How Do You Treat PTSD

What Is PTSD?

PTSD can make your everyday life a much more daunting endeavor. It transforms your hobbies and responsibilities into seemingly herculean tasks. You may feel like you can’t carry on the same lifestyle as you did before and find that you grow more and more socially isolated.

Symptoms of stress, nightmares, flashbacks, and anxiety are normal after going through something traumatic. If these feelings don’t go away with time (or even worse, only get more intense with time) you may instead be suffering from PTSD.

PTSD Treatments

The aim of PTSD is to give you a new level of control over your symptoms in order to allow you a sense of normalcy again. Treatment can take many forms: new options like ketamine infusions or old standards like psychotherapy or medication.

Ketamine For PTSD Treatment

Ketamine began as an anesthetic and pain reliever decades ago but is an innovative new treatment for mood disorders and mental illnesses like PTSD due to the way it interacts with the NMDA receptor in the brain.

According to PsychiatryAdvisor, “a growing body of evidence points to the role of glutamate, a widely distributed excitatory neurotransmitter, in mediating the response to stress and the formation of traumatic memories. Ketamine is an ionotropic glutamatergic N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, antagonist. It’s antidepressant and anti-anxiety effects are presumed to occur through activating synaptic plasticity by increasing brain-derived neurotrophic factor translation and secretion and also by inhibiting glycogen synthase kinase-3 and activating mammalian target of rapamycin signaling.”

Psychotherapy For PTSD

Psychotherapy, better known as talk therapy, is a tried-and-true means of treatment. It involves sitting down with a trusted mental health professional as they teach you coping methods and new ways of thinking that will help you in your fight against PTSD symptoms. Types of psychotherapy include cognitive therapy, exposure therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).

What Are The Symptoms Of PTSD?

Though typically PTSD symptoms start a month or so after the traumatic event you experienced, they may not appear until even years down the line. These symptoms can greatly disrupt your regular activities and you may grow socially isolated as a result.

The symptoms of PTSD can be grouped into four subtypes: intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, and changes in physical and emotional reactions.

Intrusive Memories

• Distressing and intrusive memories of the original event
• Flashbacks to the event, as if you are living through it again
• Nightmares about the traumatic event
• Emotional or physical reactions to things that remind you of the event

Avoidance

• Avoiding talking or even thinking about the traumatic event
• Avoiding any people, things, or places that remind you of your trauma

Negative Changes in Thinking and Mood

• Thinking negatively about yourself or others
• Hopelessness about the future or the world in general
• Trouble remembering aspects of the traumatic event
• Trouble maintaining your close relationships
• Social withdrawal
• Loss of interest in hobbies and things you enjoy
• A feeling of emotional numbness

Changes in Physical and Emotional Reactions

• Always being on guard or on watch
• Being frightened or startled easily
• Substance abuse
• Self-destructive behavior
• Difficulty concentrating
• Not getting enough sleep

Need Help With Your PTSD?

Contact Thrive Center for Health of Grand Rapids Charter Township, MI, and learn more about how ketamine treatments for PTSD can help you