Understanding The Ways of Dealing with PTSD
It is normal to feel sad, frightened and anxious after a traumatic experience, however, if the condition does not fade after a while or you feel stuck with stressful memories, the chances are, you are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Such a condition makes victims feel like they will never get pout of the situation easily. However, the good news is that there are treatments to the condition. All you need to do is to follow the simple steps discussed in this post and you will restore your life.
Before we can take you through the approaches used in dealing with PSTD, it is vital to understand the symptoms of the condition. PTSD develops differently in people since everyone`s nervous system and tolerance for stress is different. For instance, some people develop symptoms of PTSD hours after a traumatic experience, while others may develop the symptoms weeks, or months later. Regardless of the time it takes for the symptoms to show up, here are the common signs of the conditions. It is worth noting that the symptoms of PTSD are categorized into four main groups namely, re-experiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and negative thoughts and beliefs. Some of the symptoms of PTSD at the re-experiencing stage include having recurrent nightmares, frequenting upsetting thoughts about a traumatic event, as well as experiencing strong feelings of distress when reminded of the traumatic event. Some of the symptoms grouped under avoidance include trying to avoid places or people that remind you of a traumatic event, keeping yourself too busy to refrain from thinking about the traumatic experience as well as making effort to avoid the thoughts and feelings or conversations about the traumatic events.
On the other hand, during the hyperarousal symptoms, victims tend to have a difficult time falling or staying asleep, they also feel more irritable and have a hard time concentrating. Some of the symptoms of the last stage include feeling distant from others, loss of interest in important matters, as well as having a hard time remembering important parts of a traumatic event.
As mentioned earlier, there are different ways of dealing with PTSD, however, in this post, we will base the discussion on psychoanalysis treatment. Psychoanalysis approaches focus on several factors that may influence the symptoms, these include early childhood experiences, the things victims do to protect themselves from feeling that result to experiencing traumatic experiences, as well as current relationships.
Besides, psychoanalysis therapy emphasizes on the unconscious mind, whereby the upsetting feelings are directly looked at. It is worth noting that though the painful feelings and thoughts are outside the awareness of victims, they tend to influence their behaviors. For the treatment to be effective, the measures are geared towards bringing a change in the symptoms through getting in touch with the painful unconscious feelings. The psychotherapy therapists tend to asset the patients in recognizing the defense mechanism being used to avoid the painful feeling in the unconscious mind. As much as psychoanalysis approaches in the treatment of PTSD are vital, it is a good idea for therapists to adopt several strategies to assist the patients to overcome the condition quickly.