Veterans describe prolonged exposure therapy

Veterans Describe Prolonged Exposure Therapy

Speaker1:

It's a very intense therapy. But it's by far one of the most important because I probably wouldn't be here had I not done the therapies.

Speaker2:

Prolonged exposure is essentially I have PTSD because of this. Okay. Well, we're going to put you in a similar situation and you're going to come face to face with this. And over time, you're going to be able to get closer and closer.

Speaker1:

The psychologist would sit there and go through very detailed questions to have you remember very detailed things about the past.

Speaker3:

You kind of go back in time in a way and you reprocess that memory. You take it very slowly and you record it. And my homework at night was to listen to that recording several times a day. If you take it slowly and reprocess that memory, you're able to kind of let it rest in your head.

Speaker4:

Prolonged exposure therapy was the best. The toughest, but the best. I felt like this thing was chasing me, and there was this big, ugly monster after me. Then I turned around and it's really just a mouse. You know, once I faced it and confronted it.