Treatment Options for Trauma and PTSD

ADHD

Attention Deficit Disorder is a chronic condition by which it’s afflicted are continually inattentive, hyperactive, and occasionally impulsive. ADHD starts in childhood and often lingers into adulthood. As many as 2 out of every 3 children affected by ADHD continue to have symptoms well into adulthood. This includes inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity – which are the key behaviors of those with ADHD.

Crisis Management

Often characterized by a mental breakdown, crisis management is dealing with extreme situations in an effective manner. People who suffer from this are typically incapable of thinking of practical solutions and will negate the issue at hand. The patient suffering from crisis management tends to need help very early on in the process. This means reaching out to family/friends and contacting a doctor or mental health provider.

Grief & Loss

After loss, some individuals have a difficult time returning to their lives before and require special attention and help. The grieving process is very individualized; there is no actual timetable for it to end. Grief encompasses shock and disbelief, sadness, guilt, anger, and fear.

Stress Management

Dealing with stress and stressful situation with calm, level-headed intentions and charisma. Physical symptoms of stress range from low energy and headaches to chest pain and dry mouth. If left unchecked, ongoing stress can cause serious health issues including depression, cardiovascular disease, obesity, sexual dysfunction, and gastrointestinal problems.

Substance Use Disorders

Abuse, consistent use, or addiction characterizes the plight of substance use disorders. The substance could be interfering with the person’s personal or professional life or even life-threatening. Common Substance Use disorders include Alcohol Use Disorder, Tobacco Use Disorder, and Cannabis Use Disorder. Regardless of the substance, many of the same behaviors are prevalent and require the same course of treatment.

Anger Management

Anger management is dealing with the inability to cope with stressful situations, controlling one’s anger, attitude, and ability to deal with situations productively and responsibly under calm duress. Suppressed anger can also be an underlying cause of anxiety and depression. Doctors suggest deep breathing and positive self-talk as the first steps in helping manage anger.

Chronic Pain Issues

People with issues resulting from medicating chronic pain issues require specialized healing that can come in numerous forms and must be discovered individually with guidance from a trained professional. Chronic pain is often defined as any pain that lasts longer than 12 weeks. Whereas acute pain is a normal sensation that alerts us to possible injury, chronic pain is very different. Chronic pain persists—often for months and sometimes even longer and may be complicated by issues associated with prescription medication.

Impulse Control Disorders

Controlling feelings or actions that are immediate and often reactionary. These individuals need assistance in finding new psychology in dealing with their intense immediacy and needs.  Scientists are still researching the cause of these types of disorders but many think that there are a good handful of factors including physical or biological, psychological or emotional, and cultural or societal issues.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Caused from a moment or moments of extremely stressful situations, environments, and individuals. This disorder can cause the afflicted to avoid people, places, or activities in fear and completely disrupt their personal and professional lives. Not every traumatized person develops ongoing (chronic) or even short-term (acute) PTSD. Not everyone with PTSD has been through a dangerous event. Some experiences, like the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one, can also cause PTSD.

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders are a cluster of mental disorders marked by feelings of anxiety or loathing. Anxiety is a worry about the future and loathing is a reaction to current happenings. These feelings could manifest in physical forms, such as a faster heart rate or trembling. Disorders in this category include Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Sleep Disorders.

Mood Disorders

Mood disorders refer to a plethora of swinging, bipolar, or mood control disorders. These disorders often ruin relationships and take control of the individual’s free will. About 20% of the U.S. population reports at least one depressive symptom in a given month, and 12% report two or more in a year. Depression is a common feature of mental illness, whatever its nature and origin. People are more easily demoralized by depression and slower to recover if they are withdrawn and unreasonably self-critical or irritable, impulsive, and hypersensitive to loss.

Relational Trauma

Trauma is caused by a personal experience with another individual. Often characterized by mental, verbal, and physical abuse inflicted on the sufferer.  Women experience remarkably high rates of relational trauma including child abuse and neglect and intimate partner violence (IPV) during adulthood, and the childbearing years are no exception.

Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are disorders in which a person may forget who they are or become another person they think they are. It causes major disruptions in their daily lives and relationships. Symptoms of each personality disorder differ and can be either mild or severe. People with personality disorders often have trouble identifying that they have a problem; they believe their thoughts are normal and that it is other people who are to blame. Treatment usually includes talk therapy and sometimes medicine.

Body Image Issues

Body image issues are when an individual sees themselves in an extremely negative light. It could stem from mental and verbal abuse from any age and typically attacks the psyche by focusing on what the sufferer perceives as a flaw.  Researchers have noted that people with body image issues or disordered eating have difficulties with visual processing.

Family Issues

Issues pertaining to family are treated with the help of clinicians who know how to break down communication barriers in relationships in order to fix the problems at hand. Conflicts are a part of family life. A lot of different issues, such as Parenting Issues can lead to conflict, including illness, disability, addiction, job loss, school problems, and marital issues. Listening to one another and actively working to resolve conflicts are key to reinforcing the family.

Relationship Issues

Problems between loved ones typically stemming from communication breakdowns and the inability to compromise or change to make the other person happy. These issues can arise from a couple spending too little – or even too much – time together. They can stem from fighting over the same issues, from insecurities over your future to feeling misunderstood. Money is also a common root of relationship issues.

Sexual Disorders

Sexual disorders are involving sex, perversion, or acts that have nothing to do with sex in the standard definition but have been fetishized and cause a disruption in the individual or society’s regular agenda. Psychotherapy is a common treatment for desire disorders. Treatment focuses on bringing awareness to any unresolved conflicts and how they impact the patient’s life. While improvement is possible, the sexual dysfunction often becomes autonomous and persists, requiring additional techniques. Various hormones have also been studied for the treatment of sexual desire disorders.

ADHD

Attention Deficit Disorder is a chronic condition by which it’s afflicted are continually inattentive, hyperactive, and occasionally impulsive. ADHD starts in childhood and often lingers into adulthood. As many as 2 out of every 3 children affected by ADHD continue to have symptoms well into adulthood. This includes inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity – which are the key behaviors of those with ADHD.

Crisis Management

Often characterized by a mental breakdown, crisis management is dealing with extreme situations in an effective manner. People who suffer from this are typically incapable of thinking of practical solutions and will negate the issue at hand. The patient suffering from crisis management tends to need help very early on in the process. This means reaching out to family/friends and contacting a doctor or mental health provider.

Grief & Loss

After loss, some individuals have a difficult time returning to their lives before and require special attention and help. The grieving process is very individualized; there is no actual timetable for it to end. Grief encompasses shock and disbelief, sadness, guilt, anger, and fear.

Stress Management

Dealing with stress and stressful situation with calm, level-headed intentions and charisma. Physical symptoms of stress range from low energy and headaches to chest pain and dry mouth. If left unchecked, ongoing stress can cause serious health issues including depression, cardiovascular disease, obesity, sexual dysfunction, and gastrointestinal problems.

Substance Use Disorders

Abuse, consistent use, or addiction characterizes the plight of substance use disorders. The substance could be interfering with the person’s personal or professional life or even life-threatening. Common Substance Use disorders include Alcohol Use Disorder, Tobacco Use Disorder, and Cannabis Use Disorder. Regardless of the substance, many of the same behaviors are prevalent and require the same course of treatment.

Anger Management

Anger management is dealing with the inability to cope with stressful situations, controlling one’s anger, attitude, and ability to deal with situations productively and responsibly under calm duress. Suppressed anger can also be an underlying cause of anxiety and depression. Doctors suggest deep breathing and positive self-talk as the first steps in helping manage anger.

Chronic Pain Issues

People with issues resulting from medicating chronic pain issues require specialized healing that can come in numerous forms and must be discovered individually with guidance from a trained professional. Chronic pain is often defined as any pain that lasts longer than 12 weeks. Whereas acute pain is a normal sensation that alerts us to possible injury, chronic pain is very different. Chronic pain persists—often for months and sometimes even longer and may be complicated by issues associated with prescription medication.

