Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): What is it?

From all the documented types of anxiety disorder, PTSD is the only one with a specific causation or origination. Whereas other anxiety disorders are often the result of a confluence of factors, PTSD is a direct reaction to an extreme traumatic event – usually involving a death or death threat, intense physical injury or threat to physical integrity.

For this diagnosis to be applicable, all the three following sets of symptoms must be observed:

Persistence of the trauma through intrusive memories, nightmares and or flashbacks.
Emotional numbness and detachment cause by direct avoidance of the trauma or any cues that may be associated with it.
Increased agitation, such as having insomnia, being hyper vigilant, losing concentration skills, and being easily irritable.

What kind of trauma is known to cause PTSD?

Any kind of extreme trauma that involved a life-threatening situation can potentially cause PTSD on the afflicted individual. Typical examples include

Life-threatening confrontations such as war scenarios
Situations of physical and/or sexual assault
Surviving or witnessing violent accidents
Withstanding severe incarceration and/or torture
Surviving a natural catastrophe
Dealing with a life-threatening disease.

If you have endured any of these situations, there’s a good chance you may have developed PTSD, in which case you’ll feel as though you have been caught up in an emotional rut, unable to stop relieving or thinking about the traumatic event.

If that’s the case, you should consider looking for professional help because that will significantly improve your odds of overcoming this distress as soon as possible.

How common is post-traumatic stress disorder?

The prevalence of PTSD will vary significantly depending on the population. In some cases, it can be as high as 30% for certain groups (such as Vietnam veterans), or even higher. According to the research conducted by Foa & Riggs (1), as many as 57% of rape victims will develop this anxiety disorder.

In most cases, the symptoms of PTSD will manifest within a few days of having experienced a traumatic event. However, in some patients it can take months or even years before the effects of PTSD set in. This disorder can occur at any age and irrespective of the affected individual’s gender.

Although the reason why is not fully understood, not all traumatized individuals are prone to developing this disorder. In some cases, this problem might resolve itself and disappear after a few months. This is especially true for patients who have good support from family and friends during and after the traumatic experience.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, nearly half of the cases of PTSD will spontaneously disappear within 3 months of the onset of the symptoms. If you’ve been suffering from this problem for longer than that, then it’s about time you start thinking about taking action towards treatment.

What does the Treatment of PTSD Entail?

The most common and most successful avenue for treating PTSD is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The usual procedure for treating this disorder involves three core aspects.

1) Learning the basis of anxiety management: in the early stage of treatment, the focus is usually on learning how to manage the symptoms of hyper arousal, which is associated with PTSD to prepare the ground for the next stages.

2) Adapting to Prolonged exposure: the patient is encouraged to confront the traumatic memories and feelings in a controlled setting, until the reaction to such thoughts and emotions is lessened.

3) Cognitive restructuring: the patient is taught how to cope with the memories of the traumatic experience by adjusting systematic distortions that may have arisen as a response to the trauma.

Medication is sometimes used as a complement to a CBT treatment of PTSD, although it’s generally agreed that medication by itself is neither sufficient nor effective in the treatment of this disorder. Your safest bet if you’re looking for a way to overcome this disorder is to find a good therapist, in which case you may feel substantial improvements in as little as 10 sessions.

Common Cognitive Distortions in PTSD

These are some of the most common affirmations that are usually expressed by PTSD patients, which are intimately connected with the underlying anxiety. Being able to reinterpret and restructure (change how you think about) these affirmations will be instrumental to your recovery.

a) Distorted automatic thoughts. Examples:

“No one but me is to blame for this trauma.”
“I should have known better.”
“I ought to have prevented the trauma.”
“This shouldn’t affect me after so long.”
“People don’t care about my feelings.”

b) Maladaptative assumptions. Examples:

“Bad things will happen, control is an illusion.”
“I must stay in control because there might be danger.”
“I can’t think about what happened, or I will just feel bad.”
“Dying would be better than re-living something like that.”
“Unless I stay very alert, something terrible may happen.”

c) Dysfunctional schemas. Examples:

“Life is pointless and meaningless.”
“I must be a bad person or this wouldn’t have happened.”
“The world is a terrible and dark place to live in.”
“There is no future for me aside from suffering.”
“Catastrophe will strike, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

If you can relate with any of the previous affirmations, it could be your PTSD talking. And once you learn how to deal with this anxiety disorder, those affirmations will no longer have a reason to exist.

Life may seem cold and unforgiving, and in some ways, it is; however, there’s so much you can do about it! A good sense of perspective is the key to being able to enjoy the good things without being too distraught by the bad things in life. By learning how to readjust your beliefs (conscious or otherwise), you will go a long way towards overcoming the trauma you have experienced.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)