PTSD: Can people fully recover?

[sojourner]

Dear Dr. Adams,
Years ago, my Psychiatrist (at that time) diagnosed me with PTSD with disociative features. I agree with that. Since then, after years of therapy and dedicated work, my defenses dissipated and my feelings subsided.
Still, after traumatic events, i experience significant anxiety, confusion, depression, flash-backs and sleep disturbances. But there is one other phenomenon i realized occurs. During the moments before i am fully awake, i feel terror. My body feels very hot and as though it's in a vice from my chest all the way down through my feet. For a minute or so, i cannot move and it is very painful. This has been going on for over two months now and i'm afraid to go to sleep. What do you think this is, Dr. Adams? Is it something that requires more therapy? Do people fully recover from PTSD?

Thank you.

[Dr. Adams]

Research hypnopompic. When people begin to awaken, there is a neurological experience that many people have...often experienced as a paralysis. It is not a symptom of PTSD; it is merely a neurological event.

[sojourner]

Dr. Adams, you hit the mark. One source described a hypnopompic event in a way that i knew it was true for me. (It hit like a brick wall, actually.) I do feel blessed to have been spared the hallucinations some people experience. It appears that other research may have had something to do with that. Studying, interpreting my dreams and understanding them, did cultivate an ability to, consciously, avoid any ambiguity between the symbolic nature of dreams and reality, during that preconscious state. Wondering if this work benefitted others who hallucinated during hypnopompic events. In any case, i'm still looking to find out why my anxiety lasts for hours, after these events. And to find more remedies. :D

Thank you, Dr. Adams. If it's ok, i think you are a caring man and a brilliant Physician.