https://philaholisticclinic.com/natural-and-effective-treatment-for-ptsd/
Treatment for PTSD
Treatment for PTSD is usually palliative and aims to relieve Ptsd symptoms. The objective of PTSD therapy is to alleviate mental and physical symptoms, enhance everyday functioning, and assist the person in better managing the triggering incident. For treatment Psychotherapy (a kind of counseling), medicine, or hypnosis for PTSD may be used. PTSD can be treated. With treatment trauma, survivors can feel safe in the world and lead happy and productive lives. Effective treatments for PTSD include different types of medications or psychotherapy.
Medications – most common treatment for PTSD
Brains of PTSD patients process pressures and fears in a different way, in part, because the balance of substances called neurotransmitters is out of whack. You have an easy fight or flight response that makes you nervous and nervous. Constantly trying to turn this off can make you feel emotionally cold and distant.
Medication will help you stop thinking and responding to it, including nightmares and flashbacks. PTSD medicines can also help you have a more optimistic and confident outlook on life and feel more “normal” again.
Doctors prescribe various antidepressant medicines as the best treatment for PTSD, as well as to regulate anxiety and accompanying symptoms, such as:
- SSRIs such as citalopram (Celexa), fluvoxamine (Luvox), fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), and sertraline (Sertraline) are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (Zoloft)
- Amitriptyline (Elavil) and isocarboxazid are tricyclic antidepressants (Doxepin, Marplan)
- Divalproex (Depakote) and lamotrigine are mood stabilizers (Lamictal)
- Aripiprazole (Abilify) and quetiapine are examples of atypical antipsychotics (Seroquel )
Certain blood pressure medications are also used to treat specific symptoms:
- Prazosin is a drug that is used to treat nightmares.
- Propranolol (Inderal) to help reduce the development of traumatic memories Clonidine (Catapres) for sleep
Experts advise against using tranquilizers for PTSD, such as lorazepam (Ativan) or clonazepam (Klonopin), because studies have shown that they are ineffective and carry the danger of physical dependency or addiction.
Psychotherapy for PTSD
PTSD therapy targeting the three main goals:
- improve your symptoms
- Teach you to handle it
- Restore your self-esteem
Most PTSD therapies come under the umbrella of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). The goal is to alternate the thought outlines that are unsettling your life. This can happen by talking about your trauma or focusing on the source of your fears.
Depending on your situation, group or family therapy may be a good choice for you over individual sessions.
Cognitive processing therapy
CPT is a 12-week treatment process, that includes 60-90 minutes weekly meetings. In the beginning, you will talk about the traumatic event with your therapist and how your thoughts about it affected your life. Then you will write in detail about what happened. This process helps you examine how you think about your trauma and discover new ways to live with it. For example, maybe you blamed yourself for something. Your shrink will help you take into consideration all the things that were outside your control so you can go ahead, understanding and accepting that deep down it wasn’t your fault, no matter what you did or didn’t do.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy
If you’ve avoided things that remind you of the traumatic event, exercise can help you withstand them. It includes eight to 15 sessions, usually 90 minutes each.
At the beginning of your prolonged exposure therapy, your psychotherapist will explain to you how to perform breathing techniques to ease your anxiety as you think and recalling what happened during the traumatic event. Later, you will make a list of the things you have avoided and learn how to deal with them, one by one. During another treatment session, you will tell the therapist about the traumatic experience and then go home and listen to a tape about yourself. Doing this homework assignment over time can help relieve symptoms.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
During EMDR sessions, you may not need to tell your psychotherapist about your experience. Instead, you focus on it as you watch or listen to them doing what they are doing – maybe move a hand, flash a light, or make a sound.
The goal of this form of psychotherapy is to be able to contemplate something constructive and optimistic while recalling your trauma. EMDR treatment lasts usually for about 3 months of weekly sessions.
Stress Inoculation Training – effective psychotherapy treatment for PTSD
Stress Inoculation Training aka SIT is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy. You can do it alone or in a group. You don’t have to go into detail about what happened. The focus is more on changing how the event is stressed.
You can learn massage and breathing techniques, and other ways to stop negative thoughts by relaxing your mind and body. After about 3 months, you should have the skills to release the extra stress in your life.
Psychotherapy for PTSD includes assisting the patient in developing coping skills and learning how to control symptoms. Therapy also tries to educate the individual and their family about the disease and assist the individual in overcoming the concerns connected with the traumatic incident. People with PTSD are treated using several therapeutic techniques, including:
- Learning to notice and modify thinking patterns that contribute to troubling thoughts, sensations, and behavior is the goal of cognitive-behavioral therapy.
