[Alishia88]

I read this at some point but didn´t think it would necessarily be true, now I looked it up and it says so according to several sources, that PTSD cannot be cured.
I´m shocked, actually! I feel different and damaged but I never considered that there was no way to be "normal" again.
I have read books that definitely say you can heal from trauma and therefore you have trauma therapy.

What´s the deal with this?

[venusss]

You can heal from trauma, but sadly, you will not get back to "before". But that is not necessarily a bad thing. You can grow and be stronger despite the bad things happening to you.

I don't like the word "cured" used in context of emotional problems/mental health. It implies one is damaged, somewhat broken... we are not.

[Hellion]

I suppose us mentally ill people also have great mental health...

[Teacake]

There is no cure for LIFE. Trauma is life. Life is traumatic. There's nothing to be done for that. In a sense, trauma is like childbirth, and PTSD is like motherhood. Once it happens, youre done for. It can never be undone. You are forever changed. But that's supposed to happen.

Some say trauma is an initiation. Our ancestors used to set up challenging situations for young people to overcome, to get them to a new stage of development. Considering how annoying I find the unscathed relative to PTSD folk, I see why our ancestors did that. "Go live in the woods alone for six weeks, then come back and tell your elders how to manage!"

There's no cure for growing up. No cure for motherhood. No cure for old age. No cure for mortality.

There are cures for the symptoms we develop. Conventional medicine doesn't know them. Doesn't mean they don't exist. Conventional medicine took it's time learning that chicken soup with garlic can knock a cold. So be careful when they say no cure. They will still equivocate and say chicken soupl only alleviates symptoms and perhaps thus reduces the perception of the duration of symptoms. Whatevah.

Break your condition down into its component symptoms and begin to look for ways to relieve those symptoms.

Be open minded. I got more relief from an eight dollar bottle of an amino acid from a health food store(lasts months) than from hundreds of dollars a month in psychiatric medicine this with weekly medicine adjustment. An ayurvedic diet has also been very helpful. It's not something I would ordinarily believe could work for PTSD.

You will get as much symptom relief from eliminating things that make you worse, such as caffeine and unnecessary stimulants, too much sugar and white flour, and clutter as you get from taking tablets, even the right ones.

Living well after having had PTSD symptoms may mean changing your life around. It may mean you can't drink coffee all day. It that so terrible? Or you have to have an early bedtime. Some things may never change. You may never quite like noisy football stadiums. Don't confuse PTSD with growing up, or growing old, or simply changing. Choose your battles wisely.

I've been chronic. It's been sad. At fifty, after thirty years of this, I see change. I don't worry much about who I might have been. (oops)

[Hellion]

I don't think it can be 'cured' symptoms can be alleviated though much of the time that is more temporary...I have yet to find any way to totally rid myself of symptoms, except avoid all stress at all costs but that is not very realistic, I do however make an effort to limit my stress even positive stress so I don't burn myself out and allow for symptoms to become more severe. Aside from that I think I'll just have to find how to live with it...but sometimes when I say that people jump on the 'no that's not good enough you have to recover and get better!' bandwagon and if that works for them cool but its not the way of thinking that works for me.

While I want to make an effort to continue on in life and maybe see some improvements...I cannot deny damage that was done. As far as I know some of the changes in the brain are somewhat physical like the fight or flight response has to do with part of the brain being 'damaged' or changed in a negative way that does not serve people with PTSD very well....I think the hypo campus or something but I would have to look it up again. Also PTSD can contribute to a lot of physical health problems by essentially making someone chronically over-stressed. So yes while I want to live life I feel its important I understand I have a serious condition rather then trying to convince myself it's some great growing experience....well no its a sometimes deadly disorder.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by Alishia88

I read this at some point but didn´t think it would necessarily be true, now I looked it up and it says so according to several sources, that PTSD cannot be cured.
I´m shocked, actually! I feel different and damaged but I never considered that there was no way to be "normal" again.
I have read books that definitely say you can heal from trauma and therefore you have trauma therapy.

What´s the deal with this?