Impulse Control Disorders

Controlling feelings or actions that are immediate and often reactionary. These individuals need assistance in finding new psychology in dealing with their intense immediacy and needs.  Scientists are still researching the cause of these types of disorders but many think that there are a good handful of factors including physical or biological, psychological or emotional, and cultural or societal issues.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Caused from a moment or moments of extremely stressful situations, environments, and individuals. This disorder can cause the afflicted to avoid people, places, or activities in fear and completely disrupt their personal and professional lives. Not every traumatized person develops ongoing (chronic) or even short-term (acute) PTSD. Not everyone with PTSD has been through a dangerous event. Some experiences, like the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one, can also cause PTSD.

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders are a cluster of mental disorders marked by feelings of anxiety or loathing. Anxiety is a worry about the future and loathing is a reaction to current happenings. These feelings could manifest in physical forms, such as a faster heart rate or trembling. Disorders in this category include Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Sleep Disorders.

Mood Disorders

Mood disorders refer to a plethora of swinging, bipolar, or mood control disorders. These disorders often ruin relationships and take control of the individual’s free will. About 20% of the U.S. population reports at least one depressive symptom in a given month, and 12% report two or more in a year. Depression is a common feature of mental illness, whatever its nature and origin. People are more easily demoralized by depression and slower to recover if they are withdrawn and unreasonably self-critical or irritable, impulsive, and hypersensitive to loss.

Relational Trauma

Trauma is caused by a personal experience with another individual. Often characterized by mental, verbal, and physical abuse inflicted on the sufferer.  Women experience remarkably high rates of relational trauma including child abuse and neglect and intimate partner violence (IPV) during adulthood, and the childbearing years are no exception.

Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are disorders in which a person may forget who they are or become another person they think they are. It causes major disruptions in their daily lives and relationships. Symptoms of each personality disorder differ and can be either mild or severe. People with personality disorders often have trouble identifying that they have a problem; they believe their thoughts are normal and that it is other people who are to blame. Treatment usually includes talk therapy and sometimes medicine.

Body Image Issues

Body image issues are when an individual sees themselves in an extremely negative light. It could stem from mental and verbal abuse from any age and typically attacks the psyche by focusing on what the sufferer perceives as a flaw.  Researchers have noted that people with body image issues or disordered eating have difficulties with visual processing.

Family Issues

Issues pertaining to family are treated with the help of clinicians who know how to break down communication barriers in relationships in order to fix the problems at hand. Conflicts are a part of family life. A lot of different issues, such as Parenting Issues can lead to conflict, including illness, disability, addiction, job loss, school problems, and marital issues. Listening to one another and actively working to resolve conflicts are key to reinforcing the family.

Relationship Issues

Problems between loved ones typically stemming from communication breakdowns and the inability to compromise or change to make the other person happy. These issues can arise from a couple spending too little – or even too much – time together. They can stem from fighting over the same issues, from insecurities over your future to feeling misunderstood. Money is also a common root of relationship issues.

Sexual Disorders

Sexual disorders are involving sex, perversion, or acts that have nothing to do with sex in the standard definition but have been fetishized and cause a disruption in the individual or society’s regular agenda. Psychotherapy is a common treatment for desire disorders. Treatment focuses on bringing awareness to any unresolved conflicts and how they impact the patient’s life. While improvement is possible, the sexual dysfunction often becomes autonomous and persists, requiring additional techniques. Various hormones have also been studied for the treatment of sexual desire disorders.

Image of a Brain, various medical devices, and Letters Spelling out PTSD to signify Trauma

PTSD (Trauma), while it is an adverse mental health condition, is a rational response to an irrational, traumatic circumstance. Over 70% of United States adults will experience a traumatic event in their lifetime, and up to 20% of those individuals will go on to develop PTSD, a debilitating, anxiety-related condition. 5% of American adults will experience PTSD in their lifetime, and while anyone who suffers a traumatic event is at-risk of developing the condition, women are nearly twice as likely as men to get it.

