SearchExclusive.com

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – Causes, Symptoms, and Management Options

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder that may develop in someone who has experienced or witnessed a traumatic incident like war, accident, severe disease, loss of a loved one, natural disaster, or any kind of harassment. While some may recover in a few weeks or months, others may feel upset and have terrible recollections of the event, isolate themselves, or behave recklessly. Here’s all one needs to know about PTSD.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Causes
Individuals who have undergone stressful, scary events or prolonged traumatic experiences are at risk of PTSD. Not everyone facing such events develop PTSD, and doctors have yet to identify the causes of it. However, studies indicate that patients can develop PTSD as a coping mechanism to help them face similar incidents. It is also noticed that people who develop PTSD have higher adrenaline levels and a smaller hippocampus that controls memory. Some incidents that could lead to PTSD are accidents, harassment, bullying, kidnapping, combat, working long-term in emergency services, surviving natural disasters like earthquakes, cyclones or tornados, difficult childbirth, bereavement – particularly the loss of a loved one, or chronic or life-threatening illness.

Symptoms of PTSD
Symptoms are likely to develop within three months after the traumatic event; they last for weeks, months, and sometimes even years. The symptoms of PTSD are classified into four categories:

Reexperiencing
After the trauma, the victims or the survivors may involuntarily replay the incident vividly, or the events may appear in their dreams.

Avoidance and numbing
Survivors or victims may avoid places, people, events, or activities connected to the incident and shy away from talking or thinking about it.

Changes in mood and cognition
After a traumatic incident, one may go through emotions like guilt, fear, horror, anger, or shame and may blame themselves for the incident. They may stop participating in routine activities and become uninterested in their favorite things. They may isolate themselves from others and have negative thoughts about people and situations.

Arousal symptoms
One can notice changes in how one responds to everyday situations. For example, they may become irritable, have angry outbursts, show reckless behavior, and cause harm to others or themselves.

Other symptoms of PTSD include nightmares, pain, sweating, nausea, shivers, panic, extreme alertness, difficulty concentrating on basic things, being easily startled, numbness, and inability to remember the trauma or thoughts, feelings, or emotions.

Treatment options
One’s GP may refer them for a consultation with psychiatrists if they notice any anxiety disorder or PTSD symptoms. The treatments may last long until the patient is completely cured or until the intensity of the symptoms is reduced. Commonly used PTSD remedies are:

Active monitoring
Doctors may monitor a patient if they have mild symptoms of PTSD and see if they require therapy. In many cases, people with mild symptoms can get better without any cure.

Psychological therapies
The goal of psychological therapies is to help patients control their fear and help them start doing things they used to do before the incident or experience. Some of the treatments that are used to treat PTSD are:

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
CBT analyzes the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behavior and examines how a change affects the other. CBT is generally prescribed for children and young adults. Using CBT, the therapist helps patients cope with distress to control their fear and anxiety. One may have eight to twelve weekly sessions of about an hour or 90 minutes.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR is an interactive psychotherapy technique that helps one process sights, sounds, smells, and other triggers. During an EMDR session, one will recall the incident in detail while their eyes follow the movement of the therapist’s finger. They may tap their fingers or play sounds while one narrates the incidents. EMDR has been proven effective in reducing stress symptoms and removing negative thoughts.

Related Reading

Tips for Buying the Best Dog Food

Most of the dogs do not have a food fuss and may eat almost anything that you feed them. Dogs are not choosy at all when it comes to food and nutrition. Hence, it is important to make sure that the food that you are purchasing for your dog is healthy. The landscape of dog food has been developing by leaps and bounds in recent times. There is a wide variety of options to choose from in the online and offline market. Given the wide range of options that are available today, buying the best dog food might seem to be a confusing task indeed. All the commercial pet food that is available in the market today is regulated by the FDA. Therefore, most of the products do contain nutritious, healthy, and safe ingredients. But it does help to know certain basic factors you should look for while buying food for your dog. Prioritize on the nutritional guarantee The best dog food, which meets the dog’s needs adequately has a statement written on the label of the product, from the Association of American Feed Control Officials. Buy from some of the best dog food brands, such as Fromm Family Foods, Earthborn Holistic, Nature’s Variety Instinct, and The Honest Kitchen.

Different Types of Kitchen Cabinets Available for Your Home

The most important aspect when designing your kitchen is deciding on the type of cabinets. In addition to functionality, kitchen cabinets score on aesthetics as well. Once the layout is planned, you can go ahead with choosing the cabinets. If you’re remodeling your home or just the kitchen, what you need to consider are the types of cabinets that furnish your kitchen. Here are a few types of kitchen cabinets that you can choose from. Base cabinets These kitchen cabinets are mounted on the floor and they are placed after checking out the floor plan. A major part of your job in the kitchen is on these base cabinets, which hold and support the countertops. These base cabinets are combined to carve out kitchen islands. A number of base cabinets are fused/set against one another and installed on site. The base cabinets, in addition to supporting the countertops, serve as drawers to hold your cutlery and appliances. Wall cabinets Mounted on the walls, these cabinets can store everything, right from your cookware to cookbooks. In terms of design, they offer utmost flexibility. Wall cabinet kitchen is available in varying heights, multiple widths, and custom depth options. This customization helps you to fit in your stuff of varying shapes and sizes into the wall cabinets.

How to Pick the Right Dog Food for a Sensitive Stomach

In today’s world, where you are presented with over a dozen choices for every item you would purchase for your own kitchen, it is not surprising that you have an equal number of options for your dog’s food. However, choosing the perfect brand and formula for your dog out of a range of options in the market is not an easy job. Your pet depends on you and trusts you to make the right choice for them. Therefore, it is imperative that you do your research about the products available in the market, understand what your dog needs, know what might be your pet’s problems, and then make a sound decision. What is a sensitive stomach? Dogs are known to have voracious and large appetites. Keeping that in mind, it is normal to assume that they have strong stomachs. They can eat close to anything be it sweets, bakes, chewy gum, hard leather or even woolen socks for that matter! It always so happens that the strongest of them are prone to allergies and can develop a disorder which is medically translated as a sensitive stomach. This might be due to a sudden change in the food habits or even due an infection picked up from somewhere.

All You Need to Know about Cat Food

For cat owners, cat food is a hot topic. You need to think about it in different aspects. The best thing is to know which ingredients are good for cat food and which are harmful. If you are aware of this, you can get an idea about the quality of the cat food just by going through the label. It is always sensible to stick to one brand of cat food. However, you may also want to try and prepare cat food yourself. There are also various options for wet cat food as well. Cat’s love for fish is universal, so you can do without going for expensive cat food. Nevertheless, whether you buy it or prepare cat food at home, you need to ensure that the food contains enough nutrition and calories. You would need to have some idea about the ingredients that must be present in cat food and make a worthy selection for your cat. Basic ingredients present in good cat foods Cats need a variety of nutrients to stay healthy and active; they need various vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins, and oils. The following is a brief explanation of the basic ingredients that should be present in cat foods.