Dealing with PTSD involves professional treatments like Trauma-Focused CBT and EMDR, alongside self-help strategies such as grounding techniques (mindfulness, deep breathing), regular exercise, healthy routines, and building strong social support, while avoiding drugs/alcohol, to process trauma safely and manage symptoms like flashbacks and anxiety, leading to gradual recovery.
The main treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are talking therapies and medicine. Traumatic events can be very difficult to come to terms with, but confronting your feelings and getting professional help is often the only way of effectively treating PTSD.
Here are ways you can help:
Talk to your doctor about your trauma and your PTSD symptoms. That way they can take care of your health better. Many with PTSD have found treatment with medicines to be helpful for some symptoms. By taking medicines, some survivors of trauma are able to improve their sleep, anxiety, irritability, and anger.
Ask for support. Seeking support from friends, family or other people that you trust can help you to cope better after a traumatic event. As well as offering emotional support, they might be able to help you with practical tasks, or just spend time with you doing 'normal' things.
But in my experience, emotional healing happens in seven stages: awareness, acceptance, processing, release, growth, integration, and transformation. We don't move through these seven stages in a straight line, but we do pass through them all eventually on the path to healing.
PTSD flashbacks are often triggered by things that remind the person of the traumatic event they experienced. These triggers can be external, such as sights, sounds, smells, or locations that are associated with the trauma.
Generally, PTSD symptoms are grouped into four types: intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, and changes in physical and emotional reactions.
The five stages of PTSD are the Emergency Stage, where immediate survival instincts take over; the Denial Stage, which involves emotional numbing; the Intrusive Stage, marked by unwanted memories and self-destructive coping; the Transition Stage, which begins the move toward acceptance and recovery; and the Long-Term ...
Three of the more common unhealthy coping mechanisms for trauma are projection, denial, and self-medication.
Signs of PTSD involve re-experiencing the trauma (flashbacks, nightmares), avoiding reminders, experiencing negative thoughts/moods (numbness, guilt, fear), and heightened arousal (irritability, jumpiness, sleep issues), disrupting daily life and relationships, often accompanied by physical reactions like a racing heart or sweating.
Supporting someone with PTSD means understanding their unique neural bridges - those fragile connections between trauma and safety. The worst thing to do to someone with PTSD is to destabilize these bridges further through dismissive words, sudden actions, or ignoring their need for stability.
Survivors with PTSD may feel distant from others and feel numb. They may have less interest in social or sexual activities. Because survivors feel irritable, on guard, jumpy, worried, or nervous, they may not be able to relax or be intimate. They may also feel an increased need to protect their loved ones.
Although some people recover within 6 months, others have symptoms that last for 1 year or longer. People with PTSD often have co-occurring conditions, such as depression, substance use, or one or more anxiety disorders. After a dangerous event, it is natural to have some symptoms.
When our brain then recognises similarities between our present situation and our past trauma (e.g. a colour, smell or noise), it can activate the fight, flight, freeze, flop or friend response, even if we're not currently in danger.
PTSD is more than an emotional struggle — it physically rewires the brain, altering how fear is processed, memories are stored and emotions are regulated. Key brain regions affected include the amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminali, prefrontal cortex and hippocampus.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious mental health condition that affects people who have survived a terrifying physical or emotional event.
The heightened sensitivity of individuals with PTSD means that even minor conflicts or disagreements can trigger their symptoms. Yelling, which introduces aggression and hostility into the interaction, can intensify these triggers, leading to an escalation of symptoms and a considerable emotional toll.
"Trauma-focused" means that the treatment focuses on the traumatic event and what it means to you. The talk therapies that work best are: Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Prolonged Exposure (PE).
Impact of PTSD on relationships and day-to-day life
PTSD can affect a person's ability to work, perform day-to-day activities or relate to their family and friends. A person with PTSD can often seem uninterested or distant as they try not to think or feel in order to block out painful memories.
Simply having PTSD does not mean you are automatically considered disabled. If, however, the symptoms of your PTSD are so severe they affect your ability to function in society or in your workplace, then your PTSD would likely be considered a disability.
Types of events that can lead to PTSD include:
10 Things Not To Say To Someone With CPTSD
A closer examination of the pattern of memory deficits reveals that PTSD most, significantly impacts the initial acquisition and learning phases of memory, as opposed to the retention phase.
Individuals with complex PTSD may experience a range of emotional symptoms, including intense fear, shame, guilt, anger, sadness, and a diminished sense of self-worth. These emotions can arise in response to trigger situations or even seemingly unrelated events, making them difficult to manage.