Rape is the most significant single triggering incidence to induce PTSD and panic attack disorder, but car accidents, war, abuse, and natural disasters can trigger PTSD. The following article will explore the signs and symptoms of PTSD and the treatment options available for sufferers.

What is PTSD and how does it relate to trauma?

PTSD is related to anxiety disorders and panic attacks. It starts after a person is exposed to extreme trauma, or witnesses a horrifying event, especially if the event was life-threatening or caused physical harm or injury. If the incident caused the person to experience intense feelings of fear, horror, or helplessness, they are at increased risk of developing PTSD as a maladaptive response.

What are the signs and symptoms of PTSD?

Symptoms usually begin about three months after the traumatic event, but in some cases, symptoms will not start until much later. For an official diagnosis, a cluster of symptoms must be present for at least a month and severely interfere with the patient’s functioning. A cluster includes the following:

  • One re-experiencing symptom
  • One avoidance symptom
  • Two arousal and reactivity symptoms
  • Two cognitive and mood symptoms

Symptoms:

  • Reliving the event through intrusive thoughts or experiencing nightmares and sleep disturbances.
  • Experiencing anxiety-related feelings when reliving the event, such as difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, numbness or tingling, sweating, and agitation.
  • Avoiding thoughts, places, people, objects, or events that remind them of the event.
  • Feeling on-edge or wound up. Fight-or-Flight response.
  • Trouble concentrating, or being easily startled.
  • Feelings of guilt, loss of enjoyment
  • Problems with memory

Why does PTSD need to be treated?

People who have PTSD experience debilitating symptoms related to the disorder, and it is very disruptive. PTSD can cause lifelong cognitive and physical health issues.

Sufferers may become easily irritated with family and loved ones, miss out on important school, work, or social events, and become isolated. They may even turn to drugs or alcohol to alleviate their symptoms. This is called self-medicating, and people who self-medicate are at high risk of becoming addicted to a harmful substance. Reliving a traumatic event and isolating oneself increases the risk of developing comorbid depression.

Furthermore, PTSD creates a substantial economic burden. Billions of dollars are spent every year on misdiagnosis and undertreatment, including medical costs, losses in workplace productivity, and mortality and prescription drug costs. People with PTSD have some of the highest rates of healthcare service use. They present with a wide range of symptoms which are easily overlooked or misattributed.

Who is at-risk of developing PTSD?

The following offers a comprehensive breakdown of traumatic events and the statistical probability of developing PTSD as a response:

  • 49% for rape
  • 31 % for severe beating or physical assault
  • 23% other sexual assault
  • 16% for serious accident or injury
  • 15% shooting or a stabbing
  • 14% unexpected death of a family member or friend
  • 10% child has a life-threatening illness
  • 7% witnessing a killing or serious injury
  • 3% natural disaster

Groups of people who are considered high-risk:

  • Children who have been repeatedly abused by caregivers
  • Combat and military veterans
  • Civilian survivors of war
  • Police, firefighters, and emergency first-responders
  • People diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses that required invasive medical procedures

Who can treat PTSD?

  • Psychologists
  • Social workers
  • Psychiatrists
  • Primary care physicians
  • Trained professionals who provide trauma-related counseling

What are the treatment options for PTSD?

For PTSD, treatment can include medication, therapy, or a combination of the two.

Effective therapeutic treatment methods for PTSD include the following:

Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is a trauma-focused approach to therapy. EMDR prompts patients to concentrate on back and forth movements or repetitive sounds while thinking of the traumatic events and memories associated with it. This recalling during repetitive movements and sounds helps to lessen the emotional, fear-based responses to the event over several EMDR sessions.

Medications

SNRIs and SSRIs are effective at treating PTSD. Topiramate, an anticonvulsant, is also used to treat PTSD but is usually prescribed as a last resort if antidepressant drugs haven’t worked. The side effects of topiramate are more severe than in antidepressant medications, leading to severe brain fog. But, people who’ve developed an alcohol dependence to cope with their PTSD have found topiramate effective at treating both alcoholism and PTSD.

