Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: What to Expect from Treatment

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious and intractable mental illness. It occurs as a result of experiencing catastrophic events that have caused severe damage to life and the fate of patients.

It is hardly possible to find a man who in his life would not have received any physical or mental trauma. Quite often, the destructive power of such injuries is unbearable.

For example, this happens if a person was involved in hostilities, someone close to him died, he was subjected to violence, was ruined or suffered another fiasco, etc. Not only direct participants, but also witnesses of destructive events are exposed to dangerous influence.

In such cases, a protective mechanism, known as shock, comes into effect. He can be of physical or mental origin. Shock is a healthy reaction of the body to the experience of stress, which protects the human body and personality from physical and mental destruction. In case of physical shock, the threshold of pain sensitivity becomes lower. Severe pain is transferred easier. With the soul, emotions become dulled, which makes it possible to keep purposeful behavior in a catastrophe.

At the end of the shock, after a while, a positive attitude towards life and normal functioning of the body is restored. Mental and physical trauma is curtailed, erased and no longer prevents a person from living.

But there are catastrophic incidents of special strength that do not pass without a trace. Usually, there are situations in which life and health have been exposed to a real threat. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a reaction to such situations.

Participants and witnesses of the catastrophe, having suffered a psychological shock, can not return to normal existence. They are at the mercy of traumatic memories. They do not leave a sense of defenselessness in a menacing world.

Among the traumatic events that cause posttraumatic stress disorder, the following are distinguished:

• hostilities;
• Terrorism (hostage taking, explosions, etc.);
• Catastrophic events in nature;
• Transport accidents;
• All physical forms of violence;
• All cases of rape;
• Surgical and other types of traumatic treatment (children often suffer).

This listing is not exhaustive. Post-traumatic stress disorder can be triggered by any event that poses a health hazard or destroys a normal life. It is important that such an event even before the disease causes a strong sensory shock and physical shock.

Symptomatic PTSD is important not only for doctors, but for the patients themselves. They need to understand that they need treatment and in time to guess what they are getting sick.

There are four symptoms of PTSD.

• Flashback episodes (multiple repetitive and obsessive experiences of sensations and perceptions of trauma); Dreams are nightmares with the repetition of unbearable experiences and without them; At the slightest reminder of the trauma - psychological distress (symptoms of fear, depression) and physical discomfort (rapid heartbeats, shortness of breath, nausea, sweating, etc.).
• Avoidance (the patient does not participate in events and does not communicate with people reminding him of trauma).
• Impoverishment of feelings and isolation from society (everyday events are uninteresting, in feelings - emptiness and the experience of a stranger, the loser's life position - the work will always be bad, the family will never be happy, there is little left to live).
• The nervous system has increased excitability (it is hard to fall asleep, sleep is not strong or it generally does not last long, the patient is irritable and inclined to anger, it is difficult to gather attention, constant alertness, fright for a trifling matter - the door slammed, the phone rang, etc.).

There is a secondary symptomatology of PTSD, which makes it look like a depressive anxiety disorder. This is a sudden onset of headaches, which are difficult to get rid of, obsessive loneliness, unmotivated shame, suicidal meditation. If these symptoms persist, the doctor should check whether the patient, along with PTSD, has an anxiety-depressive disorder as an additional disease.

An effective psychotherapy has been developed, with the help of which this disorder, in fact, is cured. Its purpose is to translate the destructive feelings, thoughts and behavior of the patient into a constructive channel. It is called cognitive-behavioral (cognitive-behavioral) therapy. Along with it, the experience of family and supportive psychotherapy is used.

Combinations of anti-anxiety drugs (anxiolytics) and antidepressants are used. But this treatment is mainly aimed at combating the diseases associated with PTR - in particular, with a depressive anxiety disorder.

Despite the prevailing view on the curability of PTSD, there is the problem of his repeated episodes. Relapses (recurrences) of the disease can occur after years after curing its symptoms.

It takes a lot of patience and joint efforts of doctors, social workers, family members of the patient and, of course, his own, so that every time in case of relapse they carefully work out the necessary aspects of treatment. Only in this case the opinion of PTSD as a disease that is amenable to therapy will be justified.