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Suggest Treatment For PTSD After Sexual Abuse

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Posted on Thu, 30 Mar 2017
Question: So basically,

My girlfriend has was sexually abused when younger and has been recovering and dealing with PTSD from it.

Her and I still have been able to stay sexually active because she is able to stay in the moment and remember she's in control of everything.
However she also has polycystic ovaries and so intercouse can be painful sometimes. During the times where it ends up being more painful we've had to stop before and stopping puts her into the an "attack" almost where she curls up in a blanket and "blackouts". She seizes a little and I hold her as she will say "it's just XXXX, it's just XXXX".
Then she will lay there for about a minute, asking me if I'm mad at her (of course I'm not, I love her) and then she'll "wake up" in a sense and she'll look at me and say "are you okay? HI!" And she gets really happy all of the sudden. But she doesn't ever remember the panic attack.

But just yesterday something really concerning occurred and is leading me to this site.
We had sex... no issues at all it seemed. We went out to the living room and kitchen, made breakfast, she posted some pics on Snapchat, talked to one of her friends, and then we sat on the couch and she played her game and I played mine. She put down her phone and began to makeout with me which, needless to say we went back into the bedroom. This time it hurt for her and she blacked out. So I stop while she goes through the attack and hold her, she recovers very quickly and wants to resume... so we do and it went great. But afterwards she looks at me and says "okay well let's go make breakfast now, and have coffee. Oh and I gotta reply to my friend."
She had lost all memory from the past two hours... that's never happened before. Literally no memory and she couldn't believe it when I'd told her about it all.

She had a headache like usual but no other post-symptoms...

Help :(
doctor
Answered by Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar (6 hours later)
Brief Answer:
There are 2 aspects to this issue

Detailed Answer:
Hello, Thank you for posting your question on HealthcareMagic. I very well understand your concern as the symptoms are bad .
Like I said there are 2 aspects to be considered one is the psychological aspect which could be attributed to the sexual abuse she had to go through earlier which as you rightly said post traumatic stress disorder ,the symptoms you described also fit into this .
But for the issue of memory loss this makes us want to rule out organic ca uses first.
I would recommend the following please get an EEG done to rule out epilepsy the short episodes which you point could be seizures then CT scan of the brain is also highly warranted to rule out any space occupying lesion.
If both are negative you need to take her to a psychiatrist to have sessions of councelling and she may have to be put on anxiolytics.
Hope this helps
Please revert back with the reports
Best wishes
Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D
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Answered by
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Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

General & Family Physician

Practicing since :2004

Answered : 2242 Questions

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Suggest Treatment For PTSD After Sexual Abuse

Brief Answer: There are 2 aspects to this issue Detailed Answer: Hello, Thank you for posting your question on HealthcareMagic. I very well understand your concern as the symptoms are bad . Like I said there are 2 aspects to be considered one is the psychological aspect which could be attributed to the sexual abuse she had to go through earlier which as you rightly said post traumatic stress disorder ,the symptoms you described also fit into this . But for the issue of memory loss this makes us want to rule out organic ca uses first. I would recommend the following please get an EEG done to rule out epilepsy the short episodes which you point could be seizures then CT scan of the brain is also highly warranted to rule out any space occupying lesion. If both are negative you need to take her to a psychiatrist to have sessions of councelling and she may have to be put on anxiolytics. Hope this helps Please revert back with the reports Best wishes