What is Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Post-traumatic stress disorder, which is PTSD for short, is a mental health problem that happens in people who have experienced a tragic event.
Often, these people were right there when it happens, and the scene continues to play in their minds.
Hence, if there is anything that reminds them of that painful incident, they exhibit negative reactions.
People struggling with PTSD often experience nightmares and flashbacks to the incident. Most of them experience anger, sadness and even get depressed.
Symptoms of Post-traumatic stress disorder
Generally, there are four broad categories of PTSD symptoms that patients experience
- Relieving the memories
This is the point where people suffering from PTSD continuously remember the incident and dwell on the memories of the traumatic event. Relieving these memories could be through nightmares, flashbacks, dreams, and hallucinations.
- Avoiding places that remind them of the incident
The person experiencing PTSD will try to avoid places, people, and anything that reminds them of the incident. This is one of the reasons why some of them become detached and isolated because they are trying to protect what’s left of their mental health.
- Alterations in mood and cognition
At this point, the individual begins to have distorted beliefs about themselves. For instance, some of them begin to believe that they were the cause of the unfortunate incident. Then, they begin to experience different emotions like anger, shame, guilt, fear, etc.
- Alterations in arousal
Reactive and arousal symptoms are also typical of people experiencing PTSD. They tend to behave in reckless or dangerous behaviors. Some of them will have trouble with concentration or focus.
Treatment for PTSD
The essence of PTSD treatment is to step down the physical and emotional symptoms and help the person to manage the incident that caused the disorder. Generally, treatment for PTSD could be psychotherapy which is counseling, medication, or a combination of both of them.
PTSD can cause complications in an individual’s life, so it is best to seek treatment before it gets too late.