- Prolonged exposure treatment is a form of behavioral therapy that includes the person reliving the traumatic experience of being exposed to things or circumstances that trigger anxiety. This is carried out in a secure and well-controlled setting. Prolonged exposure treatment assists the client in confronting their fear and eventually becoming more comfortable with unpleasant and anxiety-inducing circumstances. This has proven highly effective in the treatment of PTSD
- Psychodynamic treatment focuses on assisting the individual in examining their own values as well as the emotional problems brought on by the traumatic experience.
- Because the conduct of a person with PTSD can impact other family members, family counseling may be beneficial.
- Group therapy can be beneficial because it allows people to express their ideas, concerns, and feelings with others who have also been through terrible situations.
- EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing ) is a sophisticated type of psychotherapy that was developed to address the suffering associated with traumatic memories but is now widely used to treat phobias.
PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder): Everything You Need to Know
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness that occurs after seeing a terrible incident. Flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety are all possible symptoms, as can uncontrollable thoughts about the incident.
Most people who are exposed to traumatic circumstances have temporary problems adjusting and coping, but with time and good self-care, they usually get better. However, if your symptoms develop, last for months or even years, and interfere with your day-to-day functioning, you may have PTSD.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a type of anxiety disorder, can occur after a very threatening or frightening event. Even if you were not directly involved, the shock of what happened can be so strong that it will be difficult for you to live a normal life.
People with PTSD can suffer from insomnia, memories, low self-esteem, and many painful or unpleasant emotions. You can constantly relive this event or completely forget about it.
When you have PTSD, you may feel like you’ll never come back to life. But it can be treated. Short and long-term psychotherapy and medications can work very well. Often the two treatments are more effective together.
How common is PTSD?
During a year, around 3.6 percent of adult Americans — about 5.2 million people — acquire PTSD, and an estimated 7.8 million Americans will get PTSD at some time in their life. PTSD may strike anybody at any age, including children. However, women are more prone than males to acquire PTSD. This might be because women are more likely to experience domestic violence, abuse, and rape.
PTSD Causes and Risk Factors
Everyone reacts differently to stressful experiences. Each person’s ability to cope with anxiety, stress, and the threat offered by a traumatic event or circumstance is unique. These can be causes of PTSD. Not everyone who experiences a traumatic event will acquire PTSD. Following a traumatic event, the sort of care and support a person receives from friends, family, and professionals may influence the development of PTSD or the severity of symptoms.
War veterans were the ones who initially brought PTSD to the medical community’s notice. Thus the titles are shell shock and battle fatigue syndrome. Anyone who has experienced a traumatic event, on the other hand, can acquire PTSD.
PTSD is more likely to develop in those who were mistreated as children or who have been repeatedly exposed to life-threatening events. Victims of physical and sexual abuse are at the highest risk of developing PTSD.
If you have a history of other mental health problems, have blood relatives with mental health problems, or have a history of alcohol or drug addiction, you may be more prone to develop PTSD following a stressful experience.
Symptoms of PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms can occur as quickly as a month after a terrible event, but they can sometimes take years. These symptoms pose substantial issues in social and professional settings, as well as in personal relationships. They may also make it harder for you to do your routine daily tasks.
Intrusive memories, avoidance, unfavorable changes in thought and attitude, and changes in bodily and emotional reactions are the four categories that come under symptoms of PTSD. But, again, symptoms might change over time or from one individual to the next.
Intrusive memories
Intrusive recollections can cause the following symptoms:
- Unwanted, painful memories of the tragic incident
- Re-enacting the dreadful event as if it were taking place for the first time (flashbacks)
- It’s unpleasant to have nightmares or dreams about the awful occurrence.
- Reactions to something that reminds you of the dreadful event, whether physical or emotional
Avoidance
The following are examples of avoidance symptoms:
- Trying to avoid thinking about or talking about the heinous crime
- Avoiding situations, activities that remind you of the dreadful event
- Adverse changes in thinking and mood
Adverse changes in cognition and mood can express themselves in a variety of ways:
- Negative feelings about yourself, other people, or the world Hopelessness about the future.
- Memory difficulties, such as forgetting critical details of the traumatic event
- Maintaining intimate connections is difficult.
- Distancing yourself from family and friends
- Lack of enthusiasm for previously loved activities Difficulty expressing good emotions
- I’m experiencing emotional numbness.
- Changes in physical and emotional reactions
Changes in physical and emotional reactions can cause the following symptoms:
- Being easily scared or startled
- Always on the lookout for danger
- Self-destructive conduct such as binge drinking or speeding are examples of self-destructive behavior.
- Having trouble sleeping or concentrating
- Guilt or humiliation that is overwhelming
- Other signs and symptoms may include
- Frightening nightmares that may or may not involve parts of the traumatic event
- Using play to re-enact the painful experience or details of the traumatic event
The intensity of symptoms of PTSD
Ptsd symptoms may become more severe over time. For example, when you’re stressed in general or when you come across reminders of what you’ve been through, you may have additional Ptsd symptoms. You could, for example, hear a car backfire and remember battle memories. Alternatively, you could read a news article about a sexual attack and be overtaken by recollections of your own assault.
