Treatment for ptsd

[inneedofhelp82]

I have recently been diagonised with ptsd along with depression and anxiety. I am currently receiving Cbt therapy, i have refused medication. My ptsd was caused by a sexual assault which was made worse by the way the police treated me after. I have been struggling with suicidal feelings as a result of this, does anyone else struggle with these feelings and what treatment really works best?

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I'm not going to lie and tell you it will be easy, it will be quite the opposite but if you persevere you can probably do it.  The amount of time it takes to overcome it just depends on who you are and your disposition and all that.  There will probably also be days where it comes back but if you learn enough coping mechanisms you will be able to handle it still.

[inneedofhelp82]

I am trying to prepare myself for it to take a long time i am impatient to try and have a normal life. That is my fear that i wouldn't complete it properly and be left ill or hurt because of it and also the police found me the first time and i had to come back and face everyone and they knew what i had tried to do. I try hard to fight them, i have alot of issues including depression and i think they add to the feelings and when i get angry thats when i am at my worst with the thoughts but sometimes i just wake up that way. Thanks again

[paranoid_cataclysm]

Yeah, it's good you don't expect it to be an over night affair as it will take a while to recover.  I have lived with PTSD and trauma for several years and I'm still not over it but I have learned ways to cope with them both so they don't affect me as much as they originally did but I'm a different person from you so perhaps you will have a better outcome than me.  Just be patient and try not to act on any thoughts like that which you get.  I don't believe in suicide as a solution myself and I'm also scared of the consequences of if I survive an attempt as I already clinically died due to a medical complication and my body is probably messed up from that which has kept me from  acting on thoughts like this.  However, since I started antipsychotics, I don't have thoughts like that just pop into my head for no reason, probably due to psychosis as I don't even feel sad/depressed half the time when they appear.  Surviving an attempt like that can potentially really mess you up so please try to remember that next time you have thoughts like this.  Just try and focus on all the negative aspects of it.  You can beat this, it's just going to be a hard battle to win.

[inneedofhelp82]

I am going into a residental place to receive intensive trauma therapy, my therapist will come and see me everyday for a week, they want me in a safe environment because of the suicidal thoughts and intrusive thoughts that i have. They told me they would have started the therapy sooner but because i have attempted suicide twice in six months, they aren't sure of me and i have become unpredictable this last few weeks instead of planning my suicide i would now act on impulse i battle daily with these thoughts i am so frustrated i don't know how to control them. I hope the therapy works, i know it can take a while even after the intensive stuff for me to feel better, but i need to try. Thanks everyone

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I too struggle with feelings like that; I was told the antipsychotic I take for schizophrenia also treats the PTSD and I am currently in therapy but it's a slow start so far but I know and expect it to take a long time.  So far we talked about the trauma in my life and my therapist put two and two together with a few things so far that I never even realized before.

[paddywack223]

Hi there. I also have ptsd, depression and anxiety. My treatment has involved EMDR which is very difficult, because it involves thinking about the trauma with a therapist in a controlled environment. The strong negative emotions emerge in the process and then the therapist waves her fingers in front of my eyes to allow my brain to reprogram the memory into the correct place. Auditory noises are also made by the way of clicking around the ears and touch is felt in the way of touching the shoulders.I am asked  on a scale of 1 to 10 how anxious I feel and the process continues until the emotion has gone to zero. It is a very difficult process and hard work because you have to think abuot the trauma, but I always found myself thinking about the bad things that happened to me anyway and since the EMDR I have not thought about what happened to me with the same emotional attachment.
It is a recognised treatment for PTSD. As you are having CBT I would imagine that you will have to talk about what happened to you and I did the same in counselling, but that didn't work for me because the memory doesn't fade; my therapist told me that because your brain can't process what happened to you it just puts the memory in a place that it doesn't belong . My therapist is also a clinical hypnotherapist and she had to build me up with positive emotional support and hypnosisvbefore I had the EMDR.
I know it sounds a bit wierd but the brain is a very stong force and it takes time to heal when you have been traumatised. I hope this has helped you. Take care