PTSD Treatments

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be helped. Today, a good amount of treatments are available for PTSD. This anxiety disorder may cause a lot of people to keep closed up, but therapy and counseling may actually be one of the best ways to improve their condition.Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is one type of such counseling. In cognitive therapy, a therapist helps patients understand and change how they think about the trauma and its aftermath. The goal is to understand how certain thoughts about their trauma cause stress and make the symptoms worse. According to the National Institute of Mental Health  "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a form of psychotherapy designed to help a person develop a more adaptive response to a fear" (NIMH-CBT). The NIMH states that "CBT is a blend of two therapies: cognitive therapy (CT) and behavioral therapy (BT)" (NIMHs-CBT). As a combination of the two, CBT emphasizes the important role of thinking in how we feel and what we do.Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy, involves carefully and gradually “exposing” yourself to thoughts, feelings, and situations that remind you of the trauma. Therapy also involves identifying upsetting thoughts about the traumatic event–particularly thoughts that are distorted and irrational—and replacing them with more balanced picture.

Another way to help deal with severe anxiety and PTSD are medical drugs. Another possibly effective treatment are medications. For example, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which are a type of antidepressant medicine, may be used. These help people be less sad and worried. They appear to be helpful, and for some people they are very effective. SSRIs include citalopram (Celexa), fluoxetine (such as Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), and sertraline (Zoloft). They often work, because chemicals in your brain affect the way you feel. For example, when you have depression you may not have enough of a chemical called serotonin. SSRIs raise the level of serotonin in your brain.

Medications are often used to help speed up another treatment that the patient is receiving,  and increase the efficiency in the overall response to a treatment. Often, medications are used as a way to help a patient calm down, so that they are able to go through therapy which will help them on a greater level.Medications, therefore, are often paired with psychological treatments for PTSD, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. On their own, medications and psychotherapy may be effective; but by pairing them together, their effectiveness is maximized.