Symptoms and Treatment Options For Post Traumatic Stress Disorder3627721
If you've experienced severe trauma - you've been physically or sexually assaulted, or you were or are somebody who has witnessed a threatening act - you very well may develop and suffer from a disorder known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Symptoms of traumatic stress disorder can strike instantly following the trauma - Acute Stress Disorder - or they can present themselves months or years later - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
You may experience flashbacks of the traumatic event, avoidance of situations that remind you of trauma (soldiers avoiding fireworks displays because they bring back the sounds of battle explosions, for example). You also may have insomnia and have recurring distressing dreams. Other symptoms consist of what is recognized as hypervigilance (all your senses are usually on alert for danger, real or not). If you suffer from hypervigilance, your every day life will often deteriorate significantly because you will be so focused on watching your surroundings for danger that you'll have a hard time "seeing" or relating to reality. Post traumatic stress disorder can also cause sufferers to shed jobs. Excessive anger is detrimental to personal and professional relationships.
If you have been through a traumatic situation and you have some of the above symptoms, you will benefit from a go to with a psychiatrist or other licensed mental health experts in order to obtain an accurate evaluation for post traumatic stress disorder. Educated experts can also assist you with PTSD treatment. Various treatment modalities such as medicines, individual therapy, and group therapy are available for PTSD sufferers. An particular form of therapy known as cognitive behavioral therapy can assist you understand how negative thoughts can produce negative feelings and can train you to learn how to modify your negative views of events and circumstances.
Attending a support group with other PTSD sufferers can also be very helpful. Individuals who have gone via traumatic events can frequently assist every other work via their issues. Individuals who have experiences similar to yours can maybe "get" what you're going through better than people who haven't. Your counselor, therapist or psychiatrist probably knows of support groups you could join. In fact, many health care experts who treat PTSD sufferers often facilitate these types of groups themselves.
Medications also might be used to assist treat your PTSD. Once more, a physician or a psychiatrist will have to prescribe these medicines -- frequently anti-anxiety meds -- and he or she will watch and work with you closely since not each PTSD sufferer is the same and various medicines work differently with every patient.
PTSD can strike victims for seemingly "insignificant" trauma. Some women who are threatened with sexual assault who scare their attacker off before he can harm them can experience PTSD. Even though the rape by no means took place, the danger and threat of harm a woman experiences in this kind of scenario can bring PTSD to the fore.
PTSD is nicely-recognized in mental health circles and I hope you will avail your self to treatment should you find that your life has become excessively constricted due to the aftereffects of trauma.
