Diagnosis of PTSD requires exposure to an event that involved the actual or possible threat of death, violence or serious injury. You may have PTSD if the problems you experience after this exposure continue for more than a month and cause significant problems in your ability to function in social and work settings and negatively impact relationships. Post-traumatic stress disorder treatment can help you regain a sense of control over your life. The primary treatment is psychotherapy, but can also include medication. Combining these treatments can help improve your symptoms by teaching you skills to address your symptoms, helping you think better about yourself, others and the world, learning ways to cope if any symptoms arise again, treating other problems often related to traumatic experiences, such as depression, anxiety, or misuse of alcohol or drugs. Pharmacologic Treatment for PTSD

Several types of psychotherapy, also called talk therapy, may be used to treat children and adults with PTSD. Some types of psychotherapy used in PTSD treatment include cognotive therapy, exposure therapy, and eye movement decensitization and reprocessing. Cognitive therapy is a type of talk therapy helps you recognize the ways of thinking (cognitive patterns) that are keeping you stuck such as negative beliefs about yourself and the risk of traumatic things happening again. For PTSD, cognitive therapy often is used along with exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is behavioral therapy that help you safely face both situations and memories that you find frightening so that you can learn to cope with them effectively. Exposure therapy can be particularly helpful for flashbacks and nightmares. One approach uses virtual reality programs that allow you to re-enter the setting in which you experienced trauma. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) combines exposure therapy with a series of guided eye movements that help you process traumatic memories and change how you react to them. Pharmacologic Treatment for PTSD APA