Surviving or witnessing a traumatic experience can sometimes feel like only half the battle, with the rest fought every day trying to adjust to a new normal. Living with post-traumatic stress disorder can be overwhelming, and symptom management can be very difficult. Delayed symptom onset or a delayed diagnosis can further complicate matters, making every day feel like a new kind of fight.
What is PTSD? Recognizing the Symptoms and Who Can Be Affected
While post-traumatic stress disorder is often associated with combat veterans, military service members aren’t the only ones who can be affected by this condition. Anyone who has experienced or witnessed trauma can develop PTSD, and symptoms can be different for everyone. They do, however, tend to fall under a few rather broad umbrellas.
- Avoidance – Do you find yourself doing everything possible to avoid speaking or even thinking about a specific event? Avoiding places, activities or even people in your life who remind you of a specific negative event is a common symptom of PTSD.
- Personality and Mood Changes – We all grow and change with time, but abrupt and dramatic changes in personality or overall mood are less common, as a general rule. Changes in disposition, personality and mood levels after a traumatic event are relatively common, however. Focusing more readily on negative thoughts about yourself or others, a lack of interest in things you once cared about or a general sense of emotional numbness can all be attributed to PTSD.
- Intrusive Thoughts – Everyone struggles with thoughts they’d rather not have from time to time, but intrusive thoughts stemming from post-traumatic stress disorder are different. From flashbacks forcing you to relive your trauma to nightmares disrupting sleep patterns, pernicious intrusive thoughts can have a significant impact on your quality of life.
Formerly laid-back, easygoing personalities can become hyper-vigilant and easily startled after a traumatic event. People living with PTSD can also become self-destructive and reckless in the aftermath of trauma.
Breakthroughs in Treating the Symptoms of PTSD
There have been so many developments in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, but one of the most promising new breakthroughs is actually a decades-old pharmaceutical on the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines list. Ketamine has been used as an anesthetic for half a century, but in recent years it’s become a go-to in the PTSD treatment toolbox.
Ready to find out of if Ketamine therapy can help you discover better symptom management and a fuller life with PTSD? Contact our Los Angeles clinic to schedule an appointment with Dr. Mahjoubi today!
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