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The Honors Project: PTSD awareness

TeresaGreninja91 April 29th, 2018

The PTSD AWARENESS

Hi, this is Teresa and today I'd like to review PTSD and the treatments for that. NOT ONLY war and combats are serious traumas. We all have so many chances to have PTSD unfortunately, as long as were living in this modern society. Experiencing crime as a victim, natural disaster, car or air crash, and even witnessing these horrific events can be serious traumas of us.

Not all the people who experienced traumatic events would suffer from PTSD, but its natural to have this after those things happened.

What are the symptoms of PTSD?

PTSD stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and a trauma is a witnessed or experienced event that the person perceives as physically and/or psychologically life threatening.

I know there is C-PTSD ( Complexed PTSD) which is really severe, but in this project, Im mainly talking about traditional PTSD.

Symptoms are like....

Reliving the event e.g. flashbacks, nightmares

Avoiding reminders of the event e.g. numbing, sense of limited future, loss of interest in activities, isolation

Hyperarousal e.g angry outbursts, feeling jumpy, Aggressive behavior

Negative thought and mood changes e.g. guilt, shame, self-blame, difficulty concentrating or remembering things , depression

Some of us think that flashback is the main symptom of PTSD, but its not the only one. Actually it is said Avoidance is the one which can maintains symptoms in the long-term. Avoidance can make us disconnected from people, isolated in the society and can cause serious problems. We may also feel like our character has been changed since that shocking event happened, and that means were suffering from hyper arousal

Why do Post Traumatic Stress Disorders develop?

It is said that our hippocampus damage caused by trauma is one of the main reason to have PTSD symptoms, and its true that PTSD can happen to anyone.

There are high-risk factors to have those after traumatic events happened.

Youre more likely to develop PTSD

・If you are female. It is said that female hormone is related to PTSD.

・If you were directly exposed to the traumatic event or were hurt/injured seriously during that event,

・If you had very little emotional support or understanding of others around you,

・If you had other traumatic experience in your past.

PTSD can happen to ANYONE.

Is there a treatment for PTSD?

Yes, there is. There are many evidence based treatments for PTSD.

Psychotherapies ( Trauma-Focused Psychotherapy )

・Prolonged Exposure

・Cognitive Processing Therapy

・Eye Movement Desensitization and reprocessing

Medications

・SSRIs and SNRIs

It is said that benzodiazepines are not really effective for the symptoms of PTSD.

Only trained professionals can provide those Psychotherapies so its not always really helpful for the survivors to talk about traumatic experience in detail, especially when they don t want to. Of course its good to talk to someone who would listen to survivors and get quick emotional relief, if a survivor wants to. Its totally up to survivors.

But when it comes to therapy, we need some time to construct trust between therapists and us to talk about traumatic events. You can choose your therapist and of course its okay to change your therapist. Just remember, not to stop therapy abruptly for your own safety and emotional health.

Its okay to take your time to get into therapy.

Of course its good to have PE therapy and other psychotherapies for PTSD treatment since they are evidence based, but its totally okay to take our own time. No one needs to be forced to have a therapy, as long as he/ she is not hurting someone severely.

If you are a close friend or family member of the crime survivors, what can you do for them?

Just listening is a great help for the survivors. Please dont be judgmental, or accuse survivors to experience traumatic events.

Just being there with them is really helpful. You can also let them know the existence of the hotlines and some other helpful websites while theyre in crisis and dont have energy left to find them out.

Take care of yourself first. Of course its nice and kind of you to help survivors, but youre not the only one person to help them. Its okay to tell them youd like to have some time for yourself, your own pleasure.

Forgiveness? my message to the peer survivors suffering from PTSD

From my perspective, I dont think forgiving abusers are not really necessary for the healing from the severe traumas. The person we need to forgive is ourselves, and it is also true that It is toughest to forgive ourselves.

You can forgive your abusers if youd like to, or if forgiveness happened automatically, but I really would like to stress that ‘Its not necessary.

Our goal to achieve is to heal ourselves and think less about traumatic experience, and make that experience less influential in our daily, ordinary lives.

Maybe its not very good thing to say, but our first priority is our safety and our own happy lives. You dont need to forgive abusers or perpetrators for your healing. Im saying this, just because I spent most of my teen to struggle with forgiveness forced by people who were close to me. I dont want anyone to suffer from the fact that he/she cant forgive the ones who did horrible things to him/her.

Its OKAY. You got hurt and youve survived. Youve been doing much more than enough already. You dont need to be forced to forgive perpetrators.

I really do hope that all survivors would find some comfort out of their lives, and not only survive, but thrive in their future.

Sources of Information: https://www.ptsd.va.gov/apps/decisionaid/

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/ptsd-symptoms-self-help-treatment.htm

https://www.rainn.org

Story of a survivor who experienced sexual assault ( trigger warning! ) : http://thisisptsd.com/ptsd-symptoms-since-assaulted/

Book Recommendation: The Courage to heal Laura Davis, Ellen Bass

Watch these videos: https://youtu.be/YMC2jt_QVEE

https://youtu.be/FeLLt39DI8A

#honorsproject @RaCat

6
AveryLove April 29th, 2018

Teresaheart thanks for this thread, it is always good to know about PTSD and the signs. Very important informations! Wishing you a lovely daysmiley

1 reply
TeresaGreninja91 OP May 1st, 2018

@Hope3729 hello Hope thank you so much for your kind words. Of course I know many people in this community know PTSD much better than me but I really wanted to review the symptoms And treatment of PTSD as my Honors project of internship program. You encouraged me and made me Feel comforted. I really do hope all survivors who experienced trauma Would have great future.

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TinyTea May 5th, 2018

@TeresaGreninja91

Hey Teresa! This is amazing! PTSD is something I want to learn about further, thank you so much for making this post!

I really like the part about forgiving ourselves, I think that's so important too! :D Well done on this!

1 reply
TeresaGreninja91 OP May 8th, 2018

@TinyTea HI TinyTea, thank you so much for your kind comment on this☺️, and I'm eally sorry for this late reply due to my physical condition. I'm so glad to know that you thought that this report meaningful and liked the " forgiveness" part. Of course forgiveness itself is okay and good, but no one should be forced to forgive abusers when they're not willing to, at least from my perspective. Now I've been having some rest because all the tasks of my internship finished. I really do appreciate for your great help during my internship and you're the best internship buddy I believe. I wish you the very best.

1 reply
TinyTea May 11th, 2018

@TeresaGreninja91

Thank you so much! I'm glad you're resting and I hope you feel better really soon.

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littlePark3005 June 11th, 2018

Hey Teresa! Thank you so much for posting about this topic. With it being PTSD awareness month, it is important to educate each other on this serious illness. It's definitely important to know the signs.

There are also some natural remedies for PTSD those affected can look into for anyone who is interested!