The situation is not fantastic. There are cases when people turn to the doctor with complaints about physical problems, and in fact the real reason for their indisposition is prolonged stress. Such a state can lead to depletion of the body, and this, in turn, almost always leads to the development of physical and mental diseases.
All people have stress. The reasons are very different: the death of a loved one, a car accident, violence, failures at work, at school or college, etc. – in general, any event that traumatizes the human psyche.
There are signs of acute stress, such as insomnia, incomprehensible anxiety, or depression. But some people will survive a few days or weeks, and then return to normal.
Others cannot recover from the shocks they experienced. They suffer for months, for years, reliving what has happened anew. These people suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. If they do not help, then everything can end very sad.
It is difficult to predict in advance whether a person will cope with an experienced person or reach a state of post-traumatic stress disorder, it all depends on the individual psyche of an individual, his reaction to an event.
According to data in the US, post-traumatic stress disorder affects 10% of the population. Obviously, in Europe, the statistics will be more sad. In concrete figures, it turns out that about 4.5 million people can now experience post-traumatic stress disorder.
For comparison: there are only 3 million oncological patients – one and a half times less. But everyone knows about cancer, and about post-traumatic stress disorder – only psychotherapists. Although both diseases can be fatal.
Symptoms
Methods have been developed for a long time, almost 100% guaranteeing deliverance from PTSD. The main thing is to recognize the disease in time (the victim himself will notice the symptoms or his relatives) and ask for help.
To understand that a person may suffer from stress disorder is easy.
The main signs of post-traumatic stress disorder:
- constant unreasonable anxiety, inability to relax;
- insomnia or nightmares;
- emotional decline – the inability to empathize or rejoice, indifference to others, callousness;
- aggression – emotional or physical, bouts of rage;
- inability to concentrate, memory lapses;
- apathy – lack of interest in the present day and plans for the future.
How to help?
To understand that a person suffers from PTSD is the first stage. Further, if there is an opportunity to turn to a psychotherapist who has experience working with such clients, then this must be done immediately. But first aid can always be provided by people who are close to the victim, surround him in real life. These are family members, social workers, colleagues in the service. It is very important to know how to behave with the victim, so as not to harm him even more.
- If a person who has survived a trauma does not speak about his experience, either he closes himself or wants to speak, but no one listens to him, then his anxiety increases, he may become aggressive. Try talking to him, listen, sympathize. But do not impose your explanations on why this has happened.
- Do not reassure, saying that later everything will be fine – he still will not believe you.
- Do not make plans for the future with him, or at least do not talk about it. Be prepared to remain silent altogether – it is enough for the victim that you listen to him.
- But still try to convince the person that he needs to seek help from a specialist.
Convince him that a return to normal life is not only possible, but necessary.