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Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health concern. It occurs as a reaction to experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event. It’s normal to have trouble continuing with daily activities in the days after the event. Most people start to feel better after a few weeks. If the upsetting feelings hang on for a month or longer, a person may have PTSD.

What is PTSD?

Anyone can develop PTSD at any time. Certain factors increase the likelihood that someone may be more susceptible to developing PTSD, and many of these factors are beyond someone’s control, such as: 

  • The triggering event is very intense or long-lasting. 
  • The triggering event results in an injury.  
  • The triggering event involves combat or a sexual assault.  

PTSD symptoms can start differently for different people. Sometimes, the signs begin a short time after the triggering event. For other people, the signs of PTSD don’t commence for several months (or even years) after the event.  

Causes of PTSD

The types of life-threatening events that can trigger PTSD are:  

  • war and combat 
  • violence and abuse 
  • disasters and mass violence 

Service members deployed to war zones see or experience traumatic events from life-threatening situations, accidents, and injuries.  

Sexual assault, sexual abuse, and domestic violence can meet the criteria for triggering PTSD. 

Disasters and mass violence include being involved in or witnessing:  

  • earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods 
  • airplane or rail accidents 
  • traffic accidents involving serious injuries or loss of life 
  • acts of terrorism and school shootings 

A PTSD client’s symptom severity depends on the following: 

  • the seriousness of the trauma 
  • whether the person saw or experienced repeated traumatic acts or situations 
  • how close the person was to the trauma 
  • how close they were to the victim or the perpetrator of the trauma 

Signs and Symptoms of PTSD

For a person’s symptoms to be considered PTSD, they must be present for at least one month and be severe enough to impact school, work, or relationships negatively.  

  • Angry outbursts 
  • Avoidance of thoughts, feelings, or memories about the traumatic event 
  • Difficulty concentrating 
  • Difficulty sleeping or nightmares 
  • Feeling alone 
  • Feeling vigilant 
  • Feeling worried, sad, or guilty 
  • Flashbacks (person feels as though they are reliving the event) 
  • Irritability 
  • Losing interest in activities that previously brought pleasure 
  • Negative beliefs about themselves or others 
  • Physical pain, such as headaches or stomach aches 
  • Problems with memory 
  • Startling easily  
How PTSD is Treated

The most effective way to treat PTSD is through a combination of talk therapy and medication.  

Trauma-focused Talk Therapies focus on the event leading to PTSD and how it impacted the client emotionally. The types of talk therapy that work best are: 

  • Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT): CPT is a form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that teaches clients how to evaluate and change the upsetting thoughts they have around their trauma in 12 sessions. By changing their thoughts, clients can change the way they feel. CPT is a highly effective treatment for PTSD. 
  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): In EMDR sessions, the client pays attention to a sound or a back-and-forth movement while thinking about their upsetting memory. The client continues to do so until the way they experience the memory changes. EMDR can also change how clients process other upsetting memories, thoughts, feelings, and body sensations.  
  • Prolonged Exposure (PE): PE is another type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that teaches clients to approach feelings, memories, and situations gradually they have been avoiding since the trauma-triggering event. A person may want to bury the source of their trauma and not think about or discuss it.  

This strategy doesn’t promote healing for the affected person. It only drives the trauma “underground,” where it continues to fester. During PE therapy sessions, clients work through their trauma by talking, thinking, or visualizing the triggering event until it becomes less upsetting over 8-16 sessions.  

As clients confront these emotional challenges, their PTSD symptoms will decrease over time.  

Medications

Medications can help treat PTSD symptoms. At Pacific Sky Recovery, all clients receive a complete medical exam before starting their treatment plan. Our medical team works closely with clients to check on the client’s response to their medications, discuss any side effects, and adjust the dose if required.  

The benefits of any PTSD medications may take some time to work. Clients receive information about medicines prescribed to ensure they understand what to expect from their medications and when to conclude a new prescription is not giving them the desired results.  

How PTSD Overlaps with Other Mental Illnesses

The symptoms of PTSD may resemble depression, where a person feels sad and has trouble with memory and sleep. The person experiences negative thoughts about themselves and complains of physical pain. It can also mimic anxiety, where someone startles easily and seems skittish.  

The sure way to tell whether someone has PTSD, as opposed to another mental health concern, is whether they have experienced a traumatic event. The presence of a traumatic event is what sets PTSD apart from other forms of mental health issues. 

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