PTSD therapies fail to be effective

Therapies fail to be effective for one simple reason. They don't understand it as well as they should by now. The truth is that they can read as many books as the industry can print but unless they live with it, they will never learn what they need to know.

The best therapists either have PTSD or have lived with someone with it. They understand it better than anyone else ever could. Even if therapists with no personal connections treat PTSD patients on a regular basis, they will still fall short of understanding exactly how far reaching PTSD is. It is not just the survivor of traumatic events suffering, but the parents, siblings, spouse, children and often grandchildren.

Too many therapists ignore the families when it is the families on the front line of getting the survivor into therapy in the first place. They are living with it 24-7 making PTSD worse, or helping them heal depending on their own understanding of it. With the laws the way they are, therapists are reluctant to talk to the families even with permission to speak to them.

The other factor is that if the therapist favors one approach over all others, they will push for that one, ignoring the other therapies that could work for the individual. They make a mistake assuming all PTSD cases are the same without understanding the differences between natural and human caused trauma as well as if the survivor was responsible for the death of someone else in the line of duty. Big difference.

If they do not incorporate the spiritual aspect of this emotional wound, then they will not be successful either. Some therapists will take a denial of God as the flat answer instead of asking if the patient believed in God before the trauma or not. Most of the time, it is a loss of faith they are dealing with when they deny having faith after. How are therapists supposed to successfully treat PTSD, an emotional/spiritual wound, without treating the spirit?

PTSD threatens healthcare system overload
Published: Feb. 15, 2010 at 1:56 AM


SAN DIEGO, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Post-traumatic stress disorder threatens to overload healthcare systems worldwide as cases increase and therapies fail to be effective U.S. researchers say.

Dr. Brenda K. Wiederhold, editor in chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, and of the Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, says new approaches to treatment are relying on technology, such as virtual reality, to alleviate the psychologically damaging effects of PTSD.
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PTSD threatens healthcare system overload