This condition often develops after a stressful situation or event that is truly traumatic and catastrophic. This is a very severe and a persisting mental health problem which disrupts the patient’s ability to lead a normal life. Events like rape, losing someone you love or your home can be possible reasons for PTSD to develop. Intentional or premeditated violent acts are the main cause for PTSD rather than natural disasters. Those who have PTSD can become anxious for a long time after their traumatic event, even if they were not physically hurt.
The most common symptoms for PTSD are having flashbacks, nightmares or re-experiencing their traumatic events. They may also experience panic attacks, suffer from poor concentration, have sleep disorders, substance abuse, emotional numbing, depression and anger. Debriefing a person who has just experienced a traumatic event at once cannot prevent PTSD. Patients with PTSD immediately develop the symptoms after they have experienced the traumatic incident but for some patients, the symptoms appear later in life. Those with PTSD do not immediately ask for treatment even after the symptoms have appeared.
Treatment
Talk therapy is a very effective approach to treat long-term and severe PTSD. The sessions are under the supervision of a psychologist. The patient is urged to talk about their traumatic experience in detail. Talk therapy may also involve cognitive or behavioural approaches as well. Anti-depressants are prescribed to the patients to help them ease the symptoms of depression. Depression is a common problem among those with PTSD.