Post-traumatic stress disorder, contrary to what one might think, does not only affect veterans of wars and survivors of disasters.
What is it?
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a form of mental distress that arises in individuals who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event.
It was Freud who began to study it in patients suffering from hysteria. But it was only from the careful observation of war veterans that it was identified for the first time, so much so that it assumed the name of “war neurosis”. It was then definitively explained following the observation of survivors of the Vietnam War, being classified among the official mental disorders, in 1980, in the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.
According to some studies, carried out on different areas of the brain, individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder produce abnormal levels of hormones involved in the response to stress and fear.
According to the American National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the typical symptom of this disorder is to repeatedly relive the traumatizing experience in the form of flashbacks, memories, nightmares or on the occasion of anniversaries and commemorations.
Post-traumatic stress disorder in ordinary people
Today, post-traumatic stress disorder has become much more frequent than you might think. Epidemiological research, recently published, reveals that it is not exclusive only to war veterans and survivors of disasters, but rather belongs to ordinary life, as new studies report: the largest individuals to suffer from this pathology are the elderly, people who have had heart attacks, and women suffering from breast cancer or who have suffered violence. It is precisely among rape victims that the highest percentage of onset of post-traumatic stress disorder is highlighted.
From a meta-analysis of 24 different studies it was even found that individuals affected by heart attack, who then developed a post-traumatic stress disorder, run a greater risk than others of experiencing a new heart attack, whose symptoms are called “intrusive symptoms” and manifest themselves in two different ways:
– through intense memories of the attack, As if it were happening again
– through absence of memory, even though the memory is actually there, unconsciously, and resurfaces with sudden flashbacks and nightmares.
Therapy
From a clinical point of view it can be treated in multiple ways, since it falls into the general class of anxiety disorders generally treated with cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.
First of all, it is necessary to help the patient to identify and control negative thoughts and beliefs related to the traumatic event experienced.
Among the techniques used are: exposure, abdominal relaxation and breathing, cognitive restructuring and desensitization and reprocessing through eye movements (Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing).
Sometimes, however, pharmacological treatment becomes necessary: generally antidepressants are used that individually are never decisive, but only provide momentary relief of symptoms. For this reason it is always advisable to undergo individual psychotherapy sessions.
Joycelyn Elders is the author and creator of EmpowerEssence, a health and wellness blog. Elders is a respected public health advocate and pediatrician dedicated to promoting general health and well-being.
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