As a mental health disorder, PTSD is best known to affect individuals who have served in the military, especially war victims. Still, it can affect anyone who has undergone a traumatic episode. Post-traumatic stress disorder affects millions of people every day around the globe, often subtly, but the results are devastating. This is because every person with post-traumatic stress disorder can deny its effects or symptoms; therefore, people ought to embrace understanding and fight the stigma.
This blog will introduce relevant facts about PTSD and what this abbreviation means, the ways of receiving the diagnosis, possible symptoms, and essential treatments.
What Is PTSD?
PTSD is a psychological disorder that can develop when a person is exposed to a traumatic event. This can mean anything from experiencing an earthquake, experiencing violence, an accident, or even emotional distress. While most persons will have a distressed feeling after trauma, the PTSD patient suffers after effects even after the event has been over.
Several symptoms, such as the recall of the traumatic event, recurrent disturbing images, exaggerated alertness, and empathy, identify PTSD. It can turn even simple tasks into a difficult one with the feeling of hopelessness, create tension in interpersonal relationships, and hinder performance in jobs or studies. Comprehending important facts about PTSD and how it manifests in the human brain is essential when it comes to helping the victims.
Fact 1: PTSD Can Now Be Experienced by More Than Just the Combat Soldiers
Other myths include the belief that patients with PTSD are mostly ex-soldiers or people who were in war. Although veterans are most susceptible, PTSD is present in anyone who has suffered a traumatic event. People who are survivors of physical attacks, childhood maltreatment, sexual assault, automobile accidents, disasters, and even surgery might develop PTSD.
Some recent studies show estimated statistics of PTSD; that is, the lifetime prevalence of PTSD is about 11 percent among adults. Such comprehensive coverage undoubtedly means that trauma is possible for anybody, and the effects of the same are also conceivable for anybody. Everyone can get PTSD: people of all ages, from children to older people, men and women, workers or non-workers, from all over the world.
Read More: Can PTSD Cause Hallucinations? Exploring The Link Between Trauma And Perception
Fact 2: PTSD can emerge as soon as an individual is assaulted or injured, or it can manifest months (even years) after the trauma.
Even when people have a terrifying or threatening experience, PTSD is not necessarily experienced immediately. At other times, the signs will develop a few days or weeks later or not until months or years later. This process of delayed onset can be bewildering and paralyzing since the survivor may think they have passed the effects of the trauma only to be hit by them again later.
Other stressors can occasion such a delay, reminders like shock anniversary, and stimuli associated with the trauma such as sounds, sights, and smell. It takes time to realize that PTSD symptoms can appear many years after the actual incident, and therefore, people must understand that they need to work on themselves to recover.
Fact 3: The Disorder Has a Real Impact on the Human Brain
The anguish of the mind does not solely play a role in PTSD. It occupies the brain at a neurological level. It has been found that PTSD affects the following parts of the brain: the amygdala, which controls emotions like fear and anxiety, and the hippocampus, which has roles regarding memory and learning tasks. In people with PTSD, for example, the amygdala has often been found to be enlarged, and the hippocampus shrinks, leading to increased fear reactions and confusion between memories and reality, respectively.
The consequence may be that people with such a condition are unable to clearly distinguish the traumatic event experience from reality, which can lead to the formation of flashbacks or severe emotional responses upon recognizing stimuli related to the trauma event. Such changes are the reason why PTSD may be complex to handle on one’s own without some kind of help and support.
Fact 4: The use of flashbacks is one of the primary signs of PTSD.
There are no other types of symptoms that are as iconic as the flashbacks where individuals experience the traumatic event over and over. Such memories may occur due to anything that, in one way or another, relates to the trauma, including things, people, smells, or feelings.
Discomfort during a flashback might be a formal intrusive symptom. During a flashback, people may feel full-blown fear, panic, or other physical signs such as sweating, heart palpitation, or even shortness of breath. Such episodes may cause the affected people to deteriorate and be incapable of responding to everyday events during a flashback. Being able to assist a person with PTSD by not going to places or situations that would trigger a flashback or to help them deal with such an episode can go a long way in helping this disorder.
Fact 5: Most people affected by PTSD have other mental disorders at the same time.
Discover surprising facts about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and learn how to support those affected. PTSD also does not exist alone; it often comes with another related disorder. They frequently present with other mental disorders, especially depression, psychosis, anxiety, and substance use disorders. This usually makes it difficult to diagnose PTSD and treat victims since the symptoms of these disorders are pretty similar and sometimes interfere with each other.
For example, people who have PTSD often get depression from being hopeless or not fitting into the community. Other persons might use alcohol or drugs to treat emotions and memories that are extremely painful to them. This gives a lot of importance to the healthcare givers to holistically manage PTSD disorders, aiming at treating both the trauma and other psychological disorders.
Read More: Supportive Psychotherapy: Strengthening Resilience And Emotional Well-Being
Fact 6: Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD can be treated, but it can take a lot of time.
PTSD can also be more pervasive and long-lasting, but it can also be treated. The two commonly used treatments for PTSD are psychotherapy and pharmacological therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy and trauma-focused therapy focus on how the traumatized person might think about the experience and then work towards changing their way of thinking and learning other ways in which they can cope with the event. Another similar therapy is called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which assists in changing how clients process certain events.
Often, a physician may recommend the use of antidepressants to be able to treat the symptoms of PTSD. However, it’s also relevant that this therapy is individual, and the success of both therapy types and medications management can take some time to find. PTSD is not curable, but patients require months, if not years, to get better. Much understanding and time must be devoted to enhancing this journey because any pressure and hastiness could slow down the process.
Fact 7: PTSD Affects Children As Well
PTSD doesn’t confine itself to adults only, but children are also not safe from it after going through a traumatic phase of their life. First, childhood PTSD may not be as similar to adult PTSD as it may seem. For instance, the child may regress (being beside themselves, wetting the bed, crying more than usual), exhibit hyperactive behaviors, settle for less, or skip school.
PTSD can occur in children as a result of physical or sexual abuse, witnessing domestic violence, motor accidents, or natural disasters. Young children require psychological support because when they grow up, their traumas from that period may negatively affect them. Some different types of therapy include play therapy and art therapy for children, as they allow them to come forward and deal with what has happened to them.
Conclusion!
It is a chronic disorder and thus has been proven to cause impairment in individuals who have been through a traumatic event. It may take a lot of work, but there are ways to treat this condition effectively. An awareness of the causes of PTSD and the intensity of the symptoms of the patient with interesting facts about PTSD will enhance a positive effect towards getting professional help and effective coping mechanisms for the illness, which will facilitate recovery and, thus, an improved quality of life. If you or your loved one is battling with PTSD, then don’t wait any longer and acquire the benefits of telepsychiatry services of Solid Foundation Psychiatry today!