PTSD Treatments

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can happen to anyone at any point in their life. It consists of fresh memoties and emotions that don't fade away after a traumatic expirience; like war, sudden death of loved one, sexual assault or neglected childhood. PTSD usually shows its symptoms within 3 months from the traumatic event but in rare cases it may appear later. Symptoms vary in different people but most common are nightmares, flashbacks, outbursts of anger, emotial numbness and detachment from others and avoiding remainders of trauma (eg. people, places, sounds). Besides of expiriencing these symptoms that change their lives, people with PTSD are often not taken seriously, and therefore are pushed as far as "self-treatment" with drugs, alcohol and suicide.

Types of Treatments

Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy: This therapy involves exposing the traumatic thoughts by talking about the event, feelings and thoughts and things that remind you of it. Thoughts that are irrational are then replaced to create a "balance".

Family therapy: This type of therapy consists of you and your family where problems related to the incident are discussed, since PTSD also effects relationship.

Medication: Medication is prescribed to some people with PTSD to reduce their symptoms such as depression and anexiety. Medication makes these symptoms more mild but it doesn't treat PTSD.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing):  Left to right eye movement, or other rhytmic activities such as hand taps are believed to "unfreeze" the part of brain responsible for memory that maight have been in schock (and therefore no remembering) during the trauma. 

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Treatment doesn't magically heal PTSD, since emotions cannot be "healed" but only dealt with. The help comes in form of confronting original thoughts and feelings as during the trauma. These repressed emotions are a way to reduce the symptoms and help restore self control. During the PTSD treatment you will explore the thoughts and feelings about the trauma, try to abandon guilt and mistrust, control and accept the memories and deal with problems caused by PTSD in relationships.


SOURCE: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/post_traumatic_stress_disorder_symptoms_treatment.htm