Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment – How does it work?

 First of all, what is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

After a traumatic event, our brains sometimes change. This can cause symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Most people will experience symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for up to 4 weeks after a traumatic event. However, some may experience symptoms for longer. This is when medical/psychiatric intervention is required to help relieve symptoms. 

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatments

What counts as a ‘traumatic’ event?

A traumatic event could be anything – the most obvious being on a battlefield. However, it could also be losing a parent from a young age, caring for someone when they’re extremely ill until death, being in a car crash, losing somebody to suicide, or abuse at any age. There are many potential causes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is why Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment should be tailored to individuals.

What are the symptoms of PTSD?

For Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment to continue to improve, there has to be an understanding of the symptoms. Symptoms of PTSD include emotional dysregulation, mood swings, trembling, palpitations, nightmares, flashbacks, avoidance behaviours, dissociation and more. These symptoms can be extremely difficult to live with for the sufferer, but also for those close to the person suffering.

What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment?

Post traumatic stress disorder treatment comes in a few forms. When diagnosed with PTSD symptoms, it is likely talking therapies may be offered. One example would be cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This can be helpful to those who might avoid certain situations because of the trauma that they experienced. It can help them to change their way of thinking in those situations and rationalise them more easily. For some, CBT might not be enough. EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) can be another option for sufferers of PTSD. Although this is a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment that is still being explored, it has proven to be very effective so far. It has been extensively researched, and what makes it different to other more conventional therapies is that the main focus of it is to help heal the brain. This is because trauma actually alters the brain.

How does EMDR work?

After a traumatic experience, the brain starts a recovery process. The hippocampus, which deals with memory and learning, communicates with the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala (these deal with behaviour and stress signals). Sometimes the recovery process takes longer, especially if a person is still distressed by the event that occurred. EMDR helps this recovery process to continue so that it can eventually be resolved. Although I’m referring to EMDR as a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment, it can also be used for phobias, eating disorders, sleep disturbance, depression, and many other mental health problems.

How long does EMDR take?

Most people need fewer EMDR sessions for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment than other forms of psychotherapy.  This means it can be quite a popular choice.

What about medication for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment?

Sometimes, medication is prescribed as a form of treatment. Usually the medicine would be a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor – this is a modern anti-depressant, also known as an SSRI. These are known to have fewer side effects than older anti-depressants.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – You Can’t Always See It

 

What is OCD?

Obsessive compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder that’s characterised by rituals and compulsions used to rid the sufferer of distressing intrusive thoughts. There is a common perception of OCD (not helped by TV shows like, ‘Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners’ and others similar), that it’s just an enjoyment or obsession with cleaning. Cleaning can become an obsession or a compulsion for a sufferer of OCD, but many people diagnosed with OCD find it affects them in different ways to that. As it can be complex, it can be hard to imagine obsessive compulsive disorder treatment is possible.

 

Examples of OCD

For example, recently I spoke to somebody who had experienced harm OCD. Harm OCD is when you experience intrusive thoughts about harm you might cause to yourself or other people. It can lead to avoidance behaviour. In a mother or a father, this might mean they avoid holding or being near their child because they worry they might harm them. It can also mean things like driving down a road several times to check that you didn’t run somebody over without realising. Another person I have spoken to that struggles with OCD has spent up to 6 hours performing compulsions (checking every single thing in his house), and during this time everybody in the house has to remain completely silent – if they make a sound, things don’t feel ‘right’, so he has to start all over again, or face a panic attack. The severity of these cases makes you wonder if obsessive compulsive disorder treatment could help.

 

What are intrusive thoughts?

Everybody has intrusive thoughts. It’s completely normal to have thoughts ‘appear’ that could be something you don’t agree with. However, people with OCD become very anxious or distressed about these thoughts. They doubt themselves and ruminate over them, and in a lot of cases they convince themselves that they are terrible people because of their intrusive thoughts. If everybody has intrusive thoughts, how does obsessive compulsive disorder treatment help?

 

What’s different about intrusive thoughts when it comes to OCD?

With OCD, intrusive thoughts lead to compulsions or rituals that may help the person relieve their anxiety for a short time. These rituals and compulsions can be obvious, like the ones mentioned above, or other things like compulsive hand-washing. However some compulsions are a lot less noticeable. A common compulsion would be reassurance seeking – somebody with OCD might steer the conversation in a direction that will end up reassuring them about their intrusive thoughts. Counting and checking can also be done mentally – checking thoughts, checking memories etc. The worst part is that all of these things only lead to further self-doubt and anxiety in the long run.

 

Treatments

Obsessive compulsive disorder treatment is available. Most people with OCD have obsessive tendencies, meaning that even when the condition is manageable or nearly ‘cured’, it is possible to become worse again. This is why treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder includes coping mechanisms that can be used in every day life, whether it be through exposure response prevention therapy or cognitive behavioural therapy. Some patients require antidepressants (usually SSRIs) alongside their treatment, as treatment can be quite intense and raise anxiety levels for a while. However, antidepressants alone are not usually the answer to obsessive compulsive disorder, so it’s important when visiting a GP to request to be referred to specialist services.

