Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder also known as PTSD develops in a person after a scary or traumatic event. When our brains experience a scary event our body goes into “fight or flight” response, which is a natural response to help protect you from harm. Not everyone with PTSD has been through a dangerous event, Some experiences, like the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one, can also cause PTSD. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd

Symptoms

Symptoms usually begin early, within 3 months of the traumatic incident, but sometimes they begin years afterward. Symptoms must last more than a month and be severe enough to interfere with relationships or work to be considered PTSD. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd

Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD)

PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can develop after a person experiences a traumatic event. Complex PTSD, also known as CPTSD, can result if a person experiences prolonged or repeated trauma over months or years. A person with the condition may experience additional symptoms to those that define PTSD.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), a handbook often used by psychiatrists and psychologists, does not currently acknowledge complex PTSD as a separate condition.

Since complex trauma is prolonged, it can often begin in early childhood. Traumatic childhood experiences, also known as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), can include:

childhood exposure to violence, abuse, or neglect
a death by suicide in the family
substance dependence in the family
mental health disorders in the family
having incarcerated family members
chronic poverty or neglect
housing instability
growing up in an unsafe or crime-heavy environment

Symptoms of CPTSD

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (complex PTSD, sometimes abbreviated to c-PTSD or CPTSD) is a condition where you experience some symptoms of PTSD along with some additional symptoms, such as:

difficulty controlling your emotions
feeling very angry or distrustful towards the world
constant feelings of emptiness or hopelessness
feeling as if you are permanently damaged or worthless
feeling as if you are completely different to other people
feeling like nobody can understand what happened to you
avoiding friendships and relationships, or finding them very difficult
often experiencing dissociative symptoms such as depersonalisation or derealisation
physical symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, chest pains and stomach aches
regular suicidal feelings.

As it may take years for the symptoms of complex PTSD to be recognised, a child's development, including their behaviour and self-confidence, can be altered as they get older.

People with PTSD or complex PTSD may also experience:

A negative self-view: Complex PTSD can cause a person to view themselves negatively and feel helpless, guilty, or ashamed. They often consider themselves to be different from other people.

Changes in beliefs and worldview: People with either condition may hold a negative view of the world and the people in it or lose faith in previously held beliefs.

Emotional regulation difficulties: These conditions can cause people to lose control over their emotions. They may experience intense anger or sadness or have thoughts of suicide.

Relationship issues: Relationships may suffer due to difficulties trusting and interacting, and because of a negative self-view. A person with either condition may also tend to develop unhealthy relationships if they are what the person has known in the past.

Detachment from the trauma: Some survivors reportTrusted Source complete amnesia of the trauma.

Preoccupation with an abuser: It is not uncommon to fixate on the abuser, the relationship with the abuser, or getting revenge for the abuse.

Symptoms of complex PTSD can vary, and they may change over time. People with the condition may also experience symptoms other than the above.

Treatments

When you have PTSD, it might feel like you'll never get your life back. But it can be treated. Short- and long-term psychotherapy and medications can work very well. Often, the two kinds of treatment are more effective together. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-are-treatments-for-posttraumatic-stress-disorder

Therapy

PTSD therapy has three main goals:

Improve your symptoms
Teach you skills to deal with it
Restore your self-esteem

Most PTSD therapies fall under the umbrella of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The idea is to change the thought patterns that are disturbing your life. This might happen through talking about your trauma or concentrating on where your fears come from.

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)

https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/treatments/cognitive-processing-therapy

Cognitive processing therapy (CPT) is a specific type of cognitive behavioral therapy that has been effective in reducing symptoms of PTSD that have developed after experiencing a variety of traumatic events including child abuse, combat, rape and natural disasters.

CPT is generally delivered over 12 sessions and helps patients learn how to challenge and modify unhelpful beliefs related to the trauma. In so doing, the patient creates a new understanding and conceptualization of the traumatic event so that it reduces its ongoing negative effects on current life.

This treatment is strongly recommended for the treatment of PTSD.

Prolonged Exposure Therapy

https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/treatments/prolonged-exposure

Exposure is an intervention strategy commonly used in cognitive behavioral therapy to help individuals confront fears. Prolonged exposure is a specific type of cognitive behavioral therapy that teaches individuals to gradually approach trauma-related memories, feelings and situations.

Most people want to avoid anything that reminds them of the trauma they experienced, but doing so reinforces their fear. By facing what has been avoided, a person can decrease symptoms of PTSD by actively learning that the trauma-related memories and cues are not dangerous and do not need to be avoided.

This treatment is strongly recommended for the treatment of PTSD.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy

https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/treatments/eye-movement-reprocessing

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy (Shapiro, 2001) was initially developed in 1987 for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is guided by the Adaptive Information Processing model (Shapiro 2007). EMDR is an individual therapy typically delivered one to two times per week for a total of 6-12 sessions, although some people benefit from fewer sessions, sessions can be conducted on consecutive days.

The Adaptive Information Processing model considers symptoms of PTSD and other disorders (unless physically or chemically based) to result from past disturbing experiences that continue to cause distress because the memory was not adequately processed. These unprocessed memories are understood to contain the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and physical sensations that occurred at the time of the event. When the memories are triggered these stored disturbing elements are experienced and cause the symptoms of PTSD and/or other disorders.

Unlike other treatments that focus on directly altering the emotions, thoughts and responses resulting from traumatic experiences, EMDR therapy focuses directly on the memory, and is intended to change the way that the memory is stored in the brain, thus reducing and eliminating the problematic symptoms.

During EMDR therapy, clinical observations suggest that an accelerated learning process is stimulated by EMDR’s standardized procedures, which incorporate the use of eye movements and other forms of rhythmic left-right (bilateral) stimulation (e.g., tones or taps). While clients briefly focus on the trauma memory and simultaneously experience bilateral stimulation (BLS), the vividness and emotion of the memory are reduced.

The treatment is conditionally recommended for the treatment of PTSD.

Stress Inoculation Training

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/apps/decisionaid/resources/PTSDDecisionAidSIT.pdf

Stress Inoculation Training, or SIT, is a psychotherapy for PTSD. It is a specific type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), teaching you coping skills, SIT can help you find new ways to deal with PTSD symptoms. These skills can also help you manage other stressful situations or events in your life.

People with PTSD are often under a lot of stress and may have a hard time coping with their symptoms. SIT teaches you skills to react differently to stressful situations and to manage your PTSD symptoms. You will consider how different situations, thoughts, and behaviors could be making it hard for you to deal with your PTSD symptoms. With your provider, you will learn how to develop more helpful ways of coping. With practice, you will become more confident in your ability to use the coping skills to manage your PTSD symptoms.

Medication

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-are-treatments-for-posttraumatic-stress-disorder

The brains of people with PTSD process "threats" differently, in part because the balance of chemicals called neurotransmitters is out of whack. They have an easily triggered "fight or flight" response, which is what makes you jumpy and on-edge. Constantly trying to shut that down could lead to feeling emotionally cold and removed.

Medications help you stop thinking about and reacting to what happened, including having nightmares and flashbacks. They can also help you have a more positive outlook on life and feel more "normal" again.