May was Mental Health Awareness Month and on our socials, we shared information about different mental health topics throughout last month. These blog posts are part of a series where we expand on those topics and offer more information.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, more commonly known as PTSD, is a mental health disorder that develops as a response to a traumatic event. Currently, we’re not sure what exactly causes PTSD, as most people who experience trauma do not develop PTSD. We do know that people who were assigned female at birth are much more likely to develop PTSD than those who were assigned male at birth. We also have current statistics for PTSD: 3.6% of the US adult population has PTSD with 37% of those with PTSD having severe symptoms. It usually develops within months of the traumatic event and symptoms can last months, years, or even be life-long. Treatment is critical for helping to manage these systems.

Traumatic events that have been linked to development of PTSD are: sexual assault, abuse, witnessing a death, combat/war, terrorist attacks, being in an accident, and even experiencing the trauma of a loved one second hand.

Often, the symptoms are broken down into four main categories: re-experiencing, avoidance, cognitive/mood, and arousal.

Re-experiencing:

Recurring, intrusive thoughts about the event
Flashbacks
Bad dreams
Intrusive memories

Avoidance:
- Avoiding the place where it happened
- Avoiding people who remind you of the event
- Avoiding objects or other things that remind you of the event
Cognitive/Mood:
- Memory problems related to the event
- Negative self-image or thoughts
- Guilt or shame
- Numbness or depression
- Anxiety
- Derealization
- Dissociation
Arousal:
- Hypervigilance
- Easily startled
- Difficulty concentrating
- Sleep disturbances
- Irritability

Children have also been diagnosed with PTSD and we often see them develop it in response to many of the same situations that adults do. However, they can show some different symptoms such as:

Regression (for example, a toilet-trained child suddenly wetting the bed)
Unusual and sudden clinginess (usually to a parent or another trusted adult)
Re-enacting the traumatic events through play

Early diagnosis and treatment is critical for the best possible outcome for an individual with PTSD. This can help with reducing the severity of symptoms or even eliminating some of them entirely. Treatment can help the individual get back to a healthy level of everyday functioning and help them manage symptoms such as nightmares, flashbacks, and many of the other distressing symptoms of PTSD.

Treatments generally include medications, such as SSRIs, and therapy. Therapy usually consists of some form of CBT (like exposure therapy and recognitive structuring) and EMDR. Learning self-management techniques is also critical to successful therapy, such as the ability to self-soothe and use mindfulness strategies.

PTSD can co-occur with other disorders like depression, OCD, panic disorder, and substance use disorder. Often, treating these disorders co-currently is the best way to see improvement, as PTSD improves with the treatment of OCD, for example, and OCD improves with the treatment of PTSD.

Want help with PTSD? Look at our list of clinicians and contact us to book an appointment.

Resources:

https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/posttraumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd

https://www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Mental-Health-Conditions/Posttraumatic-Stress-Disorder

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd#part_6135

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/ptsd/what-is-ptsd

https://www.samhsa.gov/mental-health/post-traumatic-stress-disorder