Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - Ora Golan | Treating anxieties and fears

This disorder is categorized under anxiety disorders, with the traumatic event that the person experienced at some point in life at its basis.

The longer the time from the event until the beginning of the treatment , the more will the effect of the event be long-term and difficult to treat.

More than half of the population had likely experienced traumatic events, but in most cases, the trauma will remain in the person’s consciousness for some time and its memory will decline the longer the time since the event happened and the more support the person gets from the people close to him or her. Depending on these factors, the person will be able to regain full and proper functioning. In extreme cases, the memory of the traumatic event will remain in the person’s consciousness for a long time, and the person will suffer from symptoms and will develop post-traumatic stress disorder. The innovative solution, performed on a person’s body, not the psyche, can save this person.

Risk Factors

There can be many causes for post-traumatic stress disorder, as human beings are inherently emotional and many events can be traumatic in their eyes, so the chance of developing a disorder depends on the sensitivity, individual traits and supportive environment of the person. However, there are events in which the risk of experiencing long-term trauma is greater and factors or events that support the development of the disorder:

Childhood trauma.
Chronic lack of sleep.
Genetic susceptibility to psychiatric illness (and consequently, propensity for such illness)
An environment that does not support and envelop after the event.
Changes that may cause stress or anxiety (moving house, separation from a spouse, change of workplace and more) made before the event.
Use of drugs that have the potential to develop paranoia or anxiety.
Personality disorder.

Etiology

Cognitive-Behavioral Factors – According to this approach, a disorder develops, due to poor processing of a traumatic event and neutral stimuli communicate to the event and evoke the trauma and personal experience of the person at the time of the incident.
Biological factors – Studies have shown that among those suffering from STPD, too few sedatives are secreted in the brain such as adrenaline, opiates and cortisol.
Psychoanalytic Factors – According to this approach, the person went through trauma in his childhood, denied and repressed it, but it arose as a result of the new trauma he experienced. Moreover, its natural defense mechanisms did not work properly in both cases and this intensified the experience and trauma that ensued.

Diagnosis and treatment methods

According to the DSM (American Psychiatric Diagnosis Book), there are criteria for diagnosing PTSD:

The person re-experiences the traumatic event in the following ways: recurring memories, flashbacks, thoughts, imagination, recurring dreams that recreate the event, hallucinations, alertness can be identified when exposed to stimuli reminiscent of the event and the creation of psychological distress following them.
The person tries to avoid internal or external stimuli, which are factors that may provoke the trauma in ways such as: avoiding places and events or encounters with certain people, related to the trauma experienced, disconnection from those around him, the person does not think about his future.
Increased arousal, meaning: difficulty falling asleep, restlessness, outbursts of anger, difficulty concentrating, anger and nervousness. This criterion leads to adjustment difficulties, and therefore the person is unable to return to his previous and normative life.