The Hopeful Reality of PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD has often been portrayed as an illness that is extremely hard to diagnose, manage, and treat. This is completely accurate.

But it is also a condition that has given rise to a number of trained professionals, treatment options, and coping strategies that makes life for PTSD patients so much more than simply their illness.

What is PTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a debilitating mental health illness that affects roughly 10-20% of the population. While everyone responds to trauma differently, PTSD is often seen in those individuals who have witnessed or experienced a traumatic event.

What causes a person to experience PTSD?

While PTSD is generally associated with soldiers who have experienced battle, PTSD can actually affect anyone who has experienced a dangerous, shocking, or life-threatening ordeal. This includes:

• Accidents
• Combat
• Sexual assault/ rape
• Physical abuse
• Sudden death of a loved one
• Natural disasters
• Fires
• Attacks

The disturbing nature of the experience triggers a powerful reaction that can continue long after the event and may affect an individual’s ability to function normally.

What are the signs and symptoms of PTSD?

While any major trauma or ordeal is likely to induce feelings of shock, fear, anger, anxiousness, and even guilt; PTSD differs in how long these emotions remain, and how much they hinder and affect daily life. 

Most often, symptoms of PTSD are seen within 1-3 months of the event. However, some may only begin to show symptoms many years after. 

And while the severity and duration of the illness vary, the most common signs and symptoms of PTSD may be categorised into these four types:

These include nightmares, flashbacks, and hallucinations that may cause the person to relive their most painful memories.

Avoiding locations, people, situations, or even discussions of the event, which, in turn, invariably leads to greater isolation and detachment. 

• Arousal and reactivity symptoms: 

These show themselves in an individual’s heightened emotions. This can cause outbursts of anger, irritability, hypersensitivity and hyper-awareness of potential dangers, anxiety, and insomnia.

Moreover, this state leads to strained interpersonal relationships, and may even manifest through physical symptoms of diarrhoea, nausea, muscle tension, and an increase in blood pressure.

• Cognitive and mood symptoms:

Perhaps the most telling, cognitive symptoms of PTSD can affect a person’s ability to remember, concentrate, and function on a day-to-day level. 

It also brings about feelings of detachment, guilt, and blame. 

These symptoms may likely worsen over time and could lead to even more serious complications such as:

• Depression
• Neurological disorders
• Eating disorders
• Substance abuse

It is also important to remember that these symptoms may show themselves differently in children. For example, most children with PTSD exhibit:

• Delayed development in language and motor skills
• Unusual clingy behaviour
• Bedwetting
• Disruptive, impulsive, or aggressive behaviour

Therefore, it is imperative that an experienced mental health professional is consulted to get an accurate and unfiltered diagnosis.

What should a person with these symptoms do?

After being diagnosed with PTSD, it is crucial that the right treatment and measures are prescribed to help achieve and regain normalcy and a sense of balance. Some of the best ways in ensuring that the treatment is effective and progressive towards recovery are:

The best step is the first one. Seeking immediate help without delay is the easiest way of ensuring healing.

Be it from a friend, family member, or even a support group; finding support, and speaking out about the struggles faced can make a big difference.

• Learning coping strategies

Making lifestyle changes, and incorporating positive coping strategies when faced with triggering situations, allows for a better outlook on daily fear management.

• Exploring treatment options

It’s not a one-size-fits-all situation. Understanding the treatment options available leads to better and more informed decisions.

What are the treatment options available for PTSD?

With an ever-increasing understanding of PTSD and its serious consequences, comes also an increasing number of options for treatment. These include psychotherapies, medications, and natural treatments; either on their own or as an amalgamation.

Psychotherapies

Psychotherapy or, more specifically, cognitive behavioural therapy, involves:

• Talking to a professional in a one-on-one or group setting
• Learning to identify specific triggers and symptoms
• Learning strategies and skills to manage these symptoms
• Learning to gain control of the fear and distress associated with the trauma

In short, CBT aims to enable a person to come to terms with the event that triggers and traumatises them.

PTSD-specific treatments such as cognitive processing therapy (CPT) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) have shown to be effective in treating PTSD and considerably decreasing its symptoms.

Cognitive processing therapy includes writing about the trauma to better understand and process the emotions associated with the event. 

EMDR involves focusing on the trauma without triggering a negative reaction. This allows the brain to heal naturally.

Such therapies help restructure the thought processes associated with the traumatic event so that an individual can remember the experience realistically and logically without the associated fear and guilt.

Medications

Medications are often prescribed to help manage and lessen the intensity of the symptoms associated with PTSD. Not only do they help ‘rein in’ the response to certain triggers, but they may also help stabilise the mood, and treat chemical imbalances.

Some of the common medications used in the treatment of PTSD include fluoxetine, paroxetine, and sertraline. Additionally, medications that treat specific symptoms of PTSD such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia may also be prescribed in combination. 

The combination and the dosage of the medications prescribed have to be worked out by trial and error as everyone responds to these medications differently. However, once achieved, these drugs can significantly improve quality of life.

Natural Therapies

Along with psychotherapies and medications, it is also important to look into alternative treatments that better suit specific lifestyles and do not cause major side effects. 

Ayurveda offers an innovative, clear, and holistic approach that helps restore balance in the doshas that affect your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. 

Some of the most effective lifestyle changes recommended by natural therapists include:

• Practising meditation
• Staying hydrated
• Eating a balanced, healthy, and wholesome diet
• Exercising regularly
• Practising yoga
• Adopting massage therapy
• Getting enough sleep

Additionally, the use of specific herbs and spices such as Brahmi and Ashwagandha can play a crucial role in establishing normal cognitive function, stabilising thoughts, and relieving stress.

All of these simple measures aim to restore balance to the body’s circadian rhythm, while at the same time healing, nourishing, and revitalising the body and mind.

Conclusion

PTSD is a crippling illness that not only affects the mental and physical health of an individual but can also have a severe effect on a person’s ability to function on a daily basis. This makes the treatment of PTSD very tricky. 

Fortunately, with a deeper understanding of this illness, better treatment plans and options have evolved. The availability of trained specialists, behavioural therapies, medications, and natural therapies allows patients to choose the treatment (or a combination of treatments) that works best for them.

Ayurveda stands out among these as it approaches the illness in a holistic manner, treating both the mind and body. And as no single case of PTSD is the same, the specific nature of Ayurvedic remedies, which is unique to each individual and their affected dosha, makes Ayurveda an unsurprising favourite to treat the devastating symptoms of PTSD. 

If you are looking to treat and manage the debilitating symptoms of PTSD, visit us at The Ayurvedic Clinic today. Our expert panel of consultants can guide you towards the best practices and treatments that can help you achieve physical, mental, and emotional balance, in order to attain optimal health.