When to see a doctor?
Talk to your doctor or a mental health professional if you’ve been experiencing troubling thoughts and feelings about a traumatic incident for more than a month, if they’re intense, or if you’re having problems regaining control of your life.
PTSD Diagnosis
PTSD isn’t diagnosed unless the traumatic incident has occurred for at least one month. If Ptsd symptoms are present, the doctor will begin the evaluation with a thorough medical history and physical examination. Although there are no particular lab tests for PTSD, the doctor may perform various tests to rule out physical disease as the source of the symptoms.
If no physical disease is discovered, you may be referred to a psychiatrist, psychologist, or another mental health specialist specializing in diagnosing and treating mental disorders. Psychiatrists and psychologists examine a person for the existence of PTSD or other mental disorders using specifically devised interview and diagnostic instruments.
First, the clinician bases their diagnosis of PTSD on the patient’s stated symptoms and any functional issues induced by the symptoms. After that, the doctor decides if the symptoms and level of dysfunction point to PTSD. If a person’s Ptsd symptoms continue for more than a month, they are diagnosed with PTSD.
Natural treatment for PTSD
PTSD is a chronic condition that can have a highly negative impact on patients, including their relationships and families. Nevertheless, with accurate naturopathic, holistic and spiritual support, it is curable. A holistic approach to PTSD is extremely important. It allows the sufferer to fix the body and mind to help them live happier and healthier lives. There are several natural therapies that can be used to treat the effects of PTSD. Let’s take a look at some of them here.
The alternative therapy for PTSD involves utilizing different methods and techniques in place of conventional medical approaches to deal with the symptoms of PTSD. The ideal holistic treatment for PTSD depends on the constitution of a patient and the form of PTSD. At Philadelphia Holistic Clinic, we know exactly how holistic therapy is made use of for PTSD signs and we provide holistic treatments tailored to our patient’s individual needs.
The team of practitioners at the clinic led by Victor Tsan, MD believes that real PTSD recuperation includes treating all aspects of a person. Therefore, we take an alternative and also collaborative approach to the therapy of PTSD, working carefully with clients to produce a treatment program that delivers optimal outcomes. Our team of experts is pleased to satisfy PTSD patients by proposing a customized treatment plan based on the holistic therapy choices available.
Acupuncture for PTSD – an ancient Chinese natural treatment for PTSD
As a form of traditional Chinese medicine aka TCM, acupuncture for PTSD has been shown to be effective in treating mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, and sleeplessness. As a result, the majority of PTSD patients are open to acupuncture. In addition, acupuncture has been shown to significantly reduce the symptoms of PTSD in people living with this disorder.
Experiencing traumatic events affects our nervous system and how our brains perceive safety. This changes the way our alert system responds to potential threats after an initial traumatic event. The brain correspondingly directs signals to the body to activate a response to a threat, follow-on in expectable physical symptoms (listed above).
These physical symptoms can be explained by the response of the body’s nervous system to acute or chronic stressors. When we find ourselves in a stressful situation, our nervous system reacts through a fight or flight or freeze response. The brain responds by forcing us to be vigilant and shutting down secondary processes that are not critical to survival. These changes correspond to many of the symptoms listed above, either when we are in a state of increased survival or later when our resources are depleted and we have trouble returning to a state of balance and calmness.
Acupuncture for PTSD has been shown that it:
- Releases neurotransmitters and endorphins to relieve pain
- Regulates the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system
- Reduce anxiety
- Promote more restful sleep
- Relieve muscle tension
- Improving digestion and circulation
Homeopathy for PTSD – highly effective and safe natural PTSD treatment
With its holistic approach, homeopathy has shown to be one of the most effective medical systems for treating PTSD. The fundamental core of philosophy enables the treatment of PTSD patients on an individual basis. In addition, because it is based on the totality of presenting symptoms, regardless of illness label, homeopathy for PTSD may be used as a preventative as well as a curative treatment because it depends on the totality of the symptoms presented, whatever the name of the disease. The totality includes a subjective and objective understanding of the condition of the disease where the underlying cause and susceptibility of the individual are addressed.
The most common homeopathic remedies used for PTSD treatment are:
1 Arsenicum album:
The so-called “mentally ill Arsenicum patients” are extremely nervous, restless, and anxious. An agonizing fear of death, death from hunger, or financial loss. Suicidal impulses arise in the head, the patient is very restless, constantly changes place, wants to move from one bed to another. Fear of being alone to avoid self-harm. Afraid that he killed someone. The patient has obsessions, hallucinations, he imagines a house full of thieves, patients want to jump and hide. The patient is inclined to find flaws in everything. It becomes very cruel, self-torture pulls out hair, bites nails, tears its own body. Doesn’t want to meet friends.
