The Best Information about PTSD

When you’re dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental health illness, it can feel like a struggle just to get through each day. Some of the symptoms leave you feeling afraid or anxious about things that other people find no big deal. You may feel tense or on edge most of the time. You may also have nightmares and flashbacks that make it hard to function on a daily basis.
Not only can these symptoms make your life difficult now, but they can also have a lasting impact on the rest of your life. If you aren’t able to manage your PTSD effectively, it could cause you to miss out on opportunities in education, work, relationships, and more.

Luckily, there are several resources for anyone who is dealing with PTSD related issues. The following blog post includes details about some of the best information about PTSD available today.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, otherwise called PTSD, is a mental disorder that a person can obtain by being involved in a traumatic experience. While you may ask yourself who else could have experienced such a traumatic event that caused them to have a mental disorder, I can assure you that it can happen.

Most people automatically think of someone in the military when they hear Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. However, this is not the only type of person who can get PTSD. There are many types of people who can get PTSD. I will go into that more in a minute, but first let’s explore what exactly PTSD consists of.

Symptoms

Symptoms of PTSD will start to become prevalent within one month of the traumatic event. However, symptoms may also not appear until years later. Symptoms of PTSD can be categorized into four types: intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, and changes in physical and emotional reactions. Just like other illnesses, these symptoms may not all be the same for everyone.

Intrusive Memories

Intrusive memory symptoms may include the following:

Avoidance

Avoidance symptoms may include the following:

Negative Changes in Thinking and Mood

negative changes in thinking and mood symptoms may include the following:

Changes in Physical and Emotional Reactions

Changes in physical and emotional reactions, or otherwise called (arousal symptoms), symptoms may include the following:

• frightened or startled easily
• Always vigilant against danger
• Self-destructive behavior, such as excessive drinking or speeding
• Insomnia
• Difficulty with concentration
• may feel irritable, have angry outbursts or aggressive behavior
• guilt or shame that may be overwhelming

 Children under 6 years of age may Show the following symptoms:

• may play through the trauma with toys, displaying what happened
• Nightmares that may or may not be about the traumatic event

Now that I have gone over the symptoms, let’s talk about how severe or mild they can be. For some people, the symptoms may be more severe than others. They may also intensify over time. PTSD symptoms may be more prevalent in times of stress or when you are exposed to reminders of the traumatic event.

Now let’s talk about who can get it and what causes you to get it.

Who Can Get PTSD and What Happens in the Brain?

Anyone can get PTSD, it is not genetic, and it is not something you can catch like a cold. It is specifically related to a traumatic event so severe that the brain doesn’t know how to respond appropriately.

In normal brain development without PTSD, there is a brain expansion of volume that consists of gray and white matter in the first 5 years of life. Furthermore, there has been an increase in white matter and a decrease in gray matter, while the brain’s size does not increase or decrease from the ages of 7-17. In addition, there is a slow decrease in gray matter from the ages of 20-70.

Brain Development in Middle Ages

In the middle stages of life (ages 20-70), caudate, diencephalon and gray matter distinct from the temporal and prefrontal cortex gradually decrease, the ventricles increase, and the white matter remains unchanged. However, after menopause, women around the age of 50 experience changes in reproductive hormones, such as decreased estrogen levels. Because estrogen promotes nerve branching in regions of the brain, such as the hippocampus, the loss of estrogen can lead to changes in nerve structure. Although the effects of menopause on the brain have not been well studied, it is also known that sex hormones affect the function and circuits of the brain. Thus, changes in sex hormones during menopause can affect brain function and structure.

There is some evidence of a slight decrease in hippocampal volume in elderly people (70 years and older) who are in the later stages of aging. More definitive findings include an increase in ventricular volume and a decrease in gray matter, temporal lobe, and cerebellum in normal aging that begins before the age of 70. As a result, trauma at different stages of life might affect the development of the brain differently.

Memory control consists of the frontal lobe, which houses the prefrontal cortex. Although, for someone with PTSD, memory control goes kind of haywire. Therefore, there is an increase in cortisol and norepinephrine responses to stress in these areas for someone with PTSD.

