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New PTSD Therapy

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anthony

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This shit pisses me of to no end. ****en doctors wanting nothing more than to get their name recognized for something that they actually have only half done.


[DLMURL="http://news.monstersandcritics.com/lifestyle/consumerhealth/article_1151369.php/Caregiving_New_PTSD_therapy"]John C. Markowitz[/DLMURL], clinical professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, and Bleiberg examined the effectiveness of interpersonal psychotherapy, or IPT, a form of talk therapy that focuses 'not on the past trauma, but on dysfunctional relationships in the here-and-now' and PTSD. 'With IPT, we focus on rebuilding relationships,' Bleiberg said. 'What we did was adapt this for PTSD -- it seemed intuitive.'

In the pilot study 14 subjects were treated by IPT over a period of 14 weeks. The study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, found that at the end of the 14-week therapy, 12 of the 14 participants no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.

'In our treatment, we focus on helping the subjects to better cope and function in their relationships,' said Bleiberg. "It's an alternative therapy for patients who don't want to have to focus on the trauma that affected them so badly to begin with, and it has a finite period of time -- we can see results in a finite period of time."



This is no cutting edge treatment, as I had this done on me before I even saw a shrink, or diagnosed with PTSD. You go over and over aspects of your life, aspects of your events surrounding your trauma, but not actually touching the trauma itself. Counsellors at VVCS are doing, have been using this for a long time now. Again, this is no cutting edge stuff at all, merely some doctor wanting to big note themselves making people believe something that actually is factual at all.

From the 14 people, they say 12 no longer met the diagnostic criteria. I bet they didn't follow up though, because if any of those 12 are still having nightmares, still struggle going to a crowded shopping center, still have anxiety attacks, etc etc, they aren't cured at all. This falls right back to the recent broading of PTSD, now branding people who are very curable into the PTSD category. I have also seen today, where they now refer to those who are not curable, still being approximately the same 10% of trauma sufferers, as having C-PTSD (Complex PostTraumatic Stress Disorder).

****en doctors just keep making up names for shit if you ask me, and do nothing more than find another way in which to piss those off who suffer this shit. They are broadening the scope I believe, so they can be some results from the lower scale persons, who actually don't have PTSD as such, more just acute stress or anxiety symptoms. They obviously don't like knowing that a particular illness is not curable, so they broaden it to include those that are actually curable, thus detracting the overall state and meaning of the term to begin with. Now some are just rebranding us actual sufferers as C-PTSD, instead of just PTSD.

Some doctors are just dead set ****wits, with no actual outlook for their patients at all, and are trying to make others suffering about making them look good. All my doctors have been absolute specialists of PTSD, and have been so for over 20+, some 30+ years. These guys know what their talking about, as they have seen thousands of sufferers personally, and seen the ones who try to fake the disorder as well. None of which got through from what they stated to me. Its only in recent years that it has become known, and then people try and fake it, so these guys had donkey's years of experience before seeing the clowns who want to have it.

I know every country has them, but it seems the States has an overwhelming amount of dickhead doctors who want nothing more than recognition for themselves, instead of just treating their damn patients.
 
hear, hear! I have an additional point to make - how can ipt work if you don't have any relationships?
 
it is the same in canada. It took two years for the diagnosis to be final but my phsycologist called in PTSD right off the bat. I had to stop seeing him as I could no longer afford it as my husand cut me off from his health plan and our plan only covers five appointments a year. I am now trying to pay that debt off but really need the counselling so my pastor has been counselling me which is helpful but is not the same.

I was seeing a grief counsellor but all she wanted to do was have me talk about things. My phsycologist lets me talk but also gives me advice on how to handle things and not let the things get to me.

I here ya about doctors. The phsychiatrist told me I need to start by removing one layer at a time and it will take time to get me back to me. The unfortunate thing is he could not see me as his patient list is full and that is why I was seeing the councellor. They both wanted me to go to a group meeting that deals with all kinds of issues - from alcoholics to sexual abusers. I did not think I would resolve any issues here as I need to be with people who understand this condition thus I am here.

So doctors in the US are not the only ones who are this way. It is much the same in Canada though people are becoming aware that PTSD effects everyone not just Veterans.
 
The first time I heard about PTSD was when my counselor told me she thought I had it.
Now I've been trying to learn as much about it as I can, and have been to many Doctors,
You are right, there have been so many cases of people faking their illness... this sickens me and hurts the real victims of the disorder
it really bothers me that as soon as you mention you have PTSD, most Doctors think you are faking / trying to screw the insurance company, etc.
So when I see a new specialist or therapist, I don't mention it, they just asses me,
and so far... every single one has diagonosed me with PTSD.

