PTSD is a potentially severe and long-term mental health problem which hampers your ability to live your life to the full. People experiencing it can feel anxious for years after the trauma, whether or not they suffered a physical injury as well.
Common symptoms of PTSD include re-experiencing the event in nightmares or flashbacks, avoiding things or places associated with the event, panic attacks, sleep disturbance and poor concentration. Depression, emotional numbing, drug or alcohol misuse and anger are also common.
Debriefing someone who has experienced trauma immediately afterwards does not prevent PTSD.
People with PTSD usually develop the symptoms immediately after the traumatic event but for some people, symptoms begin much later. People experiencing PTSD may not seek treatment for months or years after the onset of symptoms.
Treatment
The most effective therapeutic approach for long-term, severe PTSD appears to be a series of talking treatment sessions with a clinical psychologist, in which the person with PTSD is encouraged to talk through their experiences in detail. This may involve behavioural or cognitive therapeutic approaches.
Antidepressants may also be prescribed to relieve the depression which people who have survived trauma often experience at the same time as PTSD.
Back to the top
Updated in 2009
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