Psychological Defence Mechanisms

 

What are Psychological Defence Mechanisms?

Everybody has psychological defence mechanisms. They're the body's way of protecting itself from psychological pain. There are a few different kinds of psychological defence mechanisms. The easiest one to explain would be denial. This is something that most people experience when they're going through a bereavement. We show examples of this in our programme about psychological defence mechanisms. A widow has just attended her husband's funeral, but she feels like he is still around and could walk through the door any minute. She doesn't want to believe he is gone because it's too painful for her. Another example of denial would be a smoker not being able to accept that they're addicted to nicotine - 'I'm not addicted, I could quit any time, I just choose not to.' Another well known defence mechanism is regression. In our programme on the subject, we introduce a young boy who, at the age of 5, has started to wet the bed at night. It is found that this is due to home stresses caused by his parents' divorce.

Can psychological defence mechanisms cause harm?

The strange thing about psychological defence mechanisms, is that although they're the unconscious mind's method of defence, they can still end up causing harm. Psychosis can alter a person's perspective on reality, causing delusions and sometimes hallucinations. An example I can think of more recently would be somebody I came across on youtube. She told the story of how the death of her dog during a very stressful point in her life triggered psychosis - her voice changed (she was speaking like a child), and she spoke about trying to go into the forest at night to be with her dog. After a few weeks, she started to come out of her psychosis. It was a very scary ordeal for her and her family, as she couldn't remember much of what had gone on.

Other Psychological Defence Mechanisms

 The mechanisms mentioned are only a few of the defence mechanisms that we know of. There are others, such as dissociation, repression, displacement, and sublimation. Dissociation can be anything from a mild detachment from everything around you, to not being able to engage in any experience. It occurs as a result of stress, conflict or in some cases even boredom. Most victims of abuse have issues with dissociating, and develop dissociative disorders as a result of their trauma. Displacement is a very common defence mechanism. An example would be if somebody felt a lot of anger towards a person, and expressed their anger by breaking something (rather than hitting or yelling at that person). Sublimation is similar to this, but instead of doing something unacceptable to satisfy the anger, the person puts their negative feelings/energy into something more constructive and socially acceptable.

Our Programme on Psychological Defence Mechanisms

A few of these mechanisms are explored in our own programme, called, 'Psychological Defence Mechanisms', which is currently available to watch on our website. There are also many other programmes on various mental health problems, including depression and anxiety, schizophrenia, OCD and eating disorders.

Eating Disorder Treatment In The UK – How Does It Work And What Needs To Change?

What Is An Eating Disorder?

An eating disorder is a mental health condition that revolves around food, and using food to cope with uncomfortable feelings and sometimes other situations, such as trauma. This can mean eating too little or eating too much, worrying about weight or specific parts of the body and what they look like, and compensatory behaviour e.g. using laxatives to ‘get rid of’ food that has been consumed, or over-exercising.

Types Of Eating Disorder

- Anorexia Nervosa – Controlling weight by restricting food intake, over-exercising or a combination of the two.

- Bulimia Nervosa – Struggling to control the amount of food eaten and then taking unhealthy drastic action to ‘reverse’ this.

- Binge Eating Disorder – Regularly eating large amounts of food until past full, and struggling to control this behaviour.

Who Is Most Likely To Develop An Eating Disorder?

Eating disorder treatment in the UK isn’t as accessible as it should be. An eating disorder can affect anybody, but are most likely to develop in the teenage years. They can continue into adulthood if left untreated, and can put the sufferer at risk of many complications, such as diabetes, liver problems, heart problems, osteoporosis, and death. Eating disorders are often thought of as a teenage girl problem, however, many boys and men are also affected by eating disorders. Stigmatising the issue often leads boys and men to feel more shame about their behaviours and so they are less likely to seek help.

Eating Disorder Treatment In The UK

If you think you may be suffering with an eating disorder, you should visit your GP to address your concerns. Your GP should take you seriously and refer you to specialists who will be able to help with a diagnosis and treatment for your eating disorder. Eating disorder treatment in the UK varies depending on the disorder, and the severity of it. For example, someone with Bulimia Nervosa may require regular meetings with a therapist and see a lot of progress using a self-help book and eating plan which helps them repair their relationship with food and increase their self-esteem. Alongside this, blood tests should also be taken to ensure that there are no health problems as a result of the eating disorder behaviours. Somebody with a very severe case of Bulimia Nervosa may need constant supervision and therefore it would be better for them to be admitted as an in-patient so that they can be supervised through recovery.

Therapies

Therapy is a big part of eating disorder treatment in the UK, and elsewhere in the world. Depending on the eating disorder, the therapies that may be used are cognitive behavioural therapy, cognitive analytic therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, and family interventions. Someone struggling with an eating disorder may also be referred to a self-help support group. 

