Dealing with PTSD: Triggers, Treatments, and More

If you've gone through a traumatic event, there is no one right way to cope. Hear from JED Expert Asha Alexander as she explains symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), triggers, and treatments for coping with traumatic events and PTSD. Asha shares that healing takes time, and the best way to process your feelings is by seeking out professional help.

Transcript

Today we're going to talk about post-traumatic stress disorder,

Which most people just call PTSD.

With good support,

You can learn to manage your PTSD symptoms and you can do all of the things you wanted to do.

PTSD is not about being a soldier or having experienced a war.

It's about you having experienced a trauma,

A really big trauma,

Where your body felt out of control,

Where you felt like your life was in danger.

Maybe it happened once,

Or maybe it happened multiple times,

Or maybe it even happened a really long time ago,

But your body remembers and it still feels it.

There are many symptoms of PTSD,

And they can look a various number of ways with different people.

Range from having nightmares,

Flashbacks to something that happened.

If you find yourself distancing from anything that reminds you of the traumatic event.

That's a really big symptom.

Another one is being easily startled,

Right?

Being on guard,

Feeling like you always need to protect yourself.

This is what we call hypervigilance.

A big trigger can maybe look like the person who harmed you.

You see them.

Of course,

Your body is going to go into a state of fight or flight.

You want to protect yourself.

Sometimes triggers can be small.

Maybe we smell something.

Maybe somebody drops something and picks it up and hands it to us.

Something in that motion can remind us of the traumatic event that happened,

Right?

Or it could just remind yourself that,

Ooh,

Danger has happened and I need to protect myself.

There's something that experts are starting to come into understanding more about,

Which is called complex PTSD.

You may even start to engage in behaviors that are really harmful to you,

Whether that is like drinking or leaning more into substance misuse.

This is a really big sign that you need to go and seek professional help.

They'll start to ask you questions about what are your symptoms?

How often have they been happening?

How long have you been experiencing them?

How is it affecting your life?

And the biggest question,

And I think the scariest question that happens sometimes is,

Have you ever thought about hurting yourself or ending your life?

Which can be a very scary question to ask and answer.

But it's super important for us to figure out how we can support you.

It can look like individual therapy or group therapy.

It can look like you going to an outpatient treatment center.

It can look like you going inpatient.

Maybe your PTSD symptoms are really difficult and it's really making it hard for you to manage your everyday life.

But the best thing you can do is speak to your professional,

Be open,

Tell them the things that you want and also set your boundaries of what you don't.

There are many treatment styles for how to support you with PTSD.

One of the ones that comes to mind,

And stay with me,

It will sound a little like science fiction is EMDR.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.

Basically,

We're really talking about the relationship between light,

Sound,

Your memories,

And your therapist as a guide.

Another therapeutic tool that we may use is called CBT,

Particularly trauma-focused CBT.

So really,

CBT is cognitive behavioral therapy,

Which is talking about how you understand your thinking patterns that you've developed,

Especially the unhelpful ones,

And how they develop into patterns that affect your mood,

Your anxiety,

And your behaviors with yourself and other people.

Somatic work is getting in touch with your bodily sensations,

How you experience the trauma in your body,

And then with your therapist,

As you are practicing skills to feel calmer,

To desensitize some of the triggers that you're experiencing and have a better connection with your brain and your body.

In some cases,

Medication can be helpful.

It will not make your symptoms go away,

But it can really diminish the severity of how you're feeling them.

One of the medications we may use is called an antidepressant,

And it's used for PTSD,

But it can help with both mood and anxiety.

There are many ways that you can process your trauma and lower your symptoms,

And they look different across cultures and across people.

I am someone who is an African-American person.

So there is healing within my food and the way I dance and the music that I hear.

So look for a culturally competent therapist,

Someone who acknowledges who you are and is able to mold all those pieces of processing,

Learning and living into your care.

It is a really normal feeling.

To feel as if PTSD is something that you will be stuck with.

That will completely change the trajectory of your life.

And that you will never be able to get back to all those hopes and dreams you had before.

But healing can happen for everyone with time and with care.

And it will look different for every single person.

Believe in yourself and trust that you deserve a good and healthy and happy life.