Although PTSD is a debilitating illness, it is a treatable illness. Support from trained clinicians and family and friends is extremely useful in healing people with mental health issues and the fallout from experiencing traumatic events.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

CBT explores the complicated relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In regards to PTSD, emotional processing in CBT indicates that people who experience a traumatic event will assign safe reminders of the event (places, people, objects, sounds) negative, irrational meaning and respond maladaptively to them. CBT aims to change the patient’s negative associations with safe reminders to healthy ways of processing their thoughts and emotions. With this approach, patients can mitigate and lessen the severity of their triggers.

If someone has developed a dependence on drugs or alcohol, they will need to attend therapy sessions to relearn adaptive coping mechanisms, and not turn to substances to alleviate their pain. Also, depending on the severity and duration of the substance abuse, a person may need to attend a medical detox facility in order to safely withdrawal from drugs and alcohol. Patients may even require an extended stay at an inpatient rehabilitation center. In a rehab center, patients can heal from drug or alcohol addiction and have their mental health needs adequately addressed by supportive, qualified staff.

Untreated Trauma May Lead to PTSD

According to the National Center for PTSD, about half of the adult population has lived through at least one trauma. That number includes 5 in 10 women and 6 in 10 men, but trauma affects each sex differently. For men, it usually takes the form of combat, assault, disaster, or seeing someone injured or killed. Trauma in women is more likely to involve childhood abuse or sexual trauma. Because untreated trauma often turns into post-traumatic-stress syndrome (PTSD), early intervention is important. If you’re looking for a Southern California rehab center that treats PTSD, Mission Harbor Behavioral Health stands out for its innovative care to adolescents and adults.

How Is Trauma Different From PTSD?

Trauma is a reaction to an upsetting specific event or time, and its severity depends partially on individual interpretation. While physical or emotional abuse during childhood is traumatic for all children, it may affect one child more than the other, even in the same family. Besides experiencing trauma themselves, individuals may develop PTSD from witnessing it.

PTSD, on the other hand, is a diagnosable mental health condition that develops as a result of experiencing traumatic events. A more severe type of the disorder, complex PTSD (C-PTSD) has many of the same symptoms as normal PTSD, but it also includes three others:

  • Inability to trust others or establish relationships
  • Poor self-image or feelings of not belonging
  • Difficulty regulating emotions or managing feelings

Risk factors may be present before, during, or after trauma:

  • Before – personal or family history of mental conditions or a history of other traumas.
  • During – severe or life-threatening event, serious injury or disassociation
  • After – exposure to additional stress, lack of social support, resistance to dealing with the trauma
heroin and meth

What Are Natural Ways to Aid PTSD Recovery?

In addition to PTSD treatment offered by medical providers, there are several things you can do to relieve trauma or keep it from getting worse:

The first includes allowing people you trust to listen to your story and support you but avoiding those who make you feel worse or don’t understand. The second way to feel better is to get back into a routine, allowing safe reminders of the trauma while staying in touch with an encouraging social network. The third part of PTSD recovery is finding meaning in the unpleasant event, resisting self-blame, and looking for ways you’ve learned and improved your life in spite of the unfortunate events.

Southern California Rehab and PTSD Treatment

Sometimes, people recover from trauma with awareness and emotional support from friends and family. That’s not always true, however, and it doesn’t mean a person is weak. On the contrary, it takes a strong person to ask for help. Professional care may offer a boost that makes it possible to get past tough times and see the future more clearly. It’s a good idea to see a primary care or mental health provider if symptoms don’t go away within a month.

Some people prefer talk therapy, and some prefer medication. Including both in a PTSD recovery plan is even more beneficial. Contact our experienced team at Mission Harbor Behavioral Health to find out more about our services for PTSD and co-occurring conditions.

Updated 3/27/2021

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