Post-traumatic stress disorder refers to the complex physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effects of psychological trauma in which an individual experiences, witnesses, or encounters one or more actual deaths involving themselves or others, is threatened with death, or is personally subjected to delayed onset and persistence of a mental disorder after a serious injury or threat to physical integrity.
Characterized by re-experiencing the trauma, accompanied by emotional dysphoria and avoidant behavior. In short: PTSD is a state of post-traumatic psychological imbalance.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms
There are three core symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, namely traumatic re-experiencing symptoms, avoidance and numbing symptoms, and heightened vigilance symptoms.
However, the clinical manifestations in children and adults are not the same, and some symptoms are unique to children.
- Traumatic re-experience symptoms: Mainly manifested by the repeated and involuntary emergence of trauma-related situations or content in the patient’s thoughts, memories, or dreams. Severe emotional reactions may also occur, and the patient may even feel as if the traumatic event is happening again.
- Avoidance and numbing symptoms: Mainly manifested by patients’ long-term or persistent efforts to avoid events or situations related to traumatic experiences, refusing to participate in related activities, avoiding traumatic locations or trauma-related people or things, and some patients even choose Sexual amnesia, the inability to recall details of events related to the trauma.
- Symptoms of increased alertness: Mainly manifested as excessive alertness and enhanced startle response, which may be accompanied by inattention, increased irritability, and anxiety.
- Other symptoms: Some patients may also exhibit addictive substance abuse, aggressive behavior, self-injury or suicidal behavior, etc. These behaviors are often manifestations of the patient’s psychological and behavioral coping methods. At the same time, depressive symptoms are also common accompanying symptoms for many patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Causes of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Usually encountering life-threatening events, such events include war, earthquakes, serious disasters, serious accidents, being raped, tortured, robbed, etc.
Almost everyone who experiences such an event will feel great pain, often causing individuals to feel extreme fear, fear, and helplessness. This type of event is called a traumatic event.
Treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Psychotherapy is the most effective method. Psychological treatments commonly used for post-traumatic stress disorder include cognitive behavioral therapy, hypnotherapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, psychoanalytic therapy, etc.
Drug therapy is one of the important treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder. It can relieve patients’ symptoms and enhance the effect of psychological therapy. The combined use of the two should be the first choice. The main ones include benzodiazepine anti-anxiety drugs and anti-anxiety drugs. Depressants, atypical antipsychotics, anticonvulsants, etc.
When you are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, you may find it difficult to accept it, but no matter what, please actively follow the doctor’s advice and receive active treatment, and your condition will get better.
Daily Considerations for Patients with Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Actively seek help, including professionals such as doctors and counselors.
- Maintain a normal and stable daily routine and routine.
- Stay away from tobacco and alcohol.
- Maintain relationships with family and friends and proactively seek support.
- Learn about psychology and learn to relax, accept, and care for yourself.
Conclusion
If some psychological assessment tools can be used to initially assess an individual’s mental health status after a traumatic event, it will help to screen out high-risk groups for post-traumatic stress disorder.
When encountering a disaster, if psychological intervention can be obtained in time, the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder can be greatly reduced. Once post-traumatic stress disorder occurs, psychological treatment and drug treatment can prevent the condition from worsening and promote recovery.