PTSD is a cover all label that has many reactions in it...

think of it like having a cold....a person can have sniffles, or have a cough, or have a sore throat, or have a headache... you can have them separate or together in any number of combinations. but all those things are thrown into the label called a cold.

a cold is something you can manage and it goes away but then maybe you sat next to someone who was coughing or what ever, but some how you end up with cold symptoms again...its the same virus causing the coughing, sniffles, sore throat, but even after you got rid of it an event happened that caused your body to have the cold virus inside you again. some people have more problems with a cold then others depending upon their own individual body immune system, self care, diet, exercise...

well PTSD is like that...its a group of symptoms/problems thrown together. depending upon your own body, coping skills, the way your own brain works dictates whether you are going to be affected by those symptoms/problems that are thrown together under the category of PTSD.

Example

for for a long time what causes me anxiety /being scared/ nervous is loud bang noises. I know thats because I witnessed someone getting shot. but once I learned more about guns, learned its not guns that harm people its the person pulling the trigger, learned gun safety and learned how to shoot them, then getting a gun of my own, hearing gun shots no longer cause me to be scared nervous. does that mean Im never going to be scared, nervous ever again no.

my children are now old enough for eating table foods. one night last week my daughter was eating diced bananas pieces. bananas are soft and squishy but one chunk escaped down without her squishing/chewing it and she started to choke. I kept calm and helped her with it, but now every time I sit her in the high chair and set something in front of her I start getting nervous/scared/ afraid its going to happen again...an event happened which resulted in my feeling these feelings.

does that mean I will never be cured of PTSD no. you can be cured PTSD and then something else happens so you get a new set of PTSD symptoms/problems from a new event, just like you can cured of a cold and then a new event happens that causing you to have a cold again.

until steps are taken....like in the gun situation, gunshots will never again cause me to have anxiety because I took the steps that was needed for me to not keep going through PTSD with guns.

I am now taking steps with my daughter when she's eating so, slowly my PTSD over her learning to eat table foods is going away, and I will no longer be going through anxiety every time she eats.

my suggestion if you are having PTSD symptoms (anxiety, panic attacks, nightmares, flashbacks what ever your PTSD symptoms are) talk with your treatment providers they can help you over come this so that what ever is causing your symptoms will not continue to cause you to have those PTSD symptoms.

[venusss]

The problem is, when you already have it.... there is a choice what you do with it, how realistic are your expectations (if you expect return to "normal" then you are pretty much set to a failure)...

not saying it doesn't suck, but sometimes one can use the bad **** to their advantage. Not saying it's easy. But sometimes it might be that or life of misery.

[ButterflyChild25]

The way I see it is there's never a total cure because you can't change what's happened in the past. But that doesn't mean you can't be normal.
It's about finding a way to deal with it all, sure there will be ups and downs but it can get better, I have to hold onto that hope for my own sanity.

[MoxieDoxie]

Can any mental health disorder be cured? It is just all about symptom management and improving quality of life.

[Alishia88]

MoxieDoxie, hm I don´t know. I do think that something milder like a depression or anxiety disorder that pops up from stressful life circumstances
but does not disrupt your life can be cured. Also from simply having stress removed from your life and with therapy.
I think those can be temporary conditions. It doesn´t mean you will be guaranteed to never have it again, if you can count it as "cured" when you can have it again later in life, then I´d say, yes.

With more serious or complicated things like PTSD or bipolar disorder it´s probably more difficult.

[yumi]

This explains a lot

[thickntired]

A therapist told me ptsd can be cured. I believe it's bc the government doesn't want to pay for military vets to be on disability. I've also read that the longer you go without treatment (childhood trauma) as opposed to immediate treatment (war vets) makes a big difference.

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[Teacake]

Governments that rely on torture and terror are not going to be in favor of making people resilient to PTSD. PTSD is the point of torture and trauma. PTSD is the aim of torture and terror.

What could be the point of torture If the tortured could prevent and cure PTSD? They would limp out of prison, go get healed and come back demanding justice.

My PTSD symptoms have greatly reduced with time. It took near on 10 years but now I feel I am past the trauma and have very few flashbacks or nightmares now. I am still scared of things related to it but it does not impact my every day life.

[thickntired]

Originally Posted by Supanova

My PTSD symptoms have greatly reduced with time. It took near on 10 years but now I feel I am past the trauma and have very few flashbacks or nightmares now. I am still scared of things related to it but it does not impact my every day life.

