Poll Can PTSD Be Cured?

[Linda]

I take a life with PTSD as a fight, and I do beleive, that someday I will win.

 

[Snoozer]

Early on I believed that it was possible to be cured from complex PTSD. As I get older I am understanding that learning to live well with myself and my quirks is more realistic. That through life long learning I can continue to make this work with and for me.

 

[Shinigami_Shimai]

At the point I'm at I don't believe there is a cure and no longer search for one. I just try to accept that this is the person I am and learn how to make it more part of my life, turning nightmares into novels and artwork instead of letting them control me and the like. I've been classed as permanently disabled for nearly 15 years now and I fought it for a time, trying to prove that I could be something more, but now I realize that this is the person I am if the longer I fight it the longer it is going to take me to get better. No cure, just acceptance...

jaa ne

Kat

 

[kkoehler]

I wish PTSD has a cure but like eating disorders, it doesn't. I try to be reminded of how people survived the Great Depression or the Holocaust. It changed the survivors. I hope someday I can say what many of them have. That great trial and tribulation changed us but also made us wiser. "We are survivors". I'm not there yet. I really want to be.

There may be one cure for PTSD. Prevention. Though its very specific. Its something I've been thinking about. It doesn't cure it after the fact, but I do wonder about preventing trauma if when - if at all possible. There seems to be a moral in there somewhere. I know there is no way of knowing when something terrible will happen but I go back and think about what I could have done different and try very hard to apply that in the hereafter. Like I said, its something I've been thinking about. Though not actually practical.


In the meanwhile, I'd like it very much if there was a cure for PTSD. I really do.

 

[skyward_falls]

I don't think its a matter of a "cure" or being healed. Its a matter of learning how to cope and live with it each and every day of your life in a healthy way (as much as possible).

I remember hearing a few news clips about erasing memories - new treatments. I always wondered why. I wouldn't want to lose my memories because it is where I am today that counts and it is a good place (I think those memories are important and I appreciate what I have now because of what I have been through).

Now, if they could erase the PTSD....I'd sign up for that.

 

[Auburngirl]

I've chosen to believe it can be, because I think that perspective will serve me best in the long run. I want to believe it can be. I think the reality of my experience is that it will fade from the foreground the background, and could emerge again when I'm stressed.

 

[Dylan]

At this point, I have to say, 'no'.

Now, this may be because my gig is CPTSD - and the trauma started when my brain was still developing (4-5 years old). My whole survival hard-wiring is toward hyperarousal, etc. Like many here, I was previously mislabeled and misdiagnosed several times, so proper treatment was really a crap shoot.

If the PTSD were from, say, a car accident 4 months ago, I would probably believe otherwise. I would have a "before" me to know what I was trying to get back to - I would have some sense of what normalcy looked/felt like.
I've been reading a lot about PTSD recently, trying to finally come to terms with this dx, and it would seem that trauma which has its origin in "human design" is much more difficult to recover from, whether or not it is is single or multiple event, and occurred later in life. So, recovery from PTSD resulting from a car accident or a tornado - yeah. Torture, abuse, war? I just don't think so.

I do believe, having had good results from a form of CBT that I've been working with (for 2+ years now), that I can recover to a degree. I don't believe I'm fated to constant hyperarousal, paranoia, fear, hypervigilance, strange fears, etc, forever.

I'm coming to see it more as a condition, kind of like a less-lethal cancer or something: untreated, it is insidious and deadly - destroying quality of life, with a high mortality rate. However, with proper treatment, I can live well, provided I continue with treatment. I can even go into remission. But it will never be completely gone. Even with the idea of neuro-plasticity....hmm...I just don't think complete eradication of this thing is possible anymore.

-Dylan

 

[Riggs413]

It would be nice, if there was a cure, but I voted no, as I believe that one won't ever be found.

I do believe like some/most on here that if I can heal to a sufficient degree, I can still lead a productive, though changed, life.

 

[sweetface]

I voted yes because it's not a mental illness. Its a medical disorder. I was raped at 19 and when I did yoga 2-8 hours per day there was no trace of PTSD, I was strong and had no fear being alone, being near people - ziltch. But when I stopped doing the yoga over time, it came back.

Cures to me don't mean take a pill and it's all over. To me if action cures the disorder, then you are re-ordering yourself. For me, yoga is as much of a cure as a pill would be for an illness. I just don't have the time for yoga like I used to in my older age. But I am making time for it now. I don't like medicines.

 

[moog]

From a medical standpoint, there probably is no cure. PTSD permanently changes people. I would like to think I'm cured, but when I look at my life right now, I have made significant changes to feel the way I do. I don't have a job, which has eased my stress greatly, and I'm still on meds, so obviously my mind is still a little off balance. I avoid certain places and people. For me, PTSD is more like an injury to the mind. What is a "cure" for an "injury"? We are permanently scared. I think it's possible to return to somewhat of a normal life and functioning but never like it would be if no PTSD. I'm past the really rough spots, and I've gotten to a point where I'm satisfied with my recovery. The lifelong effects of PTSD has now become a part of me. It's who I am. So with the new me, I consider myself healed, not cured. Can it be? I don't know! If cured means to return to who I was before PTSD, I don't want to be cured. There will never be a magic pill, so I guess I'm leaning toward the no side, but that doesn't mean that you can't heal.

I sit pretty much exactly with you Nam, though I am no longer medicated either. I do know though, if stressed, I will relapse under certain symptoms, I could get worse again, so I know I am not cured... though most certainly healed past all the rough bullshit that PTSD puts upon us.

Amen to that Piglet. I am hoping and providing as much as possible to hope someone develops a cure also.

I voted no and I agree with Nam and Anthony's perspectives.

A very good friend of mine uses a very harsh saying to describe how PTSD has changed him to people that push for the "hope" that he will become who he once was. "The old XXXXX died years ago, you'll just have to accept that and move on. I did." He lives a fairly stable life now but just like all of us in the world of PTSD; stability is constantly changing. We could have a good day or a great week and then something really small will set us back for a day or even longer.

 

[Auburngirl]

Sweetface - I also find yoga helps enormously. For me a 'cure' isn't a magic pill, it's feeling better and like myself again. I do feel I'll likely have a lifetime of having to be careful not to relapse, but that's no the same as actively being ill.

But, as I said, I'm less concerned with the medical reality, and more concerned with having an attitude that for me, will help me stay optimistic and get better, and celebrate successes. I know this will be different for everyone. But for me believing I will get 'better' is critical and helps me get through it. And I've seen enough concrete improvements in my condition to honestly believe it's possible.

 

[judyandsus]

I have heard of someone saying that they had (as in the past) PTSD but with help have gone on to live a healthy life. Only thing is if she is so ok then why is she still getting thearpy after all these years? I say no there is no cure