Ptsd cured?

[Marinna]

Hi guys,

A few months ago I completed Trauma exposure therapy. Since then I have experienced NO symptoms at all of PTSD. I can talk about the incident with ease and without any emotion or reaction. I frequently read newspaper articles about the incident (continuing my exposure) and I feel nothing.

Is there a chance that my PTSD has been cured or am I just in remission? My therapist said that the trauma has permanently damaged my limbic system (no idea what this means). Can anyone shed any light on this? Is remission common? I just want to be rid of this awful condition for good. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[loui50]

I went through years of being ok, just to relapse. I hope it is gone for you and doesn't come back.

 

[Marinna]

Thanks for your reply. I'm sorry to hear that you relapsed x hope everything is looking up now

 

[Tornadic Thoughts]

I'm currently 50 years old and have not yet experienced a time when it has totally left and not ever returned.

I do experience times when I'm able to manage the symptoms quite well and can carry on for a while as if there's no issues, but everything that ever happened is deeply programmed into my cellular memory and remains.

I no longer have an expectation of it totally leaving, I just have to keep improving and practicing with the various already proven to be helpful tools in my therapeutic tool box to be more readily prepared to deal with whatever crops up, whenever it decides to return.

 

[Casey_03]

There's really no such thing as "cured" with PTSD. You may feel no symptoms and be managing fine, but that doesn't mean it's "cured" or "in remission." It doesn't work like that. If you've only completed therapy a few months ago, I think it's way too soon to be thinking you're totally fine and no longer have symptoms. Having no emotion or reaction, as you describe, is often in itself a symptom of PTSD. Emotional numbing. A person with PTSD can go years without having any symptoms before it all starts up again.

If it's PTS, there is such a thing as "cured" -- because PTS isn't an illness to begin with. It's normal. But it does have similar symptoms to PTSD.

 

[ladee]

I certainly do not want to be Debbie Downer here... but I am 66, had this all my life, and tho it is more manageable today....IT hasn't gone anywhere.. right now going thru some things that have knocked my feel from under me.... things do get better. We do learn to manage symptoms, and we do have good times... but for me they tend to not last long.. so I enjoy the good times... I hope for you sake it stays this way.... and not to start a debate, but you may have had PTS, not PTSD... as that is layer upon layer of issues to deal with... not one incident. And certainly not minimizing what happened to you, not at all... pain is pain... regardless..... .

Please keep us updated as to how you are doing.. hope things good and stay even for you.

 

[joeylittle]

I'm curious @Casey_03 - why wouldn't 'remission' be appropriate? In the loose sense of the word, it means that there has been a significant diminishment or temporary cessation of symptoms. Can't quite use the distinctions that go with more diagnosable diseases (cancer being the most obvious), but the concept is, I think, right for some mental disorders.

 

[Casey_03]

@joeylittle I guess it just sounds misleading to me, as if it's putting PTSD in the ranks of cancer, like you mentioned. I suppose it's not technically wrong, but in conjunction with the OP's use of the word "cured" in this post, it had misleading connotations to me -- i.e. an illness that comes and goes with medical treatment, rather than something the sufferer has to work to manage properly. "Remission" to me just sounds more like something managed solely with medication, with no effort required on the patient's part. But that might just be my own personal interpretation of it.

 

[EveHarrington]

If it's one time adult trauma like a car crash, remission is much more likely than with prolonged trauma or childhood trauma.

Either way, enjoy every minute of it and don't take a second for granted!

 

[Marinna]

Thanks to all for your helpful replies. I guess I'm being a little bit naive to think that I'll be totally fine. Emotional numbing is definitely something that resonates with me. I don't understand why the use of the word remmision is offensive or insensitive. In fact my psychiatrist used it to describe my recovery from psycosis. I guess it's most often associatied with cancer. But that's a different kettle of fish completely.

 

[provencepearl]

I am curious. I had traumatic childhood, mostly buried until therapy 30 years ago. Moved on. Got a job, had good life. Then car accident caused ptsd, which was misdiagnosed. Again moved on. Then more trauma and life as I knew it pretty much taken away, legal abuse syndrome causing ptsd. Now have official diagnosis of ptsd. I want so much to get back to where I was after first car accident, where I had a good job and managed everything just fine. Do these multiple traumas make it complex ptsd? I fully believe if my finances were restored and stressors removed I could be like I was after recovering from car accident. Maybe it would just be dissociation, blocking out the bad things, but life would be so much better. With my finances destroyed (had 2 homes stolen through fraudulent foreclosures, lots of equity in them) and no longer working, there is no money to hire atty, etc. No hope of things getting better.

Are people here saying there is no hope of recovery? Is this a permanent disability?

 

[EveHarrington]

I am curious. I had traumatic childhood, mostly buried until therapy 30 years ago. Moved on. G...

There is hope for recovery, but it becomes more difficult when you keep having trauma after trauma that keeps bringing the PTSD back.

It can be a permanent disability. There are people here who have been struggling for decades.