Recovery from traumatic stress

It will take years to clear the minds of some of those who were witnesses, directly or not, to the terrorist attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. After experiencing a traumatic effect, many people showed signs of acute stress disorder. Though it has similar symptoms to post-traumatic stress disorder, it is, however troublesome and short-lived, like the dust clouds. Acute stress disorder begins within a month of the incident, lasts for not less than two weeks, but not more than four weeks.

Many people who suffer from acute stress disorder have the nightmares and flashbacks characteristic of post-traumatic stress disorder, but they also show various psychological defense mechanisms. They may be numbed by the event, emotionally unresponsive, indifferent to their surroundings to varying degrees and have a sense that such a ghastly event couldn't really have happened. They may have transient amnesia, so that much of the detail of the horror is apparently forgotten.

Those who have suffered from acute stress disorder often say that once they can start to talk repeatedly about their experiences, they begin to improve. They benefit from the ear of an understanding and kindly confidant who is prepared to listen to the same story many times over, and on each occasion be as interested, empathetic and sympathetic as the first time they heard it. Usually no other treatment is needed other than that offered by a good friend's concern and, for a limited time, sleeping pills at night.

For all those who could be described as suffering from the symptoms of acute stress, disorder, there are thousands more who may find that their general mood has been altered by the terrorists' atrocity. Several British patients who watched the television images of the planes crashing into the towers and the Pentagon over and over again reported similar changes in their mood and feelings. Other patients with a history of psychological problems have noticed a significant deterioration in their mood, depression, if present, has been deeper, and most have complained of insomnia, - anxiety attacks and a general, but undefined, sense of unease and uncertainty.

Post-traumatic stress disorder affects those who have been in horrific situations where they have either suffered or been threatened by serious injury, with the possibility of death. Others have developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of living through a time of great fear, while witnessing an event that could possibly involve death or injury to family, friends or colleagues at a time when they felt helpless because they were unable to influence the outcome.

After surviving the horrific incident, the image of it is constantly recalled, its memory triggered through any of the senses that would remind the person of the disaster. Not unnaturally, people with post-traumatic stress disorder arrange their lives so that these triggers are avoided. Many patients develop severe depression, which may appear in many forms. The symptoms may recur on the anniversary of the date.

Both medication and psychotherapy have their place in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. There is debate about the most efficient form of psychotherapy, but what is not in the dispute is that therapist needs to be sympathetic and empathetic. This desire accounts for the need of those who have had terrible experiences to seek the company of those who have undergone similar ones. The aim of the therapy is to gradually desensitise people to the haunting memory of the trauma and to remove any habits that they may have adopted to avoid confronting the memories that interfere with their domestic or professional lives.

Meanwhile, the depressive component of the disorder is treated with antidepressants. The ones favoured are those that also have a strong anti-anxiety effect.

Essential vocabulary

nightmare – кошмар, страшный сон

flashback – воспоминание

transient – временный

empathetic – сочувствующий

deterioration – ухудшение

numb – онеметь, замереть

injury – травма

outcome – результат, следствие

account for – объяснять

undergo (underwent, undergone) – переживать

desensitize – уменьшить восприятие