8 FAQs About PTSD
Author: Home Helpers Home Care
I know too many people – men and women, young and old – who have some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder aka PTSD. Their stories are different, yet their traumas have negatively impacted their lives… potentially forever.
Because we all need a better understanding of PTSD and those suffering from it, I am exploring 8 FAQs about PTSD according to the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that some people get after seeing or living through a dangerous event. When in danger, it’s natural to feel afraid. This fear triggers many split-second changes in the body to prepare to defend against the danger or to avoid it. This “fight-or-flight” response is a healthy reaction meant to protect a person from harm. In PTSD, this reaction is changed or damaged. People who have PTSD may feel stressed or frightened even when they’re no longer in danger.
Who gets PTSD?
Anyone can get PTSD at any age. This includes war veterans and survivors of physical and sexual assault, abuse, accidents, disasters, and many other traumatic events. Not everyone with PTSD has been through a dangerous event. Some people get PTSD after a friend or family member experiences danger or harm. The sudden, unexpected death of a loved one can also cause PTSD.
What are the symptoms of PTSD?
PTSD can cause many types of symptoms. The symptoms can be generally grouped into three categories:
Re-experiencing symptoms:
- Flashbacks – The trauma is relived over and over and includes physical symptoms such as elevated heart rate and perspiration
- Nightmares
- Frightening thoughts
Avoidance symptoms:
- Staying away from places, events, or objects that are reminders of the experience
- Feeling emotionally numb
- Feeling strong guilt, depression, or worry
- Losing interest in activities that were enjoyable in the past
- Having trouble remembering the dangerous event
Hyper-arousal symptoms:
- Being easily startled
- Feeling tense or “on edge”
- Having difficulty sleeping, and/or having angry outbursts
How long does PTSD last?
According to John H. Krystal, M.D., of Yale University School of Medicine, “In some cases, particularly where it is not treated, PTSD can last a very long time, perhaps the remainder of one’s life. Most people with longstanding PTSD find that the symptoms are not steady in their severity. For some people, PTSD symptoms gradually fade over time. Other people find that symptoms may increase when they encounter reminders of their traumatic events
How is PTSD detected?
A doctor who has experience helping people with mental illnesses, such as a psychiatrist or psychologist, can diagnose PTSD. The diagnosis is made after the doctor talks with the person who has symptoms of PTSD.
To be diagnosed with PTSD, a person must have all of the following for at least 1 month:
- At least one re-experiencing symptom
- At least three avoidance symptoms
- At least two hyper-arousal symptoms
- Symptoms interfere with daily life, such as going to school or work, being with friends, taking care of important tasks
Are there effective ways to treat PTSD?
A number of treatment techniques, sometimes combined with one another, are being used with varying degrees of success:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy, to help people recognize their ways of thinking, or cognitive patterns, that keep them “stuck”
- Exposure therapy, to help people safely face what they fear, in order to learn to cope with it (virtual reality devices are often used to simulate a situation or setting in which the trauma took place)
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), which combines exposure therapy with a series of guided eye movements that help people process traumatic memories and change the way they respond to those memories
- Anti-anxiety medications and antidepressants can also ease the symptoms of PTSD; some people with PTSD whose symptoms include insomnia or recurrent nightmares find relief with a medication called prazosin that blocks the effect of adrenaline in the body
- Osanetant, a medication that has been tested in humans to treat schizophrenia, and was found to be safe but ineffective, has recently been found to block fear memories in mice shortly after exposure to trauma; it targets a distinct group of cells in the brain that controls the formation and consolidation of fear memories. According to Foundation Scientific Council member Kerry Ressler, M.D., PhD, who led the research at Emory University, osanetant shows potential to aid in preventing PTSD from developing if administered in the emergency room or battlefield, for example, before traumatic memories consolidate
Why do some people experience PTSD and other people do not?
Not everyone who lives through a dangerous event experiences PTSD. Most people will not get the disorder.
Various factors determine whether a person will get PTSD. Some of these are risk factors that can make a person more susceptible to getting PTSD. Other factors, called resilience factors, can help reduce the risk of the disorder. Some of these risk and resilience factors are present before the trauma and others are more important during and after a traumatic event.
Risk factors for PTSD include:
- Living through dangerous events and traumas
- Having a history of mental illness
- Getting hurt
- Seeing people hurt or killed
- Feeling horror, helplessness, or extreme fear
- Having little or no social support after the event
- Dealing with extra stress after the event, such as the loss of a loved one, pain and injury, or loss of a job or home
Resilience factors that may reduce the risk of PTSD include:
- Seeking out support from other people, such as friends and family
- Finding a support group after a traumatic event
- Feeling good about one’s own actions in the face of danger
- Having a coping strategy or a way of getting through the bad event
- Being able to act and respond effectively despite feeling fear
Researchers are studying the importance of various risk and resilience factors. With further research, it should become possible to predict who is likely to get PTSD, how resilience can be learned, and how to prevent the disorder.
Is PTSD something that only happens to combat veterans?
A significant number of veterans suffer from PTSD: up to 20 percent of those who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and up to 30 percent of those who served in Vietnam. But PTSD can result from a variety of traumatic or life-threatening incidents such as sexual assault, child abuse, accidents, bombings, or natural disasters such as tornadoes, for example. Even witnessing a traumatic event can cause PTSD. In the United States, about seven or eight out of every 100 people will have PTSD at some point in their lives. During a given year, some five million adults are coping with PTSD.
My Home Helpers team of professional caregivers provides non-medical in-home care services, including companion care, personal care, specialized care, recuperative care, post-operative care, 24-hour shift care, and more, to help make life easier for seniors and veterans with PTSD so they can maintain their independence and avoid isolation.
Additional veteran care services include help with transportation, pharmacy pickups, grocery shopping, and meal planning and preparation. Furthermore, caregiving support services are compassionately provided in the home, a hospital, a rehabilitation center, an assisted living facility, a retirement community, or wherever needed.
We, at Home Helpers® Clearwater, are honored to have been ranked among the Home Care Pulse Top 100 Leaders in Experience for home care providersand to have receivedthese awards in 2024: Best of Home Care® Provider of Choice, the Best of Home Care® Employer of Choice, the Best of Home Care® Leader in Experience, as well as being named a Caring.com 2023 Caring Super Star.
We proudly serve male and female seniors in Clearwater, Clearwater Beach, Dunedin, Holiday, Hudson, Largo, New Port Richey, Oldsmar, Palm Harbor, Port Richey, Safety Harbor, Saint Petersburg, Seminole, Tarpon Springs, Trinity, and surrounding areas. Home Helpers®…we are Making Life Easier® 727.942.2539
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