Transcript
One of the things that I like to talk about
when Veterans come in with these sorts of questions
is I'd ask them, "Well what are your goals?"
And so, maybe a Veteran will say, "Well, I'd really like to
be able to talk with my wife at the restaurant
without looking over her shoulder,
without getting in trouble with her
for not really paying attention to what she's saying."
Or, "I'd really like to hold my grandchildren, but I just
don't feel comfortable with that level of being close to them.
I just don't feel right.
For some reason, I feel better away from the noise of the
household, but I'd like to be there for my grandchildren."
Well then we'd be able to say, "OK well, this is a goal
you have, let's talk about this treatment, this
Prolonged Exposure, that we can help you get to that goal."
Maybe another person would come in and say, "Well really,
I do OK, I work, memories bother me every once in a while,
but what really gets me is the nightmares.
I really just, you know Doc, if you could just give me
something that would take these nightmares away,
that would be great, and I think I'd be able
to kind of get on with my life."
So again, I would talk about the treatments that we have
that actually target approaching the traumatic experiences
in a way that, maybe the patient kind of processes them,
gets bored of them, and that there's no reason
for the nightmare to exist again.
I mean, if you can kind of think about it, if you get
very used to the memory that bothers you the most,
if you can get so used to it that it doesn't even affect
your heart rate or it doesn't even make you feel guilty
or it doesn't even make you feel anxious then it's very
unlikely that that's going to come back as a nightmare.
And that's what we see.
Typically, we see nightmares diminishing right along with
intrusive memories, right along with flashbacks.