News Note to colleagues: please stop saying post traumatic stress is incurable

[joeylittle]

Note to Colleagues: Please Stop Saying Post Traumatic Stress Is Incurable | The Huffington Post

It's interesting. Important to note it was written in 2010, updated in 2011. As @StormySea points out, the author (it's a blog piece) uses cureable and manageable and treatable all interchangeably - so they clearly don't value the detail in the distinction. She's a psychotherapist who lists herself as a 'guided imagery innovator', and the thrust of the thing is really as simple as: hey, try guided imagery!

She writes:

You can recover from posttraumatic stress. Certainly, you can significantly reduce - not just manage - its symptoms. But - and here’s the thing - not with traditional treatment. The problem is, a lot of my colleagues don’t know this yet. So they go about it in traditional ways and pronounce the condition incurable, based on the results they get.

She does, however, endorse EMDR.

I'd just call the whole thing an interesting glimpse into where some of the thinking in the field was, five years ago - but she makes some really odd claims about the neuropathology of PTSD. My favorite is that all trauma is stored in a pre-verbal way initially, and that people who are capable of talking about their trauma most likely will never develop PTSD. Things that make you go "hmmmm" :O_o:

I was glad to go looking for the article, though, because I came upon this really well-written piece specifically talking about the relationship of the PTSD symptom called a sense of a foreshortened future/impending doom, and suicidal ideation. I started a thread here: Deconstructing The Relationship Between Ptsd And Suicidal Thinking, for anyone interested.

This thread has shown me how important semantics can be!

It's a thing that happens - the more you learn about your own diagnosis, the more important the distinctions can become. Sometimes we can appear to go nuts splitting hairs over the language that gets used - I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, or something you should feel badly about. At the end of the day, anything that is empowering is helping. Whether that's knowing the diagnostic criteria like the back of your hand, having strong opinions about where the research is (and isn't), investing in debates about what it's really like vs. how it's sometimes described...I believe that's all a part of taking ownership of the diagnosis, which will eventually help you take ahold of the condition itself.

In other words - it's all good.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

Yes, I agree that the word treatable is much more of an accurate term. Manageable too maybe. But if one cures a disease, that means it's gone. No more. And that isn't the case for PTSD. It can always come back of a big stressor happens, another trauma happens, and/or if the person isn't managing as well. So to me that isn't cured or gone/no more. It's treated/managed.

PTS and PTSD are not the same.

Indeed! I completely missed that.

 

[Suzetig]

While having had PTSD might make you more susceptible in the event of further trauma, there's also some research to say that experience of trauma can act as an innoculation against PTSD in future - it's far from clear cut both how we respond to trauma and the mechanisms that support recovery.

Having had PTSD doesn't in and of itself mean you'll get it again if you experience another traumatic event, other factors come in to play. I think the jury is also out in terms of whether each incident of PTSD might be a discrete occurrence or a continuation/re-emergence of a previous episode.

So I do think, in some cases, people experience a cure and in others they done.

 

[EmmaOwl]

Things that make you go "hmmmm" :O_o:

Oooh... That triggered a memory of a really awful pop song for me. I will hope no one knows what I mean, because it's one of those things you can't get out of your head! :)

 

[Deleted member 34328]

This is a really good thread!

It's a discouraging topic - for me - but I think whenever these things are published, the most important and crucial thing to do is find the context. Find out the validity to it.

Thanks @J'qel for reading the article and pointing out all those "facts".

My belief is pretty much exactly what @anthony said. I do fall into one of worst case scenarios, but I've come a long ways and learned a lot of coping tools for when stressors, even triggers pop up.

If I understood correctly, my PTSD will never be "cured" but I can live a normal life with the tools I have. It may be symptomatic and something that may have to be handled one thing at a time. I may even need a visit off and on with a therapist to refresh my coping tools, but in general, the goal right now is to no longer need therapy and live a normal life.

 

[StormySea]

Oooh... That triggered a memory of a really awful pop song for me. I will hope no one knows what I mea...

Haha! I forgot all about that song.

 

[J'qel]

No worries hon, I read about 100 pages an hour, so at least it gives me a chance to use my powers for good (there's that and flash fast showers-which I doubt will ever be relevant :P).

heheh.... That was salt n' pepa wasn't it?

