Please Stop Saying Post Traumatic Stress Is Incurable

As far as I know, experts have not found a "cure" for PTSD yet but that shouldn't stop more research being done. Some pretty amazing treatments have come out over the last few years while scientists search for a "cure" or a way to prevent it. What cannot be dismissed is there are treatments for it and no one has to just deal with it as it is.

Even with the length of time between Vietnam veterans coming back and finally getting help, it was not hopeless. Some of what PTSD claimed from these veterans was reversed and for what they could not be "cured" of, they learned how to minimize the symptoms. With the newer veterans they have more hope of healing than every before because of the increased awareness and availability of treatments. They won't have to have life piled onto combat traumas feeding PTSD.

For Vietnam veterans being treated for PTSD, they are overcoming the odds. These survivors end up healing, learning to cope with what cannot be healed or reversed, then they turn around, rise about all of it, fighting for someone else to heal as well. While some veterans say they just want to be like they were before, what many discover is that they end up better than they were before because they not only survived the trauma, they survived the enemy inside of them.

Note to Colleagues: Please Stop Saying Post Traumatic Stress Is Incurable

Belleruth Naparstek
Psychotherapist, Author, Guided Imagery Innovator
Posted: May 1, 2010 07:00 AM

A recent AP article by Sharon Cohen described posttraumatic stress as something you just have to learn to live with, because you can't recover from it. [Revolving Door of Multiple Tours Linked to PTSD] . It's a terrific article, but Cohen was misled by the mental health professionals she talked to, as well as the warriors who received less than optimal treatment.

You can recover from posttraumatic stress. Certainly, you can significantly reduce - not just manage - its symptoms. But - and here's the thing - not with traditional treatment. The problem is, a lot of my colleagues don't know this yet. So they go about it in traditional ways and pronounce the condition incurable, based on the results they get.

This is changing, but not fast enough - especially given the numbers of traumatized soldiers returning home these days. And the incidence we're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg - traumatic stress can gestate deep inside the body for a long time, rearing its nasty head years later.

This phenomenon of well-meaning but ignorant mental health professionals was even more obvious a decade ago, around Ground Zero after 9/11. (I speak of this with humility, having been an ignorant but well-meaning psychotherapist myself.) The neighborhood was overrun by eager volunteers, trying to help shell-shocked survivors and traumatized recovery workers. Not only were most not helped, but many were further agitated, distressed or angered by these incursions.

Asking numb, severely traumatized people to share their feelings or describe the horrific events that triggered their distress is what therapists typically do. Yet with this population, it yields either a blank, thousand yard stare or catalyzes a re-experiencing reaction or flashback.
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