PTSD

People often relive most of their traumatic events daily or by something that triggers them to relive that moment. "Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious condition that can develop after a person has experienced or witnessed a traumatic or terrifying event in which there was serious physical harm or threat" (WebMD, 2003). Another way of defining PTSD is: "Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition where you struggle to recover long after you experience or witness a deeply terrifying event" (Krouse, 2022).

When faced with a traumatic occurrence, the majority of people may experience a variety of emotions, including shock, rage, anxiety, dread, and even guilt. These responses are typical, and for most people, they pass with time. These sensations, however, persist and even worsen in PTSD sufferers, eventually becoming so intense that they prevent them from going about their daily lives as normal. People with PTSD have symptoms for more than a month and are unable to do daily tasks as effectively as they could have before the event that set it off.

Symptoms

PTSD symptoms often start to show about 3 months after the stressful incident, but the symptoms may appear later when the symptoms are triggered due to a traumatic event. The PTSD symptoms occur in four categories, which a person has to have all the symptoms to classify them having PTSD, including:

Intrusive symptoms

• Recurring nightmares
• Repeated memories or flashbacks of the traumatic event
• Physical reactions are common to the reminders of the event such as increased heart rate or sweating.
• Severe distress

Avoidance symptoms

• Completely avoiding thoughts or feelings of the event
• Resisting conversations about the traumatic event
• Staying away from the reminders of the traumatic events such as places. people, objects or situations.

Increased arousal symptoms

• Anger outbursts or irritability
• Having trouble concentration
• Having trouble falling asleep
• Being easily startled by things or fearful that something may disturb the peace and trigger PTSD.

Changes in thoughts or feelings

• Distorted thoughts or feelings about oneself
• Feeling detached from others and unable to make a connection with somebody
• Difficulty experiencing positive feelings
• Struggling to remember important parts of the traumatic event or having trouble remembering certain parts of the day.

Due to these recurring symptoms, the person experiencing these symptoms may also have other physical and mental health problems that develop overtime. These health problems include - depression, and substance abuse.

Diagnosis

The stressful incident must have occurred at least one to three months prior to the diagnosis of PTSD. If these symptoms persist for more than 3 months, then it is highly likely that the doctor will start with the examination. The examination includes: a physical exam and a medical history. At first the doctor may rule the symptoms based on physical symptoms of PTSD.

But when there are no physical symptoms, then the doctor may send the patient to a psychologist, psychiatrist, or a health professional who is specialized in diagnosing and treating mental health problems. A diagnosis of PTSD is made by the clinician based on the patient's stated symptoms, including any functional issues triggered by those symptoms. The medical professional then decides if the severity of the malfunction and the symptoms point to PTSD.

Causes

Each person has their own way of dealing with a traumatic event. It seems to happen more frequently, such as, more than 22% of persons who are involved in car accidents, which affect 50 million people annually, get PTSD. According to research, those who have been victims of interpersonal crimes like rape or being kidnapped at gunpoint are more likely to develop PTSD than people who have encountered Non interpersonal tragedies like natural catastrophes.

There may be several reasons as to why some people tend to develop PTSD when experiencing a traumatic event, but others don't. However, there are a few potential causes, including:

1. A stressful life event - which potentially shows what trauma a person experienced and how severe it was.
2. A family history of mental health issues - this is where a person's parents or siblings may have a potential mental health issue and they may have experienced a traumatic event due to it.
3. Temperament or inherited personality traits
4. How a person's brain chemicals are released and how it functions.

Some of the common causes of PTSD include:

• Being a victim of a crime
• Homocide of a loved one
• Being kidnapped
• Physical violence
• Severe accidents
• Sexual assault or harassment
• War or combat
• Torture

Treatment

Thankfully, there are a variety of therapies with a strong scientific foundation that can assist PTSD sufferers in managing their symptoms and starting the healing process. Medication can help ease symptoms of PTSD and may improve your ability to participate in psychotherapy.

Medications

1. Antidepressants - there are a variety of medications that help with lowering the symptoms of the disorder. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) like Zoloft (sertraline) or Paxil (paroxetine) are a great form of medications for lowering the symptoms such as - feelings of numbness, anger, irritability, and etc. Specific PTSD symptoms like nightmares and sleep issues may be treated with some drugs. Antidepressants like lamotrigine (Lamictal) and divalproex (Depakote)
2. Atypical antipsychotic medications like aripiprazole (Abilify) and quetiapine (Seroquel)
3. Prazosin for nightmares, Clonidine (Catapres) for sleep, and Propranolol (Inderal) to lessen the occurrence of traumatic memories are a few examples of blood pressure medications that are occasionally used to treat specific symptoms.

Therapy

There are multiple forms of therapies that can help with the symptoms of PTSD. Some of the therapies include:

Psychotherapy

The goal of psychotherapy for PTSD is to teach the patient coping mechanisms and symptom management techniques. People with PTSD may benefit from a range of psychotherapy techniques, such as:

1. Cognitive behavioral therapy - this form of therapy teaches people how to deal with reminders and emotions connected to the trauma, reduces maladaptive behaviors related to PTSD, and teaches them how to identify cognitive patterns that support negative ideas about themselves.
2. Cognitive restructuring - aids individuals in understanding the horrific incident. Occasionally, people's memories of events diverge from the actual facts. Even when it wasn't their fault, they could feel guilty or ashamed. People with PTSD may benefit from cognitive restructuring to reflect realistically about what happened.
3. Exposure Therapy - in exposure treatment, you are repeatedly exposed to traumatic memories and reminders so that you may develop the skills necessary to deal with the uncomfortable PTSD symptoms like anxiety and avoidance.

Summary

Living with PTSD can be a lot to handle. It is quite a challenge to have to be able to try containing your symptoms and feel like you're spinning out of control. Well, the good news is that PTSD can be controlled, and the symptoms essentially come down with time through medication and therapy. Research has made significant progress in identifying the causes of PTSD. This realization led to the development of extremely effective trauma-focused treatments.

As shown above, the most effective and evident forms of medication and therapies include:

1. Prolonged exposure (PE) therapy
2. Cognitive reconstruction
3. Cognitive behavioral therapy
4. Anti-psychotics
5. Anti-depressants and etc.

Getting the right diagnosis and treatment for the person who has PTSD is very important. As one form of medication and therapy works, which is that only medication works for the disorder while sometimes only therapy works. However, sometimes there is a case where both of the treatment works best for the person with PTSD. Through effective treatment, though it may take a long time to overcome them and be able to control your symptoms, if not completely diminish them. Just knowing that your loved ones and friends are always there to support you and help you, you will be able to fight the symptoms of PTSD.

References:

Pedersen, T. (2017). What Causes You to Develop PTSD? [online] Psych Central. Available at: https://psychcentral.com/ptsd/posttraumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd-causes#Lets-recap [Accessed: 17 Jun. 2023].

WebMD (2003). Posttraumatic stress disorder. [online] WebMD. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/post-traumatic-stress-disorder [Accessed: 17 Jun. 2023].

National Institute of Mental Health (2022). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. [online] www.nimh.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd [Accessed: 17 Jun. 2023].

Krouse, L. (2022). What Is PTSD? [online] Verywell Health. Available at: https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-ptsd-5084527 [Accessed: 17 Jun. 2023].

NHS (2021). Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. [online] nhs.uk. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/overview/ [Accessed: 17 Jun. 2023].