Live Life Team
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder that can develop after experiencing one or more frightening incidents that caused severe physical or mental harm. These incidents include events like war, kidnapping, and violent assault. It is a serious and continuing emotional response to a great psychological trauma which can affect the person experiencing it, the witnesses, or those who respond to the events.
PTSD symptoms take weeks, months, or years to develop. Intrusive, traumatic memories of the incident, flashbacks, and nightmares are the signs that an individual is re-experiencing the events. People with PSTD tend to avoid activities, thoughts, feelings, and places that remind them of the trauma. Failure to remember significant parts of the trauma, loss of concern for life in general, feeling isolated, and emotionally insensitive are symptoms of aversion and emotional numbing. Difficulty in falling or staying asleep, peevishness, difficulty concentrating, and feeling worried and easily troubled are mental implications of PSTD. Physical implications include increased arousal, headaches, chest pain, stomach problems, which are associated with feelings of betrayal, depression, and hopelessness.
There are several kinds of treatment for PTSD. Exposing the individual to feelings, situations, and thoughts that remind the individual of the trauma are done during cognitive behavioural therapy while Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing unfreeze the information processing system of the brain, which is disrupted in times of severe stress. Family therapy can also help family members work through relationship problems and communicate better.
The family is the first group that can help PTSD patients by being understanding, being ready for PTSD triggers, not taking PTSD symptoms personally, and not forcing the patient to talk.
