Hope for those with PTSD

[insanelupus]

I will preface this post with saying the following, I am NOT a mental health expert. If you have or suspect you have PTSD, please contact a mental health expert and seek their advice!

Post Traumatic Stress Injuries may be one of the most under diagnosed, widely varied, and often misunderstood mental health issues in our society today. While veterans are susceptible to these injuries, so are those working in emergency services, and there are a considerable number of injuries resulting from childhood trauma, violent crime, sexual assault, and many other events. When you throw in the topic of moral injury (which has a strong correlation to development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder/Injury) and societal/political changes, these topics start hitting closer to home than most would care to admit.

This topic came up on another forum and so I decided to cross post my reply to hopefully help those who may need/want it. There is so much stigma around what we call "PTSD", the treatment of it, and frankly what the characteristics of the person/people are who suffer from it (which are often, though not always, way off base), I wanted to emphasize this.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY HOPE FOR THOSE WHO FIND THEMSELVES DIAGNOSED WITH PTSD![

Many of us would likely be surprised to know we all likely know someone who has been/could be clinically diagnosed with PTSD. I'm not meaning those who self diagnosis through Dr. Google, I mean a clinically affirmed mental health diagnosis. It is that prevalent. And, those who are/could be diagnosed with it, are often very effective and socially important contributors to our society. I wish the stigma attached with a PTSD diagnosis was completely eliminated from our society. It might compel many to seek effective treatment that would, undoubtedly, improve their quality and enjoyment of life.

If you are concerned you may be suffering from PTSD, please seek treatment from a provider you trust. The likelihood of a significant quality of life improvement is huge!

In layman terms, PTSD is the result of experiences the memory has not had the ability/capability to process and file like it typically does. This can occur for a variety or reasons, but it is the reason after a traumatic event that defusings are held in which people will counsel those who have gone through a traumatic experience to do the best they can to keep up normal habits/routines (like workouts, going to bed, waking up, etc.), get proper/good nutrition (feeding the body well), do the best they can to sleep well (often difficult) and avoid drug/alcohol use. All these "habits" help the brain to stay healthy in order to process memories. It will often include the opportunity to discuss the event generally/briefly in order to start it processing.

When we sleep, essentially memories process through a little CPU in our brain to be sorted and "filed" or stored. When the trauma is significant and/or the brain not running at full power/health, those memories can essentially fragment and then attach to random things. This can explain why a traumatic event of the past somehow gets attached to random things that become triggers.

If you have been diagnosed with PTSD and do not know how to proceed, please find and contact a provider you trust and inquire about the following two treatments.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy utilizes bilateral (hemisphere) brain stimulation through (typically) eye movement (with lights), but can also utilize other sensory clues such as tactile (vibration in fingers/hands for instances) or auditory (via sound/tones) to reprocess memories.

Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) utilizes a similar modality to EMDR, meaning it uses bilateral stimulation, eye movement, and also other sensory inputs. The biggest difference, as it has been explained to me, is that EMDR often times opens all the boxes on the shelves, where as ART allows the provider to open individual boxes rather than all of them at once. Boxes in this reference can mean experiences or issues the patient is contending with. Essentially, as I understand it, ART allows the therapist to zoom in on a specific behavior, experience, or issue to treat immediate concerns/or individual things the patient wishes to work on more easily.

This link below helps explain the differences a little more. I'm not associated with this site and this is not a recommendation for them. It was simply the quickest article I could find that does a good job of explaining the differences of these two therapies.

EMDR has been found to be EXTREMELY effective at improving the quality of life and treating the anxieties and issues related to PTSD experiences for patients. ART appears to be having similar success with a slightly different method. Both are worth attempting for those willing to do so in an effort to improve MANY aspects of quality of life.

Incidentally, if someone is suffering from depression and anxiety, the bilateral stimulation techniques of these two treatments are beginning to show in emerging research to also be helpful treatments for those issues.

BTW, for those who may be dubious of this kind of treatment, consider this. Have you ever found you were faced with a problem and decided to go for a walk? During or after the walk, did you find you had either found a solution to your problem, or at least a better understanding of possible solutions? That is an example of bilateral stimulation, your feet hitting the ground alternatively actually triggers bilateral stimulation! The same thing can be done driving down the road tapping the index finger of your hands in an alternating pattern on the steering wheel. Bilateral stimulation "speeds" up the processing power of your brain! (Again, layman terms, I'm not smart enough to clinically explain the phenomenon.)

Bottom line y'all, if PTSD is something you suffer with or believe you might suffer with, there absolutely is hope, please seek the treatment of a trusted, qualified, mental health expert!

EMDR vs ART Differences

 

[EastHumboldt]

Good info, thank you. The human psyche is complicated, robust, and sometimes as delicate as a Leupold scope. I know quite a few first responders, one combat veteran, and several survivors of sexual abuse. All display some symptoms at various levels of what looks to me like PTSD. Also not an expert but I’ve been closely observing human behavior for a long time.

I’ve recommended repeatedly to someone close to me that she pursue emdr, but it’s super hard to find availability in Northern NV. Anybody have ideas on finding a provider?

Then there’s the combat veteran. The idea of getting help for what he considers minor emotional issues is the complete opposite of what his military training was. Suck it up, push through, don’t be a whiner, be self contained and self reliant. So that’s kind of difficult and hard to bring up.

 

[BRTreedogs]

They just signed something at that white house yesterday to remove at least certain psychedelic medicines from schedule 1 and get fda approvals on some as well.

Thank freaking goodness. It’s wayyyyy past due. And I hope it helps a lot of people.

 

[insanelupus]

For EMDR & ART I've had luck in starting with a web search and then reaching out to providers who might have recommendations. You might also contact area Chaplains or Peer Support groups for at risk populations. They might have providers they can recommend. Contact with area mental health hospital facilities might have providers on a list too.

For your veteran friend, prayer and discussion are the most powerful tools. But the choice will always be his and that's hard to live with.

 

[7mm-08]

This is a very worthwhile subject matter to discuss. OP's first post is exceptional. Thank you for this public service information.

 

[Ckat]

They just signed something at that white house yesterday to remove at least certain psychedelic medicines from schedule 1 and get fda approvals on some as well.

Thank freaking goodness. It’s wayyyyy past due. And I hope it helps a lot of people.

Hallelujah! The positive results of ibogaine-therapy (and adjuncts) are overwhelming!!!