Overview Of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Nearly 12 million people in the United states deal with Posttraumatic stress disorder every year (“How Common Is PTSD in Adults”). PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that occurs in people that experience a traumatic event ( Taylor-Desir). Most patients will not be aware that they have PTSD until that traumatic thought is brought back to life. There are many scenarios that can show a patient that they have PTSD. There is no age range for this disorder, so anyone can be vulnerable to it. PTSD can ultimately ruin people's daily lives and cause addictions. While there is no cure to this disorder, there are methods and solutions of coping.

When PTSD occurs in someone's brain, it mainly affects two pieces of it. The first is Amygdala, which is the natural

Intrusion, avoidance, and mood changes emotionally. Intrusive thoughts come primarily from flashbacks or dreams. When these people relive one of these events in their head it can feel just as real as when the real event took place. It is described as more than just a memory, but rather physical and emotional sensations. Things that trigger these flashbacks could be hearing words that are associated with the event or sound (“What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder”). Avoidance is the next biggest known symptom. Patients often try to cope by avoiding any of these memories, thoughts or feelings associated with the event. This is what ultimately changes these people's lives. Taking oneself out of a situation that they would formerly be in can change their social and physical life. A known outcome of avoidance is substance abuse. It can be correlated both ways. People with PTSD are likely to start having drinking issues. And people with drinking issues are more susceptible to participating in events that can lead up to PTSD. Up to three quarters of people who survived abuse or violent traumatic events report drinking problems. An even bigger statistic with this disorder is in war veterans. Between six and eight of every ten Vietnam Veterans seeking PTSD treatment have alcohol use problems. War Veterans with PTSD and alcohol problems tend to be binge drinkers (“PTSD and Problems with Alcohol Use”). Drinking can only do harm in

The first way of handling PTSD is what is known as Psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is a talking therapy with a therapist and helps people get over several mental illnesses. There are 3 main forms of psychotherapy; Cognitive therapy, exposure therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Cognitive therapy is used to figure out different plans of thinking for when your brain gets stuck in these traumatic memories. Patterns of thinking and behavior can be changed when the person is speaking about their trauma in real time in the light of reality (“What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?”). What is often followed by or worked in with cognitive therapy is exposure therapy. This practice of therapy helps face situations and memories that seem frightening so you can cope effectively. This is often the therapy used for patients that deal with flashback and nightmare based PTSD. The main focus of this is to stop avoiding what is known to be causing the issue. Most common uses of these methods are virtual reality exposure, and imagery exposure. Virtual reality creates the scene of the event and the patients can relive the past and overcome it by experiencing it a second time. Imagery exposure helps patients by asking them to recall and describe his or her traumatic experience in order to reduce feelings of fear(“What Is Exposure Therapy?”). The