• Hey there, welcome to Talk Mental Health – a cozy corner where we're all about mental health, wellness, and just being real. This is your spot to connect with a community that gets it, where we're all on this journey together. Whether you're navigating tough times or lending a listening ear, we've got your back. No judgment, just genuine support. Step in, take a deep breath, and let's make this a space where we lift each other up. Glad you're here!
  • While Talk Mental Health offers a platform for peer support and shared experiences, it is not a substitute for professional mental health assistance. If you find yourself in genuine danger or experiencing a mental health crisis, please reach out to qualified professionals. In the UK, you can contact emergency services by dialing 999. For non-emergency support, consider reaching out to organizations like Samaritans at 116 123. In the USA, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255). For support in Australia, contact Lifeline at 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue at 1300 22 4636. Your well-being is our priority, and seeking professional help is a crucial step towards your mental health journey.

PTSD - How to Recognize It and Options for Treatment

Do You Have PTSD?
If you witnessed or experienced an intense traumatic experience such as an assault, natural disaster, combat, or a car accident, you may be at risk of developing PTSD. It is important to recognize early and address PTSD symptoms, so you can come to terms with a traumatic experience, start the healing process, and get your life back on the track.

How to Recognize PTSD?
The most common symptoms of PTSD include anxiety and depression. However, they are by no means the whole picture. Along with anxiety and depression, you may be re-experiencing the trauma through flashbacks and nightmares, have difficulty sleeping and concentrating, experience impulsive or self-destructive behavior, and be easily irritated.

Nevertheless, sometimes the signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder can be subtle and hard to recognize. This can lead to being incorrectly diagnosed and not receiving the appropriate treatment while experiencing symptoms you don't understand and suffering alone.

Emotional Withdrawal and Social Anxiety as Less Obvious PTSD Symptoms
Your fear of coming in contact with anything that will remind you of a trauma may result in difficulties in communicating and interacting with people. Also, feelings of detachment from others, social withdrawal, and isolation may be a sign of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Other atypical signs of PTSD may include drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, rapid weight loss, and severe migraines.

These symptoms don't have to occur right after you survived trauma. Sometimes, people develop PTSD symptoms weeks or even months after a traumatic experience.

PTSD Treatment
The main goal of PTSD therapy is to improve your symptoms, teach you skills to manage them, and restore your self-esteem. It is most likely that a combination of medication and psychological therapies will be used to treat your PTSD. The majority of PTSD treatment options stem from cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), with the aim to change the upsetting thought patterns that are disturbing your day-to-day life.

The most common CBT practices used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder involve prolonged exposure therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), cognitive processing therapy, and stress inoculation training. EMDR therapy must be administered by someone who has received the proper training in this type of treatment. This is a more specialized treatment method and can be highly effective.

Severe trauma can stay with you throughout your life. It is like having your brain scarred by the event. Like most scars we endure, we learn to live with them and eventually ignore them and sometimes forget we even have them. Proper treatment puts the traumatic event where it belongs... in the past, so you aren't constantly dealing with it in the present. This allows the individual to live a more normal, healthy, and productive life.

Aspira Continuing Education is an online CEU provider for Psychologists, MFTs, Social Workers and Professional Counselors. Aspira has several courses to choose from with an easy to navigate/user-friendly website. Visit aspirace.com to obtain online CEUs for Social Worker CEUs, and Professional Counselor CEUs


Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Matt_Hiltibran/819777

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10239431
 
It will be really hard for a patient to accept that he/she has PTSD because his/her memories are stuck at the phase of the life where he/she suffered. The patient does not even accept that he/she has mental conditions.
 
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