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More seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder
IT ALL happened very quickly.
She saw the bus coming towards the car she and her husband were in and hitting it.
The next thing she knew, she and her husband were both in hospital.
The car had been sent flying to the other side of the road.
The couple recovered from their injuries.
But her friend, who was in the back seat at the time, wasn’t so lucky. He died.
Although the petite 33-year-old woman’s physical wounds healed, her psychological ones persisted.
The woman, who wanted to be known only as Aishah, would cry uncontrollably when she spoke about the 2004 accident. She also had nightmares.
Like many others, she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Changi General Hospital (CGH) said it has been seeing more patients admitted to its psychotraumatology service to seek treatment for psychological trauma.
The service was started in 2007.
Patients of road traffic accidents, industrial accidents, assaults and other traumatic injuries all receive psychotrauma help to treat and manage PTSD. (See other report below.)
And the numbers of people referred to CGH for psychological treatment have risen: From 80 in 2008 to 139 last year.
After the accident, Ms Aishah went through major surgery to stop internal bleeding.
She added: “I pieced together as much of the story as I could. They found me under the dashboard. My husband’s right eye had almost popped out and was hanging outside the eye socket.”
Her 25-year-old friend died from head injuries.
For years after the accident, the scene kept replaying in her mind, making her panic when she drove along roads with no dividers, like the one she was on when the accident happened.
“After the accident, my eyes would constantly be on the vehicles on the other side of the road, wondering if any of them would come towards me,” the housewife said.
“I would look at the other side of the road more than at the road I was on.”
Nightmares
She also had nightmares every two weeks or so – more often when the anniversary of the accident drew near.
She thought her reactions were normal.
“I kept telling myself I would get over it. I did not want to give in to weakness or pity myself,” she said.
But her lawyer sensed that something was wrong. “In 2007 and 2008, I was meeting my lawyer quite a lot to talk about insurance issues,” she said.
He saw her crying often and told her it was not normal, she said.
“He would put a whole box of tissues by my side each time I saw him. He said other accident victims did not react this way. He recommended that I see a doctor,” said Ms Aishah.
In 2008, she returned to CGH, which had, by then, started its psychotraumatology service.
Ms Aishah, who gave birth to a son in 2006, learnt howto keep her emotions under control.
One of her favourite methods which her doctor taught her wasan escape route.
“Whenever things get too out of control or I am too emotionally down, I just take a moment, breathe, clear everything from my mind and go to a ‘happy place’,” she said.
Her “happy place” is when she was 16 years old and an ice-skating instructor at a rink here.
She has used this technique to bring her heart rate down during stressful moments.
Another technique her doctor taught her was to “take snapshots” in her mind.
“I take four pictures. One of the past, one just before the accident, one of the present and one of the future,” she said.
Her past is a picture of her growing up in a kampung– a happy time.
The second picture is a happy one of her and her husband saying goodbye to her parents and going to a party.
The “present” picture is one of her happy family now, and the future is one where she hopes a baby girl will join the family.
“This puts things in perspective for me. It shows me that I had and have a good life. That despite life having its ups and downs, I have a lot to live for and look forward to,” she said.
Things are now much better.
After a year of treatment, she can talk about the accident without crying and she has fewer nightmares.
“I’m telling my story because I want accident victims suffering from PTSD to know that there is help,” she said.
Her husband, who is 34 and a logistics consultant, did not suffer any PTSD from the accident.
Up to 40% of trauma victims get disorders
THE rates of trauma victims having post-traumatic stress disorders and other psychiatric disorders range from 13 per cent to 40 per cent, said Dr Tang Hui Kheng, a consultant psychiatrist at Changi General Hospital.
There are no local statistics to date, she said.
She said that psychological distress can affect a person’s physical recovery in various ways such as:
w low mood
w lack of motivation, and
w lowered pain threshold
She said the hospital’s psychotraumatology service was set up to complement the existing trauma response system “to enhance the holistic management of trauma patients”.
With early intervention, the patient’s stress symptoms and psychosocial issues are identified.
The patient then receives information in areas such as symptoms and stress management.
Occasionally, the symptoms are so severe that they affect sleep and mood.
The person may then be given short-term medication to alleviate the symptoms while he or she continues to be counselled, said Dr Tang.
All patients who are screened, whether they are distressed or not initially, are contacted by telephone a month, three months and six months later.
Those with delayed reaction are offered further assessment and intervention, said Dr Tang.
In 2008, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital started a psychosocial service for traumatised children – affected by illness, injury or abuse – and their families.
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