2. Aconite Napelus:
This emotional and mental stress, presented in the form of fright or fear, and its 
consequences are anxiety and fear of death. The fear of aconite manifests itself in the fear of crossing the street. There is intolerance to music. This represents that some part of the body is deformed. Strong predisposition to anger, fear, and quarrels, changeable humor, at one time sat depressed, irritable and desperate, at another time cheerful, excited, full of hope, inclined to watch and dance. Mental paralysis with an inability to reflect and feel as if all intellectual activity is performed in the abdomen. Instability of ideas. Sleeplessness with anxiety and constant tossing. Disturbed sleep with a lot of talking and movement during sleep. Dreams with some kind of clairvoyance
3. Argentum Nitricum:
The patient that needs Argentum Nitricum is very melancholy, he has the urge to jump out of the window. Very impulsive wants to do things in a hurry. Fears, anxiety, and hidden irrational motives. Emotional disturbances provoke the appearance of a half-cranial attack. Very poor memory, errors in perception, insomnia from fantasies in front of his imagination, terrible dreams about snakes, and sexual gratification7. The patient believes that he is despised by his family, that all his undertakings will fail. Tormented by strange ideas and emotions. Cries, says he’s released without hope. Irrational, does strange things and comes to strange conclusions, does stupid things.
4. Stramonium:
Stramonium is like an earthquake in power. Violent speech, torn clothes – this is a common phenomenon in mania, which was excited several times, an attack of mania, turning into an attack of paroxysm, appearing more or less suddenly, delirium with sluggish, mumbling, violent, stupid, talkative, incoherent, chatter, with open eyes with spasmodic laughter, trying to prick and bite, with sexual arousal, fear, as if a dog had attacked him. Weird thoughts about the construction of his body. These are animals, ghosts, angels, departed spirits, devils, and he knows that they are not real, but later he is sure of it. He has this hallucination, especially in the dark. Screams until he becomes hoarse or loses his voice. heart disease with severe chest tightness, mental irritability, confusion about personality, inability to sleep in the dark, great anxiety on the train through the tunnel, irregular pulse. Sleep is full of dreams and turmoil.
5. Lyssin:
Hypersensitivity to sound, light, smell, and even the emotions of others. Their emotions are fierce like bare nerves. They feel that they are being tortured or ridiculed and are afraid that something bad will happen to them. Lyssin patients may have many phobias, such as fear of driving, flying, injury, choking. They may also be afraid to be alone, even though they tend to do better in a quiet room without strong lighting. They have an irrational fear of water – they either see it or just think about it. They were bitten by an animal and have been afraid ever since. They can become aggressive and abusive.
Hypnosis – #1 natural treatment for PTSD
Clinical hypnosis is a great alternative for those who suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as those with other anxiety disorders.
When you are hypnotized, you are in a state of trance. Although this state feels like a dream, you are fully awake and aware of what is going on around you. You can relax and isolate yourself from the everyday world.
While you are in this trance state, your therapist will help you safely access your memories to better understand the emotions surrounding your trauma. With the guidance of a therapist, you will identify your triggers and tame the way you respond or feel them.
It has been suggested that hypnosis can help prevent or reduce dissociation after exposure to a traumatic event, reduce anxiety symptoms, and help people connect with memories and feelings associated with the traumatic experience.
Numerous scientific case studies and more than a few clinical trials have been conducted to determine the effectiveness of clinical hypnosis as an effective option of treatment for PTSD. A meta-analysis of these studies found that hypnosis appeared to be effective in relieving PTSD symptoms.
There have even been quite a few studies comparing the usefulness of hypnotherapy with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic psychotherapy in the treatment of PTSD. One study found that when used alone, hypnotherapy was as successful as psychodynamic psychotherapy, and sometimes even more successful. Another study found that hypnosis, used in combination with CBT, was as effective as CBT alone in improving PTSD symptoms for two years after treatment.
Conclusion on treatment for PTSD
Recovery from PTSD is a long and winding road. PTSD symptoms seldom go away entirely, but treatment can help people learn to manage them better. In addition, treatment can result in fewer and milder symptoms and a better capacity to handle trauma-related emotions.
At Philadelphia Holistic Clinic, our methods of treating PTSD are different. We treat your problem with a holistic approach, to make sure you are free of symptoms as soon as possible and are equipped to handle problems that may arise in the future.
In our peaceful environment, you can recover from your traumatic experience with the help of our trained therapists, reiki practitioners, acupuncturists, yoga teachers, and of course our medical director homeopathic practitioner, and hypnotherapist Victor Tsan, MD.
Make the first step and contact our clinic to schedule an appointment for the comprehensive holistic evaluation with Dr. Tsan. You can also do it online or by scanning the QR code below.
Comments
Post a Comment