PTSD: What is it? Its causes? Symptoms and treatments

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is caused by having any traumas in the past that could have led them to feel fearful, shocked, or helpless and can also lead to long-term effect such as flashbacks, sleeping disorder and anxieties. Any experience that can lead to PTSD can include the following:

• War
• Crime
• Fires
• Loss by death
• Or abuse of any kind

Although, PTSD can effect a person’s life for the long-term but through proper treatment it could also be cured and here we will discuss a few ways of how you can also recover from PTSD.

Symptoms and Diagnosis

Symptoms usually start within 3 months of the trauma that they have faced or it can even occur much later. A person can also receive diagnosis if they face any of the following:

1. They have either been exposed to or threatened by death, serious injuries, or have been a victim of abuse, either directly or have seen someone close to them get abused.
2. Experience one of the following symptoms:

• One or more intrusion symptoms
• One or more avoidance symptoms
• Two or more symptoms that affect mood and thinking
• Two or more arousal or reactivity symptoms that occur from a trauma.
  
  

Physical Symptoms

• Sweating, headaches, dizziness, shaking and stomach problems.
• A weakened immune system.
• Sleep disturbances which can be resulting to tiredness

These may eventually lead to breakdowns and can also hamper work and other relationships.

Complications

There are some complications that can occur through PTSD which include:

• Difficulty with work or relationships
• A higher risk of heart problems
• A greater chance of chronic problems

Other issues may include anxiety, depression, personality disorders, abuse of substances, etc.

Treatments

Cognitive processing therapy (CPT): Also known as cognitive restructuring, the individual learns how to think about things in a new way. Mental imagery of the traumatic event may help them work through the trauma, to gain control of the fear and distress.

Exposure therapy: Talking repeatedly about the event or confronting the cause of the fear in a safe and controlled environment may help the person feel they have more control over their thoughts and feelings. The effectiveness of this treatment has been questioned, however, and it must be carried out with care, or there may be a risk of worsening of the symptoms.

When it would be advisable to see a doctor?

Many people can experience anxiety, depression and/or disorders in their life at any stage but this is not necessarily a case of PTSD.

Prompting treatment with a professional doctor can help before the symptoms worsen. These should be taken under consideration if:

• Symptoms persist for more than a month
• A person considers harming himself
• The symptoms are severe enough to prevent a person from returning to normal life again

Self Help Tips

A person should actively to cope with the trauma that they have faced. It will help to accept the situation that they were put in and help them try to move on, but it can only be made possible if they learn to accept, that yes, the situation happened and I should try improving on my situation.

Some ways that a person going through PTSD can do this by:

1. Learning that they have PTSD and would need an ongoing response and that it will take them time to recover.
2. Accepting that healing doesn’t necessarily mean forgetting the incident, but knowing that it had happened and slowly but surely recovering and not being bothered by it.

Other ways can be:

• Finding people to confide in
• Spending time with people who have gone through or experienced the same trauma
• Letting people know what might trigger symptoms
• Accomplishing your tasks by dividing them into smaller goals
• Gym, walk or yoga
• Practicing relaxation or meditation techniques
• Accepting that PTSD is not a sign of weakness and can happen to anyone