Mental Health

How to Manage Your PTSD

By Staff Reporter | Update Date: Apr 15, 2021 03:02 AM EDT
How to Manage Your PTSD

(Photo : Pexels)

Stress is something that is hard to lessen and control, especially if you are unaware of all the triggers or factors in your life that are causing you to experience stress. Too much stress can also lead to certain mental health conditions, including anxiety disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. If you experience stress in your life, you may want to learn more about what can be done about something like PTSD. This article can help you with that.

What is PTSD?

PTSD, as the name suggests, is usually brought on after a person endures something traumatic. This can be one event or a series of events, depending on the situation. While anyone may develop it, PTSD is seen in many soldiers, as well as people that have been abused. Some symptoms of this disorder include nightmares, flashbacks, feeling depressed, and having an intense amount of shame or fear.

As you can imagine, if a person experiences these symptoms, they need to do everything they can to treat them, considering they could be quite serious. 

Treatments

If you feel like you may have PTSD, the first thing you should do is have yourself checked out by your doctor. They will be able to rule out any physical causes for the symptoms you are experiencing. After these things have been eliminated, you should consider talking to a therapist.

A therapist will have different options available when it comes to treating the symptoms of your PTSD. This ranges from things like cognitive processing therapy, which sets out to help you learn more about the causes of your symptoms and how to react differently to stimuli and situations. Additionally, medicines may be prescribed to help you with other symptoms related to PTSD. This is something you should talk to your therapist about, to ensure that you know what to expect. Be sure to report any side effects you experience, so you can be sure that you are on a medicine that will be able to help you and not cause additional symptoms.

You might be able to get therapy from the privacy of your home through online therapy, instead of traditional therapy. This may allow you to be more comfortable through the therapeutic process.

At-Home Treatments

There are also other things you should do if you are experiencing PTSD or think that you are. You should take care of your overall health and do everything you can to lessen your stress and anxiety when you can.

Talk to Others

At times, certain mental health conditions may leave you feeling like you don't want to interact with others. While this is understandable, it is necessary to keep the lines of communication open with those you care about the most. Try to talk to your loved ones as often as you feel comfortable with, so they will know that you are okay. They may even be a resource you can lean on from time to time when you are having a bad day.

Eat Right and Sleep Well

A couple of other things that may not be obvious when it comes to managing your PTSD are eating right and sleeping enough at night. You should make sure your meals are providing the right nutrients, and sleep around 8 hours each night. Of course, it could take a while to get the hang of these two things, so do the best you can until it gets easier to attain these goals.

Be Patient

Seeing a difference in your symptoms can take a while, even when you are following your treatment plan properly. This is to be expected. Be sure to hang in there and try, and you should have the best chance at seeing some of your symptoms fade.

Overview

PTSD may be something you have heard about in the past but weren't too educated on. If this is the case, you should conduct research on the topic, so you will be able to recognize the symptoms in yourself and the people you care about. This is recommended by the Mayo Clinic. There is a lot of help out there for people that experience PTSD, as well as a number of treatment options that they will be able to take advantage of. In other words, there is hope. 

Marie Miguel Biography

Marie Miguel has been a writing and research expert for nearly a decade, covering a variety of health- related topics. Currently, she is contributing to the expansion and growth of a free online mental health resource with BetterHelp.com. With an interest and dedication to addressing stigmas associated with mental health, she continues to specifically target subjects related to anxiety and depression.

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* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of counselheal.com

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