All in all-keep in mind that PTSD and CPTSD are in the realm of neuroscience as well as psychology and they're remarkably new. The chances of anyone having all the answers this early is pretty slim (by pretty slim, I think anyone who could come up with an actual "cure" would be looking at a Nobel for being able to reverse brain damage and adding remarkable contributions to the field of neuro chemical research).

 

[Changing4Best]

I'm on Social Security Disability (SSDI) and PTSD is a large part of my case. I was deemed 100% permanent and will be on this SSDI for life. I was deemed this by the Social Security Administration at the age of about 47. I should note that I have CPTSD, not just PTSD. I don't know if that makes a difference or not, in terms of the article mentioned above.

So no, in my case, CPTSD is not curable. I go for long periods of time sometimes without symptoms (like a few weeks maybe, or even a few months), but then it rears its ugly head again, usually by something triggering it, though I don't always know what seems to trigger it. I've been in and out of mental hospitals probably about 10 times, maybe more. I see my psychiatrist every few months, and can sometimes go as long as 6 months without seeing him. However, it is understood that if I need to see him sooner, I can. The place he works at has a walk-in deal, if you need it. Also, you can call in for an emergency appointment, and if things are REALLY bad and it is off hours, the emergency folks from there will come to my house! I have had to use that emergency service 3 times, actually. Twice it averted a hospital visit, once it didn't.

I am taking 4 medicines which they prescribe for me.

 

[EmmaOwl]

@SheilaKathy, your response connected me right back to the desperation of a "public" diagnosis as permanent disability. I was distraught and found out that I CAN return to work or school at some time in the future. It is not really foreseeable now, but I have spent so many years working so hard to find a real life of my own.

So a lot of this is terminology, especially once you get into government and the legal system.

SheilaKathy, there is certainly comfort and security (no punch intended) in knowing what benefits you receive and will continue to receive without further "fighting" for yourself in a legal sense of the word

I don't expect to ever recover enough to support myself. As difficult as this is to accept, it's actually been a step forward for me to have achievable goals.

However, I was not expected to improve as much as I already have. I like to think there are other options left for me, even if it takes another decade or more of working on myself, with myself, as best as I can.

So yeah, as things stand I'm not looking for a cure. But my goals are: work hard in therapy and with myself, to increase my quality of life. Lessening of nightmares, which would allow me to cut down on my meds, which would allow my brain to be more sharp and less dulled as it is now... lessening of anxiety and depression, also helping my clarity of thought. I would like to write again. I used to write for school, for my own pleasure, and as a profession. My ultimate goal is to find some way to help others, in this life of mine - I would LOVE for that to include writing, but I'm not counting on it. We shall see.

Sorry if this is disjointed or confusing. I've found this thread to be very thought-provoking.

 

[Changing4Best]

GO for it! Write to your heart's content. If for any reason someone benefits by it, you are ahead. Before I was diagnosed, I did write a book of poetry. It was published, but it did not sell well. Poetry usually does not sell well, so this is not really a bad mark on me, it is just the way things are. @Allie D.

 

[Milo's papa]

This is a great topic for discussion.

In the interest of full disclosure, my wife has written a few articles for the Huffington Post on what her life is like living with CPTSD.

Like Allie, my wife has been declared permanently disabled by the SSA. She will never get back the life she had before. We have excepted that, (as hard as it was, especially for her) and now all our energy goes into getting her in a place where she won't need therapy three to five times a week.

For her, a cure doesn't seem likely. That doesn't mean that everyone is in the same boat. Seeing the progress she has made over these past 10 years, maybe there is hope for others. I'm no Neuropsychologist so I'm not going to presume to have the answer. All I have is hope.

 

[Freedomfighter]

I'm interested in hearing people's reactions to an article I came across in The Huffington Post entit...

I have often thought that it is not totally curable, that is a really difficult subject, especially now that I have learned how much this awful illness still takes possession of my brain without even realizing it. That is downright scary when I am thrown into a situation and later I learn that PTSD rendered me helpless, even though I could smell the danger.

I think the condition can be improved, cured? Not so much, but the improvements help to better deal with our illness, there are so many questions I still have about PTSD, even though it has already been over 7 years that I got that illness.