PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) is an anxiety
disorder that can occur after a scary or threatening event. Regardless if you
were directly involved or not, the shock of what transpired can be so great
that you have difficulty living a normal life.
If you have PTSD, it may feel like you can never return
to your life again. Fortunately, it can be treated. ptsd treatment and
medications can work quite well. Usually, a combination of treatment methods
works well together.
ptsd treatment has three main goals:
·
Restore self-esteem
·
Improve symptoms
·
Teach skills to deal with the symptoms
Family or group therapy might be a suitable choice for
you rather than individual sessions, depending on your circumstance.
Stress Inoculation
Training
Stress Inoculation Training is a kind of Cognitive Behavioral
Therapy (CBT). You may undergo this treatment by yourself or in a group. You do
not have to give a full account of the event. The purpose is more on changing
how you manage stress from what happened.
You may learn breathing and massage techniques. You learn
to relax your mind and body to stop being pessimistic. You should have learned
to release the additional stress in your life after about 3 months.
Cognitive Processing
Therapy
In this type of ptsd treatment, you talk about the
traumatic experience with the specialist and how your way of thinking because
of this has affected your life. You will be asked to write about what happened
in detail. It will help you assess how you deal with your trauma and find ways
to manage it.
Your psychologist will help you consider all the things
that you cannot control. It helps you move forward, accept, and understand that
it was not your fault regardless if you did or did not do them.
Prolonged Exposure
Therapy
If you have been trying to avoid things that can remind
you of a specific traumatic experience, the goal of Prolonged Exposure is to help you face them. In the
beginning, the psychologist will teach you to ease anxiety by breathing
properly when you remember what happened.
Later on, you list everything that you are avoiding and
learn how to confront them one by one. Through a recording, you will also give
an account of the event to the specialist. When you go home, you can listen to
it.
Eye Movement
Desensitization and Reprocessing
In this PTSD treatment, you may not have to tell your psychologist
about your traumatic event. What you do is focus on it while listening or
watching what the specialist is doing. It could be making a sound, moving a
hand, or flashing light. The purpose is to help you think about something
positive even if you remember your trauma.
Medications
The threats in the minds of individuals with PTSD are
different. It is because the chemical balance known as neurotransmitters is
dysfunctional. If you are like this, you are often on-edge and jumpy due to
your activated fight or flight response.
By taking medications, you can stop reacting to what
happened or thinking about it. It also controls your flashbacks and nightmares.
Also, medications can help you look at life more positively and normally again.
