Posted by terra miller on May 12, 2002, at 19:38:56
for me effective PTSD treatment has involved extended therapy. i suppose you could attempt to not do it that way, but you're probably prolonging the process. with PTSD, you end up living on edge all the time. either you deal with it or you drive the people in your life nuts.
i've been in therapy now 3 years. i was lucky enough to hit on a good therapist the first try, which i have been told is not easy to do. it took months before i trusted him, but once i started to trust him i was able to calm down a little. eventually i got in a routine where i was able to identify what was setting me off and then talk about it, dealing with it one step at a time. i had to learn how to remind myself that i am an adult and where i am at so that i didn't get pulled into a flashback. these are all very necessary learning techniques.
as far as drugs goes, i was scared of them at first. paranoid is probably more accurate. but i've found them helpful. but with PTSD you still have to do the talking part because you can't make it go away by fixing a chemical imbalance. i do however think PTSD can cause chemical imbalances.... you can only be on edge for so long before your brain just gets tuckered out... which takes the form of depression or panic.
so i use, as you know, wellbutrin to lift the bottom up a bit so that i don't reach the level of suicidal thoughts in the midst of panicking. i wanted to find a longterm med that would do just anxiety, but i never found one. so i use xanax when i need to. but i also don't panic as much anymore either because i've learned through talking how to manage it really well. initially, i took only ativan and that was really really helpful. i took it twice a day, and that really helped me be nicer to live with. i went on an AD to wean off the ativan after about 6 months.
sometimes night can be the worst for the PTSD, so sometimes i intentionally knock myself out with a sleep med because the PTSD is too much to deal with. my favorite combo is ambien and ativan taken together, but i haven't had to do that for a couple years now.
i've come a long way. but it took both talk therapy and learning to trust someone to help me, plus educating myself on what PTSD is and how to stay here in the present, and some good drugs.
depending on what the PTSD is related to, there are good books out there to educate yourself with. you can get a handle on it, though i do understand how overwhelming that can be at the beginning to believe. remind your wife how brave she is. anybody with PTSD is brave, IMHO.
~terra
poster:terra miller
thread:106140
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020510/msgs/106140.html