Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a common disorder that is a response to physical or psychological trauma experienced. Typically, PTSD does not appear immediately; symptoms may take several weeks, months, or even years to appear. The disorder has 4 stages, each with its own clinical picture and symptoms. PTSD very seriously affects the quality of life of patients - they painfully relive past events, cannot enjoy life, they may suffer from sleep disturbances. The danger is that such patients are prone to suicide. The condition requires serious work by a psychotherapist in combination with drug therapy.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a serious mental disorder that requires the intervention of a psychiatrist. PTSD symptoms can occur in individuals who have suffered physical and psychological abuse in any form. Patients feel constant anxiety, fear, they have nightmares, memories of traumatic events cause panic attacks and insomnia. Poor health forces you to do irrational things - to avoid people, things and objects associated with the past.
Among the reasons for the development of PTSD, the following should be highlighted:
• sexual violence;
• threat to life;
• participation in hostilities;
• terrorist attacks;
• natural disasters: tornado, fire, flood, earthquake;
• car accident, serious accident;
• crimes committed with extreme cruelty;
• situations on the verge of life and death;
• physical injuries (amputation, injury);
• prolonged psychological pressure;
• moral, physical violence in the family.
PTSD can develop not only among participants in the listed events, but also among witnesses. The fear that a person experience leads to stress that a person cannot cope with. Subsequently, the stress experienced results in terrible memories, anxiety, insomnia, nightmares, depression, and despair. A person tries to avoid situations related to experienced events, and acutely experiences any actions that remind him of what happened. For example, when ordinary firecrackers explode, participants in military operations experience fear and a high level of anxiety.
Thus, the causes of post-traumatic stress disorder are not only war, as most people believe, but also other traumatic events. Depending on the psychotype and state of the nervous system, PTSD can develop after events such as divorce, betrayal, or fight.
Post-traumatic stress does not occur immediately, the next day after the events experienced. Experts say that the formation of pathology takes from 3-4 weeks to several months. The disorder occurs in patients of any age, including children and adolescents.
Statistics show that PTSD is recorded quite often - in the USA and Europe, 5-12% of the population suffers from post-traumatic disorder every year. In men, the most identified causes of PTSD are trauma associated with military action, violence in childhood and adolescence, and rape. Women suffer more often because of violent sexual acts, physical violence, cruel upbringing in childhood, threats with weapons, and disasters.
PTSD is not a local disease. Against the background of severe stress, patients often develop concomitant diseases - depressive disorder, addictions of all kinds (drug addiction, alcoholism, smoking). Somatic disorders observed:
• frequent illnesses due to reduced immunity;
• dizziness, headaches;
• pain in the chest area;
• disturbances of the gastrointestinal tract.
Patients with the disorder can consult doctors with somatic symptoms and even be successfully treated, but there is no long-term effect. The reason lies in PTSD - you must first undergo treatment with a psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
There are the following types or stages of PTSD:
Stage 1. At the first stage, pronounced symptoms of PTSD do not yet appear. A person can remember an experienced event, sometimes react emotionally to something, but at the same time he continues to lead his usual way of life.
Stage 2. Thoughts about a stressful event occur much more often; a person begins to analyze why this happened to him. Anxiety, sleep problems, intrusive memories appear, and triggers appear that can make you relive negative events. Often the patient begins to use drugs or alcohol to relieve anxiety.
Stage 3. Closedness, depressive symptoms, and sometimes aggression appear; the person may blame others for misunderstanding. Without help at this stage, depression can develop into chronic depression.
Stage 4. Often at this stage a person may have suicidal thoughts. Experiences intensify, panic attacks may occur. Another option is possible when a person consciously accepts traumatic events and finds the strength to return to normal life. As a rule, this option is only possible with the help of a psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
The main symptom of PTSD is intrusive memories of the trauma experienced. They occur suddenly or because of exposure to triggers - for example, when accidentally looking at a picture, when watching a movie with a thematic scenario. Other signs of PTSD also appear.
1. The symptom is a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. The patient's blood pressure increases, heart rhythm disturbances, tachycardia, and cold sweat are observed.
2. A state like hallucinations. The patient hears non-existent sounds, sees the dead, looks for enemies among passers-by, feels raindrops when it is sunny outside. In this state, there is a high risk of suicide, unreasonable aggression and impulsive behavior are manifested. Such conditions are typical after nervous tension, insomnia, taking drugs or alcohol.
3. Fears associated with experienced events. Psychotherapists and psychologists note that patients suffering from PTSD do not remember up to 50% of the tragic event or day. The protective mechanism of the psyche is triggered, and the memory is partially erased. A person does not remember everything that traumatized him, but fear and anxiety remain.
4. Nightmares. Patients with PTSD suffer from sleep disturbances. They have bright, colorful, long dreams in which all their experiences are replayed. Associated pathologies are also characteristic: insomnia, shallow sleep, daytime sleepiness, or insomnia at night.
5. Fault. Patients consciously try to explain to themselves why they had to go through everything. And they often conclude that everything is their fault. This is especially true in cases where a loved one, friend, or colleague died in tragic circumstances. The patient takes the blame for the death.
6. Constant tension. Post-traumatic stress disorder causes anxiety, fear, and nervousness. A person shudders nervously when hearing pops, loud sounds, or falling objects. Against the background of constant fears, phobias and panic attacks are formed.
7. Nervous exhaustion. Against the backdrop of constant psychological stress, cerebrovascular disease, impaired memory, performance, concentration, and attention are formed. Nervousness appears, and alcoholism or drug addiction may develop.
8. Social maladjustment. The disorder causes increased aggression, a tendency to quarrels and conflicts, a feeling of misunderstanding, and loneliness.
9. Suicidal tendencies. Patients do not see the meaning of life; their anhedonia is clearly manifested - they are not able to enjoy simple things. It seems to them that things will never get better. They see death as the only way out of this situation.
Various complexes and techniques are used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder:
• Psychotherapy. It consists of conducting cognitive behavioral therapy, when the patient learns to respond correctly to the stress experienced. Also, as part of psychotherapy, a technique such as biofeedback can be carried out, in which the patient learns to manage his symptoms, including somatic ones.
The Prolonged Exposure Therapy technique shows good results. This technique was developed specifically for the treatment of PTSD: the patient is introduced into a stressful situation and re-experiences traumatic events. The goal of the method is to help the patient emotionally and consciously overcome fears, learn to accept their past and live with it.
• Drug therapy. Anxiolytics, antidepressants, and drugs to normalize sleep are prescribed. The purpose of medications is to smooth out emotional experiences, relieve depressive and anxiety symptoms, and improve sleep.
• Additional psychotherapeutic techniques. This could be group therapy, sports therapy, art therapy, occupational therapy. The methods may be different; they are recommended by the attending physician.
In Israel, doctors can effectively and quickly treat PTSD. This is largely due to the specifics of the country - Israel is involved in various military operations, and terrorist attacks are also, unfortunately, not uncommon. Israeli specialists use not only the world's best methods of treating PTSD, but also develop their own unique methods. The key factor in the success of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder is complexity: a combination of psychotherapy, drug treatment, work with a psychiatrist, and additional psychotherapeutic techniques give good results.
We further emphasize that PTSD does not appear immediately after psychological abuse or exposure to stress factors: there are cases when symptoms of the disorder appear after a year. The development of the disease can provoke depression, deterioration in functioning, and somatic symptoms. Therefore, it is critically important to contact specialists in a timely manner.