Traumas such as an accident, rape, molestation, natural disasters or mugging happen in everybody’s lives. It is quite natural for people to suffer from severe depression, acute anxiety, temporary withdrawal symptoms and increased stress after such severe traumas. However, in certain cases, these episodes become routine for a victim and take the form of a psychological disorder. This disorder is primarily known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This psychological disease has been now known to afflict people from all across the globe. Although there are medications to deal with it temporarily, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a mechanism that weeds out the disorder from its roots and makes sure that there are no recurrences in the future lives of the patients.
PTSD and CBT to deal with it:
CBT tries to make an analysis of the trauma that happened in the life of a given patient and the ingrained fears created thereby. This process goes deep into the thought process of an individual and finds out all those factors that are affecting the psyche and morale of that individual. There are many instances when a patient suffering from PTSD holds himself/herself responsible for what happened to his/her life. This is particularly true in case of rape or molestation victims. CBT comes handy in dealing with such circumstances. The therapy makes sure that the victim understands the true nature of the event and appreciate that it was not his/her fault. It is also a process, which is focused not at eliminating the memories of the event, but to help the victim get a control over what had happened and trying to ignore the fears associated therein. It is a direct ploy to make the patient come to terms with the harsh realities and make peace with those.
In other words, CBT tells the patient that it is simply fine to have witnessed an unfortunate event. CBT tries to address the fears and concerns and tries to reassure the patient that something will not happen again just because something had happened earlier. Slowly but gradually, the patient recuperates from the worst fears that he/she had and starts dealing with the reality again. The biggest emotional factors that are associated with PTSD are an overarching feeling of anger, guilt and fear. CBT makes an attempt to go into the dark interiors of such emotional associations and break those into parts such that they don’t haunt the victim in the future. If you are in Ontario, Canada, you can visit the Centre for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, for more information on the same.