Veterans

PTSD - Curable versus Treatable
Article in 'PTSD' published by anthony, Apr 24, 2014.

An often confused aspect of many sufferers of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is that they struggle with the concept between cure and treatment. PTSD has no cure, however; PTSD is treatable. There is a difference between both words definitions.

Curable vs. Treatable

By definition, curable means the disease can be completely eliminated, versus treatable, which means only the symptoms can be relieved. So... can you live a normal life with relieved symptoms? The answer is, yes!

Degree of Recovery

PTSD is not created equal, and you must accept that fact. There are diverse factors that affect overall recovery outcome. There are high-functioning persons, normal recovery outcomes with no further affect, low functioning and the bottom of the PTSD barrel where the person can't function in society and suffer daily symptoms the remainder of their life. People can start at the bottom of the barrel and fully recover with little to zero ongoing symptoms.

There are no hard facts about recovery outcomes for PTSD because all treatment options have different success rates, and it can take a person years, decades even, to find the treatment / therapist that worked for them uniquely. The below is an approximate recovery rate based on overall statistics using primary PTSD treatments. We start with a figure of 100% of persons diagnosed with PTSD.
•Approximately 60% will completely recover with no further symptoms.
•The next 35% have a varying level of recovery from full recovery that takes years, to partial recovery, yet allowing them to participate in life via employment, education, relationships and so forth.
•The remaining 5%, approximately, will have what is deemed life-time PTSD. This means they will never successfully hold full-time employment or be able to participate in life socially for extended periods, being days, maybe a week or two, before they get crushed by symptoms and need to adopt their retreat and management principles.
Is PTSD treatable? Absolutely! The recovery rate is exceptional for approximately 80% of sufferers. The remaining 20% can still have a vastly improved life by healing their trauma and learning how to manage PTSD.

Healing trauma does not mean forgetting about it. Healing trauma means removing the negative stigma that creates / heightens symptoms to extreme levels.