PTSD Resources

What is PTSD

PTSD is short for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is an anxiety disorder caused by a traumatic event that was harmful to the person, or threatened harm to the person, or that the person witnessed. Some examples of these traumatic events include violent deaths, car accidents, rape, kidnapping, fires, bombs and combat. 

With all the traumatic events our troops witness and experience during warfare, it is no surprise that so many of our troops suffer from PTSD. Our troops get shot at, they shoot back and they watch people die, then they have to deal with the bodies afterward. They get blown up by explosives. They get ambushed. It’s war they’re dealing with over there and it’s not pretty.

PTSD can vary in different people from mild to very severe. As of writing this, there is no way to know which individuals are more likely to develop PTSD than others because it doesn’t discriminate. Anyone can get it regardless of religion, race, gender, age or background. Anywhere, at anytime. 

The effects of PTSD

Aside from avoiding any potentially traumatic events (which is nearly impossible, even for Bubble Boy) there is nothing you can do to prevent PTSD from happening to you.

Symptoms usually begin within three months of the traumatic event, but sometimes it can be years before symptoms emerge. PTSD symptoms can last anywhere from a month to many years.

These symptoms typically snowball into further complications such as domestic violence, recklessness, marital issues, drug abuse and more. People suffering from PTSD may develop addictions to alcohol, drugs, adrenaline, pornography, etc. as a way to cope with their feelings or as a way to escape them.

Getting diagnosed with PTSD

According to the DSM-5, to be diagnosed with PTSD, a person must have all of the following for at least 1 month:

  • One or more “re-experiencing” symptoms
  • Three or more “avoidance” symptoms.
  • Two or more “hyperarousal” symptoms.
  • Other symptoms that make it hard to go about daily life, go to school or work, be with friends, and take care of important tasks

Re-experiencing Symptoms

  • upsetting memories
  • jumpiness, startling easily
  • nightmares, often reliving the trauma
  • flashbacks, often triggered by sights, smells, sounds
  • sleeplessness, insomnia
  • depression, thoughts of suicide
  • feeling loss of identity
  • on high-alert all the time, scanning for threats
  • feeling stuck, frozen, trapped

Hyperarousal Symptoms

  • irritability
  • jumpiness, startling easily
  • on high-alert all the time, scanning for threats
  • feeling stuck, frozen, trapped

Avoidance Symptoms

  • avoid situations that trigger memories
  • they try to distract themselves
  • difficult to be in touch with feelings
  • emotional distance from people you were close to before
  • may isolate from others
  • emotionally “numb”
  • feeling loss of identity
  • forgetting important parts of, or unable to talk about, the event

Other Symptoms

  • conduct disorder
  • impaired social skills
  • substance abuse
  • difficulty functioning
  • troubled relationships

Resources to help Navigate PTSD

Medications And Drug Safety

Chad died of multiple drug toxicity, also known as CDI. He had 12 different prescriptions for sleep and anxiety.

Blindly throwing prescriptions at victims of PTSD and depression is a bad idea. There are many treatment methods that should be considered besides pills. 

Suicide Symptoms And Treatments

Suicidal thoughts are a clear indication that something is seriously wrong in a person’s life. 

No matter the race or age of the person; how rich or poor they are, it is true that most people who die by suicide have a mental or emotional disorder. 

Treatment Facilities

Treatment of PTSD usually involves talking about your feelings openly and honestly in group therapy sessions with other people who feel the same as you.

We are always looking for more facilities and programs that can help. We will list them here as we find them.

Alternative treatment methods

Some of the drugs prescribed for PTSD can be very powerful. Other options can include;

EMDR is a structured therapy that encourages the patient to briefly focus on the trauma memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation (typically eye movements), which is associated with a reduction in the vividness and emotion associated with the trauma memories.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a common type of talk therapy (psychotherapy). You work with a mental health counselor (psychotherapist or therapist) in a structured way, attending a limited number of sessions. CBT helps you become aware of inaccurate or negative thinking so you can view challenging situations more clearly and respond to them in a more effective way.

Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, is a way to help people with a broad variety of mental illnesses and emotional difficulties. Psychotherapy can help eliminate or control troubling symptoms so a person can function better and can increase well-being and healing.

Tense muscles are a common reaction to stress. Indeed, many people experience some tension in the neck and shoulders in a normal workday. Progressive muscle relaxation can help with stress and tension. It involves tensing and relaxing the muscles in your body, one muscle group at a time. It can also reduce other reactions to stress, such as rapid breathing and heartbeat, stomach problems, and headache.

Anger management is a psycho-therapeutic program for anger prevention and control. It has been described as deploying anger successfully. Anger management programs consider anger to be a motivation caused by an identifiable reason which can be logically analyzed and addressed.

Keeping a marriage healthy and happy over time takes work, and is sometimes quite a difficult task. It is wonderful when a couple in a troubled relationship is able to recognize and jointly work out their differences. This process is seldom easy, however. Once problems have started to become chronic, each partner feels betrayed by the other and compromise feels unsafe. In such cases, the safe and protected haven offered by a marital or couples therapist can make the difference between a marriage that fails and one that recovers itself.

And more. Because of the wide range of symptoms and other issues that go hand in hand with PTSD, a person who suffers from PTSD needs to be treated as a whole, not just for PTSD.