Treating PTSD With the Help of Effective Treatment Options

Treating PTSD has become more effective in recent years with the advent of great treatment options that are available to patients today.

1 in 11 people will be clinically diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetimes. Many more will never get the formal diagnosis they need.

PTSD is an often debilitating illness that can leave a person unable to live their lives happily and can cause a bevy of other issues. Fortunately, there are several treatments available for PTSD victims that can help discharge the effects the illness has on them.

Below, our team outlines five effective methods of treating PTSD that are practiced across the country. We recommend looking over each technique in-depth and talking to your doctor about which one might best suit your needs.

1. Meditation Therapy

Perhaps the most simple means of treating PTSD is taking up a mediation practice. Meditation practices can be developed alone at home and there are many different schools of meditation one can explore.

For PTSD, we like “mindfulness” meditation as it trains brains to live more presently. That can help prevent you from thinking about traumatic events at inopportune times and reliving those negative emotions.

To get started with mindfulness, consider browsing the free practices available on the UCLA website.

2. Cognitive Processing

A more formal means of treating PTSD is cognitive processing therapy. During this treatment, you’ll sit with a health professional who will encourage you to talk through your traumatic event. You’ll likely also be asked to write down what happened to get the event out of your head and on paper.

With your event in the open, your professional will help you more objectively analyze what took place and point out to you the various elements of the situation that you couldn’t control.

3. Prolonged Exposure

More intense than cognitive processing, prolonged exposure therapy aims to cure patients by exposing them to their trauma. Professionals will put sufferers in situations where they’ll face their fears in controlled environments with the hopes that, over time, they’ll become desensitized to them.

In some cases, exposure therapy can deepen wounds caused by trauma so tread carefully when exploring this treatment path. This all should only be attempted, as with most treatments, with the assistance of a licensed medical professional.

4. Medication

Medication can give patients the immediate results they need to cope with debilitating trauma. Medication used in tandem with therapy, as a matter of fact, may be the most effective treatment course you can pursue.

There are expenses involved with getting medication but there are also ample ways to save money on prescriptions that you can explore which may make this a viable option.

5. Connection Reconditioning

Reconditioning connections is an old psychological technique. This method of treating PTSD will have you talk through your event and aims to break your pattern of getting worked up while reliving it through distraction.

For example, you might be talking about your divorce and whenever you start to get emotional, your doctor might squeak a rubber duck or have you tell a joke. This redirection of emotions can rewire your brain to not feel sadness, fear, etc. when lamenting on negative events.

Treating PTSD Is Possible and Can Change Your Life

Living with PTSD is akin to living with your life’s glass half empty. You can change that reality by taking positive steps which will help you better cope with your emotions and fill your glass back up.

We wish you the best of luck as you seek relief and welcome you to enjoy more of the content on our blog if you’d like additional information on treating PTSD.