eli5: what is the impact of therapy on the mind of a person suffering from PTSD? how does it help in getting better?
In: Biology
As someone with PTSD, I have begun cognitive behavioural therapy. My psychologist explained it to me in the following way (pretty similar to first comment but more 5 year oldish):
There’s a blob in your brain which stores memory and there’s a blob next to it which is responsible for understanding danger and releasing fight/flight.
When you experience a traumatic event, because it triggers your fight or flight and therefore a chemical/physical reaction to danger, your brain stores the MEMORY of the danger in your danger blob rather than the memory blob.
The way that therapy then works for PTSD (cognitive behavioural therapy) is by reliving the traumatic event in first hand utmost detail. But this time correctly save it to the memory blob.
It’s essentially a way that the brain learned to cope with a perceived threat which means every time something triggers that experience it is relived. (Also explains the word trigger is v important but v overused in conversation).
Hope this helps xxxx
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