What is Cortisol

You may ask yourself, what is cortisol? First of all, cortisol is the most prominent stress hormone in your body. In addition, the harder you stress your body, the more cortisol you make. The brain can only make so much cortisol, and it has a limited supply. As the amount of cortisol in your brain decreases, you become more stressed.

Furthermore, cortisol makes you feel tired, sleepy, and hungry, and your energy level can plummet. It can also lead to depression, weight gain, and other health problems. Cortisol levels vary throughout the day. In the morning, your cortisol level is at its lowest point. Cortisol levels begin to increase as you become more active.

What is Norepinephrine

What is norepinephrine? Norepinephrine is part of a larger class of neurotransmitters called catecholamines. Catecholamines include adrenaline, dopamine, and norepinephrine, and play a role in your nervous system. They can be released during times of stress, excitement, or fear.

Norepinephrine is also a hormone that regulates the amount of fluid your body holds. Norepinephrine increases when your body is in a fight-or-flight situation, such as during a fire drill.

How your body responds to norepinephrine

When you are in a stressful situation, norepinephrine is released into your blood. This causes your heart rate and blood pressure to rise. Norepinephrine makes you more alert and gives you a feeling of energy. It can also make your body sweat. When norepinephrine levels are too high, your body can’t regulate your heart rate or blood pressure. You can become dizzy, confused, and lightheaded. If this happens, slow down or stop whatever you’re doing.

To use the adrenals, you need to activate them first. This is done through the sympathetic nervous system. To do this, you need to first release adrenaline, the “adrenaline hormone” into the bloodstream. Adrenaline releases in your adrenal glands, which are two little organs about the size of a walnut on top of your kidneys. Adrenaline is an extremely important hormone in your body. Your adrenal glands make it, and your brain uses it to tell you that you’re in danger.

What Types of Trauma Causes PTSD

PTSD is caused by many types of trauma. However, trauma can be caused by many life events or situations in our lives, not all trauma will result in PTSD. Below is a list of possible types of trauma that may lead to PTSD.

• Serious accidents
• Physical or sexual assault
• Abuse, including childhood or domestic abuse
• Being harassed or bullied
• Any situation where you are in fear for your life
• Experiencing violence, including military combat, a terrorist attack, or any type of violent attack
• Seeing other people hurt or killed, including in the course of your job, may be referred to as secondary trauma.
• being exposed to seeing or hearing distressing things, for example working in the armed forces or emergency services
• Surviving a Natural Disaster
• Traumatic childbirth
• Loss of a loved one in upsetting circumstances
• Being diagnosed with a life threatening disease

Treatment for PTSD

To treat PTSD, there are many different treatment options. However, the first step is usually to go through talk therapy or psychotherapy, which involves talking about the experiences you went through and the symptoms you are experiencing with a professional therapist. The other types of treatment are as follows:

• Cognitive – Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – which is talking about the trauma and symptoms and works on a guided plan to use healthier thought and behavior patterns in a safe environment with a therapist.
• Exposure therapy – This technique consists of breaking the pattern of fear and avoidance that is used by therapists in order to overcome fears and anxieties.
• eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy – While recalling the trauma, you move your eyes side-to-side to process the events outside of the emotional attachment to them.

The experience of a healthcare provider and your own needs will determine the type of therapy you receive. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or ssri’s are the type of medications usually given to treat PTSD. You may know them or have heard of them by pharmaceutical their names. Zoloft and Paxil are a couple, to name a few.

What to do if you are experiencing symptoms

please see my resource page for available resources in your area if you are experiencing symptoms. If you have symptoms and are in treatment, but would like to get some additional resources to help you in your own time, please take a look at the book resources post that lists books that I recommend. If you are in immediate danger or need immediate assistance, please call your local emergency services or crisis line. I have also included those contacts in the resources section of the site.

For more content on mental health illnesses please click here. If you would like more sites to look more into this then check out the PTSD: National center for PTSD