It's kinda funny, because by trying to prove I was faking my injuries
the insurance company has been sending me to various specialists and at each one:
* the Dr. has referred me to another specialist (in another field) for other concerns they find
* I have been diognosed as having PTSD (recently "officially diagnosed" by their neuropsycologist)
* The Doctor has expressed concern about possible brain injury
* Have expressed concern about not legally being about to continue treatment with me (because they have been hired by the insurance company to only asses me)
* Recommended additional treatment to what I'm already recieving
all this because they doubted my claim and sent me to one of their General Practicioners... at least I'm getting answers now... and all doubt about faking has been removed.

My point is... when I found out I had PTSD I tried to do what that "quack" is claiming cures PTSD. I avoided my real issue, and just tried to go back to my normal life. I got 3 months into my 3rd year of college (the other 2 year had been completed 2 weeks prior to my accident) and then I basically fell apart.

So yes, by trying to create a social life again, and pretend like the trauma didn't happen seemed to have worked... at least for the first 1 month... but everything started to crumble fast. I started having severe flashbacks on the way to school, it got to the point where my therapist advised me to stop driving... and have someone I trusted take me to school. Then I would just zone out in class... it was too frusterating to not understand simple things (I had to stay after class to learn how to look things up in my textbook!!!!!!! THe teacher must of thought I was a moron, he had to show me 4 times! )

If someone is faking PTSD, or misdiagnosed as having PTSD, then sure, this method might work. But from real life experience I know doing that made me much worse.
 
I've been thinking again :think: . Had a bad night, so gave up trying to sleep in the end and got up to do something, but ended up with all sorts of stuff whizzing through my head. What I was thinking about a lot was this PTSD/CPTSD thing. I'm trying to put things in very basic and simple way, so please don't be offended and think I'm minimising anybody's condition- I'm just thinking of helping the non-ptsd people get it without doing the ptsd=crazy thing.

So you get "simple" ptsd from a single traumatic event, maybe like a car crash, you get treatment quickly, and so you may have the acute stress reaction thing which is curable, or if you get ptsd, but get treatment soon enough and nothing else shit happens, then it is likely that you might be curable.

In my thinking, you hit problems when:
1. you have a lot of traumatic events
2. you don't get treatment very quickly (or you get the wrong treatment)

Also, by its very nature, I believe that ptsd itself is traumatic. For example, when having intense nightmares or flashbacks, you do believe that you are in that situation and your life is at risk, therefore your body & brain react as such and effectively, you are suffering repeated trauma.

So, really, I think that you are right Anthony - all these "pioneering" docs are not finding ways to cure ptsd. They are splitting ptsd into different categories, meaning the less complex cases may be curable, but the end result is producing false hope and frustration for those of us that do have the full complex form of ptsd. Throw in depression, substance abuse and the more severe dissociative problems and the picture doesn't look quite so rosy anymore. Unfortunately for us it is not a very attractive prospect for these docs to try and find cures for something which is so complex, as the rewards are small for them. Therefore, they concentrate on the "easier" forms of ptsd and try to apply the same principles to complex cases, which doesn't work and may make things considerably worse for us.

The docs that are actually trying to find ways to help treat the difficult cases are the ones worth their weight in gold. Sadly, they are few and far between, and most are dependent on government or drugs companies for finance, meaning that they are not able to follow their own instincts a lot of the time, cos in business terms, they will not bring enough money back.

Anyway, these are my thoughts on the subject for now. By the way - I love all the new emoticons - I was tempted to substitue them for words here and there, but I was supposed to be making things easy to follow. The teacher side of me is obviously waking up a bit.....
 
young&angry said:
So when I see a new specialist or therapist, I don't mention it, they just asses me, and so far... every single one has diagonosed me with PTSD.

My shrink in Townsville put it the best for me when I asked him about this, and that was something like this; "its not the person trying to fake it that does wrong, its the doctor that doesn't know their faking it that does wrong!"

As you found out, a good doctor who has experience with PTSD knows the difference from someone faking it, to someone with PTSD... there is a huge difference when you ask the right questions. As I have said before, I wouldn't know someone had PTSD by just looking at them, but if I sat down with them for a few minutes and asked them some questions, I would know pretty quickly, as I have had my own reactions pointed out to me, and everyone with PTSD pretty much has the same reactions, or most off anyway, when asked about specific issues.

So these amateur doctors who are trying to big note themselves, need to step back and really take a look at things. I personally think the medical boards should just revoke their licenses for putting stupid things in the market place.

It really disgusts me that there are doctors out their who don't know how to diagnose correctly... that is disturbing.

piglet said:
I'm trying to put things in very basic and simple way, so please don't be offended and think I'm minimising anybody's condition- I'm just thinking of helping the non-ptsd people get it without doing the ptsd=crazy thing.

