let you reenter the situation in which you suffered trauma.
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).This therapy mixes exposure therapy with a string of guided eye movements that help you process shocking memories and change how you respond to them.
Your psychotherapist can help you develop stress management skills to help you better manage demanding situations and deal with stress in your life. All these methods can help you gain control of permanent fear after a shocking event. You and your mental health expert can discuss what type of treatment or combination of therapies may best meet your needs.
Medications of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Several types of medications—such as antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications—can help improve symptoms of PTSD.