Thanks for that! For the very first time I have not quit therapy. I always left because it was too hard to talk about or work through. I got sober and now I can see more clearly how much the damn ptsd manifested in my life. I used to quit therapy and any mention of my trauma because I thought I'd never be able to stop crying. That is so sad to me and I don't want it controlling my life any further. ♥

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[Patagonia]

FWIW
I was talking to my T about this point & she surprised me by saying "PTSD & DID were the most curable on the DSM scale". She explained it that this deals w/ a trauma that is external. It's a traumatic brain injury & can be repaired. Other diagnosis like depression can be hereditary or pre disposed to it. That these are diseases that effect our genes.

I was really surprised by this & thought it made sense after I thought about it,but again it FWIW.

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[Hellion]

Originally Posted by Patagonia

FWIW
I was talking to my T about this point & she surprised me by saying "PTSD & DID were the most curable on the DSM scale". She explained it that this deals w/ a trauma that is external. It's a traumatic brain injury & can be repaired. Other diagnosis like depression can be hereditary or pre disposed to it. That these are diseases that effect our genes.

I was really surprised by this & thought it made sense after I thought about it,but again it FWIW.

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PTSD is not a traumatic brain injury as far as I know, seems like she is talking about traumatic brain injury from like getting a concussion which I am not so sure can actually be repaired.

[thickntired]

I was talking about this on another thread. I heard from a past T that ptsd was treatable. What I was wondering is this a trend to handle the ptsd disability claims from Vets??

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[mycatsmokes]

When I was 18 my older brother tried to kill me, by strangulation. It's only due to the good fortune that my father was present that I survived; if he had not been then it is certain that I would be dead now.

Well, that was nearly 25 years ago now. I can honestly say that it doesn't affect me any more to any degree. Almost all of my anger/rage has gone. I no longer want revenge.

Of course, 25 years is a long time...

[thickntired]

That is awful Catsmokes and I hope your brother got help. I have a similar situation. My brother died after a 4 yr deal with leukemia. It still kills me. After that I was molested by a babysitter. I remember it like it was yesterday, but aside from some minor things I couldn't care less. It was very insignificant. I get sick of T and pdocs harping on how much that affects my life. In the scheme of things it was nothing compared to my brother's death. My Dad is a retired Col who does not believe in ptsd. From what a pdoc said 5 ppl can see the same hummer explode from an iud, 2 of the solders can get ptsd while the other 3 are fine. It's like how we all see things differently I guess that's true as to what we make if things.

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[mycatsmokes]

Originally Posted by thickntired

That is awful Catsmokes and I hope your brother got help. I have a similar situation. My brother died after a 4 yr deal with leukemia. It still kills me. After that I was molested by a babysitter. I remember it like it was yesterday, but aside from some minor things I couldn't care less. It was very insignificant. I get sick of T and pdocs harping on how much that affects my life. In the scheme of things it was nothing compared to my brother's death. My Dad is a retired Col who does not believe in ptsd. From what a pdoc said 5 ppl can see the same hummer explode from an iud, 2 of the solders can get ptsd while the other 3 are fine. It's like how we all see things differently I guess that's true as to what we make if things.

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He ended up in jail. Apparently he got into a relationship with a woman and, when it went wrong, he threatened to blow her head off with a shotgun. Trouble was, she was the secretary to the local DA. Brother was never the sharpest tool in the box... Maybe he got help inside, who knows.

[thickntired]

Yikes!! Glad he's not out on the streets. All though my biggest pet peeve (being an ex druggie) is how pedophiles or ppl who steal $5 from a 7-11 get less time than a person growing or carrying pot. The justice system is wack!

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[thickntired]

Sorry I'm repeating myself on the war ptsd. Anyhoo, a grest thing that helped me with my ptsd is Neurontin. I highly recommend this! I was incapable of discussing my past without literally going into hysterics. Now, I cry but it's not like opening flood gates and going past the point of no return.

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[mycatsmokes]

Originally Posted by thickntired

Yikes!! Glad he's not out on the streets. All though my biggest pet peeve (being an ex druggie) is how pedophiles or ppl who steal $5 from a 7-11 get less time than a person growing or carrying pot. The justice system is wack!

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Pot - coming legally to a state near you soon.

[thickntired]

Originally Posted by mycatsmokes

Pot - coming legally to a state near you soon.

I wish I could ♥ I'm mainly in AA over pot. I have a very addictive personality as in I was hitting the bong from 9 am until 9 pm. I do vote for legalization and hope ppl use it in moderation. That word isn't in my vocabulary

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