I think its actually some young pup coming up who wants to just leave their mark on things, so they can look back and say, "I did that" to their collegues, without any regard for us who suffer this shit. An already correct diagnosis is available, being PostTraumatic Stress (PTS), which also runs under a few variations, being PostTraumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS) and PostTraumatic Syndrome (PTS). They are all one in the same.

The full dianosis that meets the DSM-IV-TR is for PTSD, which is where the doctors are screwing up. They are diagnosing people with PTS under PTSD. The first is curable, the second is not.

I honestly think it has something to do with the mere fact they cannot cure it, which makes them hate it, and hate knowing as professionals within that field that they can't do anything. Doctors have been researching veterans from WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, 20+ year accident, rape and abuse victims, all of which still after all this time have the same affects as they did the day they realized something was wrong with them, and that they had PTSD.

This is another case where a person has mentioned they have been cured off PTSD, on Bob Parsons weblog (the owner of Go Daddy Inc), as he has PTSD also. It isn't Bob saying he is cured, exactly the opposite actually, but I'll get to that one in a minute.

As a sufferer of PTSD, there is help out there. It's called Rapid Eye Movement Therapy and was discovered completely by accident by a therapist working with Vietnam vets. It involves sitting with a trained therapist who has the PTSD patient recall the incident in detail in their mind (not out loud) while watching the therapist finger or a light or some other object move back and forth in front of their face. I have no idea why it works, but it worked wonders for me. I can now recall without concern incidents that used to provoke serious panic attacks. If you suffer from PTSD, look into it.

Now I am taking a guess at this one, but from the bold sentence I highlighted, it seems to me that this Betty Morgan is saying she is all ok now, as what used to cause her into panic attacks, no longer does. If this is the case, then I doubt very much she had PTSD, and more likely misdiagnosed with PTS.

Basically, PTS is short term anxiety and related symptoms after a traumatic event, which is what most normal people would be expected to get. PTSD is permanent, where regardless what treatment you get, the symptoms continuously come back, sometimes worse, sometimes less, but they always return, thus giving PTSD is incurable state.

Now this is what I really liked from Bob Parsons, in relation to his PTSD:

How I learned to manage PTSD.
I was fortunate enough to locate a psychologist who was also a retired Navy Ensign. His specialty way back then — he was a man ahead of his time — was PTSD. I visited with this psychologist (try as I might, I can no longer remember his name) for a few months, and I quickly got better. In fact, after the first session, there was a noticeable improvement. It felt so good to talk with someone who understood (and somehow knew) what I was going through. Overtime, I told him everything. With his assistance, I developed four truths that I needed to get through my head in order to deal with PTSD. Those four truths, which I remind myself of to this very day, are:

1. Life is not fair.
2. What happened back then means nothing today.
3. Nobody owes me anything because of what I went through in Viet Nam.
4. Nobody cares about what happened to me back in Viet Nam.


I realize that the above truths are pretty cold and hard. But PTSD is a cold and hard disease. I have no idea how PTSD is treated today, but those four truths as I came to know them, sure worked for me. I'm not sure if those truths — which helped me deal with PTSD — will work for those who are serving in our armed forces during the current conflict. But they were necessary for me.

Subsequent to my visits with the psychologist, I took some time off and put down on paper what I remembered about the war. I mostly wrote about my first night in the bush, and my last. Plenty happened during those two nights. Although this writing was only 20 or so pages, it took me several days to complete it. After I was finished, I gave a copy to each of my children and to my wife at the time. Each of them told me the same thing after reading it — "I had no idea."

Writing about what happened was a healing experience for me. It allowed me to unload what I experienced, and to stand back and look at it. I was able to see it outside of — and not part of — myself. I realized that I did experience and deal with quite a bit, and there was no wonder that it came back to trouble me.

After visiting with the psychologist and writing about my Viet Nam experiences, PTSD (for the most part) became manageable for me. It has never gone completely away, but I now know how to deal with it. It's no longer the problem it once was for me.

And that last highlighted sentence is the aim with PTSD. That is a very well stated sentence in my honest opinion.
 
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PTSD (for the most part) became manageable for me. It has never gone completely away, but I now know how to deal with it.

This is all I am hoping for. Every time life gets a little stressful, all the nightmares, jumpiness, mood swings etc come back with a vengence. It then takes a long time to drag myself back into a fit state. All I want is some help working out the best way to manage it so that I can have a shot at a remotely normalish life. While I'm sure that all of us would love a miracle cure, a way of managing the thing is the next best option.
 
I'm with you on that one Piglet... I have a funny feeling though, Bob probably does drop his bundle every now and then, CEO of Go Daddy, the largest domain registrar in the world, and having PTSD.... yup... there is some serious stress. And, he is about to take that company public, on the stock exchange... stess haven. I hope he handles it well though!
 
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