Post-traumatic stress disorder

Description

Post-traumatic stress disorder /PTSD/ is a mental or mental condition that is caused by experiencing or witnessing a horrific event.

Symptoms may express themselves in constant flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety attacks, and uncontrollable thoughts about the event.

Many people who experience traumatic events and have serious difficulty coping with the emotional consequences for a while do not develop PTSD – with time and proper self-care, they begin to feel much better.

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But if the symptoms worsen or persist for months or even years and impair the affected person’s quality of life, they most likely have PTSD.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms of PTSD may begin about 3 months after the traumatic event, but sometimes do not appear until a year after.

These symptoms cause serious problems in social, work and personal relationships.

Usually, mental state manifestations are divided into 4 groups: intrusive memories, attempts to ignore, negative changes in thinking and mood, or changes in emotional responses.

• Intrusive memories – recurring, unwanted disturbing conscious representations of the traumatic event; re-experiencing the most terrifying moment, the affected person feels that the event has happened again /flashbacks/; dreams causing fear and emotional disturbance; strong emotional stress or even physiological reactions such as sweating, breaking out in a cold sweat, shivering when coming into contact with something that reminds of the misfortune that happened;

• Attempts to ignore – the affected person tries in every way to avoid thinking or talking about the traumatic event, and also ignores places, activities or people that remind him of it.

• Negative changes in thinking and mood – negative feelings regarding the affected person’s own personality or other people; inability to experience positive emotions; feeling a state of emotional numbness; lack of interest in activities that the affected person once enjoyed; hopelessness about the future; memory problems, even lack of memory of important details of the traumatic event; difficulty maintaining close relationships;

• Changes in emotional reactions – irritability, outbursts of anger or aggressive behavior; strong feelings of anger or shame; self-destructive behavior such as drinking too much or driving too fast; painfully difficult to concentrate; sleep problems; the affected person is easily stressed or frightened and is always alert for possible danger.

Intensity of appearances

Symptoms of the mental condition can vary in intensity over time and are more pronounced when the sufferer is under more stress or when faced with similar events to what they experienced.

For example, when he sees a car accident on TV, he goes back to the traumatic event.

Treatment for PTSD

Treatment will help the sufferer regain a sense of control over their own life. Psychotherapy is mainly used, but drugs are also often prescribed.

Several therapeutic methods are applied for treatment, under the general name of conversation, using very successfully in children and mature people.

Medications that are prescribed most often are:

• Antidepressants – help relieve depression and anxiety attacks;

Prazosin – if symptoms include insomnia or recurring nightmares, it has been shown to suppress and reduce the frequency of bad dreams