Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Overview - Treatment for PTSD

Symptoms of Hyperarousal

PTSD can cause those who suffer with it to act as if they are threatened by the trauma that caused their illness. People with PTSD may become irritable. They may have trouble concentrating or remembering current information, and may develop insomnia. Because of their chronic hyperarousal, many people with PTSD have poor work records, trouble with their bosses and poor relationships with their family and friends.

The persistence of a biological alarm reaction is expressed in exaggerated startle reactions. War veterans may revert to their war behavior, diving for cover when they hear a car backfire or a string of firecrackers exploding.At times, those with PTSD suffer panic attacks, whose symptoms include extreme fear resembling that which they felt during the trauma. They may feel sweaty, have trouble breathing and may notice their heart rate increasing. They may feel dizzy or nauseated. Many traumatized children and adults may have physical symptoms, such as stomachaches and headaches, in addition to symptoms of increased arousal.

Other Associated Features

Many people with PTSD also develop depression and may at times abuse alcohol or other drugs as a "self-medication" to blunt their emotions and forget the trauma. A person with PTSD may also show poor control over his or her impulses, and may be at risk for suicide.

Treatment for PTSD

Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals today have effective psychological and pharmacological treatments available for PTSD. These treatments can restore a sense of control and diminish the power of past events over current experience. The sooner people are treated, the more likely they are to recover from a traumatizing experience. Appropriate therapy can help with other chronic trauma-related disorders, too.

Psychiatrists help people with PTSD by helping them to accept that the trauma happened to them, without being overwhelmed by memories of the trauma and without arranging their lives to avoid being reminded of it.

It is important to re-establish a sense of safety and control in the PTSD sufferer's life. This helps him or her to feel strong and secure enough to confront the reality of what has happened. In people who have been badlytraumatized, the support and safety provided by loved ones is critical. Friends and family should resist the urge to tell the traumatized person to "snap out of it," instead allowing time and space for intense grief and mourning. Being able to talk about what happened and getting help with feelings of guilt, self-blame, and rage about the trauma usually is very effective in helping people put the event behind them. Psychiatrists know that loved ones can make a significant difference in the long-term outcome of the traumatized person by being active participants in creating a treatment plan--helping him or her to communicate and anticipating what he or she needs to restore a sense of equilibrium to his or her life. If treatment is to be effective it is important, too, that the traumatized person feel that he or she is a part of this planning process.

Sleeplessness and other symptoms of hyperarousal may interfere with recovery and increase preoccupation with the traumatizing experience. Psychiatrists have several medications--including benzodiazepines and the new class of serotonin re-uptake blockers--that can help people to sleep and to cope with their hyperarousal symptoms. These medications, as part of an integrated treatment plan, can help the traumatized person to avoid the development of long-term psychological problems.

In people whose trauma occurred years or even decades before, the professionals who treat them must pay close attention to the behaviors--often deeply entrenched--which the PTSD sufferer has evolved to cope with his or her symptoms. Many people whose trauma happened long ago have suffered in silence with PTSD's symptoms without ever having been able to talk about the trauma or their nightmares, hyperarousal, numbing, or irritability. During treatment, being able to talk about what has happened and making the connection between past trauma and current symptoms provides people with the increased sense of control they need to manage their current lives and have meaningful relationships.

Relationships are often a trouble spot for people with PTSD. They often resolve conflicts by withdrawing emotionally or even by becoming physically violent. Therapy can help PTSD sufferers to identify and avoid unhealthy relationships. This is vital to the healing process; only after the feeling of stability and safety is established can the process of uncovering the roots of the trauma begin.

To make progress in easing flashbacks and other painful thoughts and feelings, most PTSD sufferers need to confront what has happened to them, and by repeating this confrontation, learn to accept the trauma as part of their past. Psychiatrists and other therapists use several techniques to help with this process.

One important form of therapy for those who struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder is cognitive/behavior therapy. This is a form of treatment that focuses on correcting the PTSD sufferer's painful and intrusive patterns of behavior and thought by teaching him or her relaxation techniques, and examining (and challenging) his or her mental processes. A therapist using behavior therapy to treat a person with PTSD might, for example, help a patient who is provoked into panic attacks by loud street noises by setting a schedule that gradually exposes the patient to such noises in a controlled setting until he or she becomes "desensitized" and thus is no longer so prone to terror. Using other such techniques, patient and therapist explore the patient's environment to determine what might aggravate the PTSD symptoms and work to reduce sensitivity or to learn new coping skills.

continue: Other Therapies for Treatment of PTSD