Page 136 - A Soldiers Exposition

TREATMENT OF PTSD

Note: I am NOT a physician. I am a Veteran with PTSD.
Please use the web-links provided for further research.

Source: https://www.ptsd.va.gov/

Today, there are good treatments available for PTSD. When you have PTSD, dealing with the past can
be hard. Instead of telling others how you feel, you may keep your feelings bottled up. But talking with a
therapist can help you get better.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is one type of counseling. It appears to be the most effective type of
counseling for PTSD. The VA is providing two forms of cognitive-behavioral therapy to Veterans with
PTSD: Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy.

To learn more about these types of therapy, see our fact sheets listed on the Treatment page.

There is also a similar kind of therapy called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
that is used for PTSD. Medications have also been shown to be effective. A type of drug known as a
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), which is also used for depression, is effective for PTSD.
Types of cognitive-behavioral therapy:

What is cognitive therapy?

In cognitive therapy, your therapist helps you understand and change how you think about your trauma
and its aftermath. Your goal is to understand how certain thoughts about your trauma cause you stress
and make your symptoms worse.

You will learn to identify thoughts about the world and yourself that are making you feel afraid or upset.
With the help of your therapist, you will learn to replace these thoughts with more accurate and less
distressing thoughts. You will also learn ways to cope with feelings such as anger, guilt, and fear.

After a traumatic event, you might blame yourself for things you couldn't have changed. For example, a
soldier may feel guilty about decisions he or she had to make during war. Cognitive therapy, a type of
CBT, helps you understand that the traumatic event you lived through was not your fault.
What is exposure therapy?

In exposure therapy, your goal is to have less fear about your memories. It is based on the idea that
people learn to fear thoughts, feelings, and situations that remind them of a past traumatic event.

By talking about your trauma repeatedly with a therapist, you'll learn to get control of your thoughts and
feelings about the trauma. You'll learn that you do not have to be afraid of your memories. This may be
hard at first. It might seem strange to think about stressful things on purpose. But you'll feel less
overwhelmed over time.

With the help of your therapist, you can change how you react to stressful memories. Talking in a place
where you feel secure makes this easier.