PTSD is a subset of anxiety disorder that results from exposure to stressful, fear-inducing events. The condition can cause major changes in a variety of aspects of one’s life including personal interactions and health. Yet with proper therapy and help, people can come to regain their much-needed control over this ailment. Here at Icon Psychologies, we focus on an individual’s PTSD treatment plans using the latest clinical evidence as a guide.
In this article, it is worthwhile to look closer at the possible approaches to PTSD and how these approaches make people better and happier.
Understanding PTSD
PTSD is not simply a memory of a traumatic event. It’s characterized by persistent symptoms that interfere with daily functioning, including:
- Intrusive Memories: Intrusive recollections or memories of the event, flashbacks, and nightmares.
- Avoidance: In this criterion, there are avoiding situations, locations, objects, or even people and topics that can help bring memories of the traumatic event.
- Hyperarousal: Mood swings, inability to sleep, or feeling like you’re always on the edge.
- Negative Changes in Mood or Thinking: Of guilt, hope, or being disconnected from other people.
Rational Approaches for PTSD Management
PTSD treatment very often demands an approach that takes into consideration the personal, social, and physical ramifications of trauma. Here are the most effective treatment options available:
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
Psychotherapy is the main method of PTSD treatment. Cognitive restructuring assists clients with grief, trauma, or negative thought patterns and learns ineffective ways to manage stress.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Also an emphasis on the techniques modifying the cognitions that are problematic and cause the PTSD symptoms.
- Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE): Prompts some people to face the situations they have been avoiding to deal with them, while others do this under supervision.
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Involves the use of guided eye movements to enable individuals to gain control of distressing and highly charged traumatic memories.
- Medication Management
PTSD symptoms can be ameliorated to some extent by medication, although here also it is most useful when utilized in conjunction with psychotherapy.
- Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs): Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, such as sertraline and paroxetine, fall under the category of antidepressant drugs used to control mood instabilities and anxiety.
- Prazosin: Including nightmares and sleep disturbances in patients with PTSD.
- Anti-Anxiety Medications: Sometimes, therefore, pro-drug prescriptions on a short-term basis may be prescribed to the patient for treatment of acute conditions.
- Group Therapy and Support Groups
Being able to converse with people with whom we share similar past experiences is very helpful. This setting fosters the exchange of experience and possible solutions from other participants of the group.
- Complementary and Integrated Medicine
Holistic approaches focus on the mind-body connection and can complement traditional treatments:
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR): Promotes the use of other excellent relaxation activities such as meditation, and provision of oxygen in combating stress and anxiety.
- Yoga and Exercise: Exercise can assist in pent-up stress and actual mental well-being.
- Art or Music Therapy: Creative activities give individuals the opportunity to communicate through other than words.
- Lifelong Changes and Self-Care
Some ways to address PTSD include focusing on ways that will increase the general quality of life. Some key strategies include:
- Creating a regular alarm for sleeping, eating, or even exercising.
- Support from friends and family means creating a circle of people with whom the person shares his or her problems.
- Driving safer or avoiding the use of substances that worsen the particular symptoms.
- Appreciating the changes that have been made and the experience of the healing process as a kind and gentle process.
PTSD treatment, Icon Psychologies
Our facility, Icon Psychologies, is equipped and staffed to provide the best environment for people suffering from PTSD. It is crucial to have a plan which is created after studying the symptoms and aims of the patient by the expert team.
What We Provide:
- Comprehensive Assessments: We first advocate for an assessment that will enable us to define the specific symptoms and their intensity of PTSD in your case.
- Customized Treatment Plans: Nobody is average, so you are offered several treatment options based on what you, as a patient, are comfortable with and prefer.
- Expert Care: We have experienced therapists and psychiatrists on our team who work with victims of trauma, including PTSD patients.
- Ongoing Support: Healing is a process, and at Caron, we will be with you for the entire process of healing.
When to Seek Help for PTSD
If these signs of PTSD are making your everyday life and your relationships difficult, you should consult a doctor. Signs that it’s time to reach out include:
- But one that never goes away completely is having persistent nightmares or flashbacks.
- Anxiety-contingent avoidance behaviors that reduce one’s activity level
- A common symptom can be concentrated problems or an inability to maintain relationships.
- Severe black-and-white thinking, including feelings of guilt, fear or anger.
- Ideas about suicide or failure to live.
Healing is Possible
PTSD can be very entrapping at times, but it doesn’t have to control your life. Of course, such a message is true when people receive adequate treatment and learn to become safe again and have successful lives.
Icon Psychologies is here to help you in an exercise of this process. Our clinic is a place where you will receive therapy, receive medication, or use both to treat the existing disorders and make you feel comfortable again.
Take the First Step Today
Courage is the first step to recovery. Call Icon Psychologies today to book an appointment and find out how our trained staff will be useful to you. We’ll combine our efforts to help you find the best solutions necessary to successfully fight PTSD and to help you begin your new, full-filled life.
For more information on our PTSD interventions, visit Icon Psychologies, or call us. But you don’t need to go through this journey on your own – support is only a phone call away.