Barriers To Treatment

Unfortunately, with mental health services being stretched and eating disorders being highly misunderstood by many, there can be barriers to treatment for those with eating disorders. One barrier is weight. For some eating disorders, like Anorexia Nervosa, being underweight is often a symptom. Depending on whereabouts in the United Kingdom you are, BMI may be taken into account when admitting somebody with an eating disorder. Sadly, this means a lot of people who are overweight but suffering with an eating disorder struggle to get treatment for it and aren’t taken seriously. It reinforces the idea that somebody can’t have an eating disorder unless they are underweight, which is not true at all. As well as this, sufferers may feel that they are not ‘sick enough’ to seek treatment, which may worsen disordered eating behaviours and put them at more risk.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – OCD Myths

What Do You Think OCD Is?

Most people have heard the term ‘OCD’, but the real question is, has it been used in the right context? Many associates ‘OCD’ with traits like being neat, clean and tidy. While these can come as a part of OCD, they’re not what defines it. OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder – this is shocking for some who use the term on a regular basis, as they might not realise it is an actual anxiety disorder.

 

What Is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Really?

Obsessive compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder characterised by distressing intrusive thoughts and the compulsions or rituals that someone may perform to reduce their anxiety around these thoughts. Intrusive thoughts can be relating to the cleanliness or tidiness of a room, but there are many kinds of intrusive thoughts that can come with obsessive compulsive disorder, not just these. Sometimes obsessive compulsive disorder Treatments affects people in a way that has nothing to do with this. For example, intrusive thoughts can be worrying you might accidentally harm or kill somebody, unpleasant sexual thoughts, anything that you might not necessarily WANT to think, but that just comes into your head. Intrusive thoughts are something that everyone experiences, but not everyone can just dismiss them. To some, they feel extreme guilt or worry around the intrusive thought and they have to check things, count to a certain number, wash their hands a certain number of times in order to rid themselves of the thought. This is only temporary and often the dependence on the compulsions becomes more severe over time.

What Are Compulsions?

Compulsions can be all sorts of things. One that we would be familiar with from TV shows and films would be obsessive cleaning, and checking things are in place. Other compulsions include ‘neutralising bad thoughts’ by thinking good things to counteract the bad thought, ruminating, hand-washing and many more. One that a lot of people wouldn’t realise is a compulsion is reassurance seeking. This can come through in different ways – checking what people think of something you have said or done, or disguised in a normal conversation which is often guided by the person who needs the reassurance, until they find the reassurance they need. Some may say the same things to lots of different people in the form of ‘oversharing’ to get the reassurance they need over and over again. So obsessive compulsive disorder is not necessarily what the media portrays it as.

OCD Can Be Treated

Obsessive compulsive disorder affects each person differently. How severe it is can also vary, but there is treatment for OCD, usually in the form of talking therapies and exposure response prevention therapy. Exposure response prevention therapy challenges the patient to withstand their anxiety around not performing a compulsion until the anxiety starts to dip. Some may be able to do small exercises at their own home, while others might have OCD so severe that they need supervision and guidance by a professional.

Mental Health Education – What Do We Need?

 

Mental Health – What Is It?

Mental health is something that everybody has. Some people may have good mental health, others may have bad or ill mental health. Either way, it’s extremely important to take care of your mental health. Mental health education is an important part of learning how to take care of it.

 

Why Is Mental Health Education Important?

Mental health is an important part of life. The state of your mental health can be the difference between you struggling or performing well at work, maintaining relationships or struggling to keep them, and more. Mental health education may help people who are struggling to realise the cause, and what they can do to help. For example, somebody who struggles to concentrate at work may not realise that this is due to anxiety or low mood caused by underlying low self-esteem. Self-esteem can be a huge help in navigating life.

 

How Do We Know When Somebody Needs Help?

Signs of ill mental health vary from person to person. Somebody could withdraw from their usual activities and social life, their outlook on life could change to become quite bleak, and they may talk about death. These are quite obvious signs of a negative change in mental health. However, some people mask their emotions and continue as if nothing is wrong. This makes it harder to tell if there is a problem. Their symptoms may be things like lack of concentration and difficulty sleeping – these are things that others may not notice straight away.

 

How Can We Educate Further?

Communication is key when it comes to mental health education. Our workplaces need to have a certain amount of time allocated to education on mental health, in order to ensure employees have somewhere to go when they are struggling, or to help them recognise if they are struggling. Our schools need to also have these resources, so that children can grow up equipped with resilience and coping skills for difficult times. Some may argue that this is too much for a child, but it can help to develop an understanding of mental health problems that I argue would be very beneficial to them.

 

What Mental Health Problems Need To Be Spoken About?

Currently, there is a very generalised approach to mental health education for the general public, with a big focus on depression and anxiety. This is because the symptoms of depression and anxiety are much easier to relate to than symptoms that may come with other mental health problems. Most people can understand low mood and feeling anxious, because both of those things are things that everybody experiences to varying degrees.  Although knowing the signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety and knowing what you can do about those things is important, it’s also vital that we speak about other mental health problems that have more stigma and less understanding attached to them. Examples of these mental health problems would be eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder (now more often known as emotionally unstable personality disorder), post-natal depression, post-partum psychosis, and dissociative identity disorder. Here at Mental Health TV, we create content on not just depression and anxiety, but other more stigmatised mental health problems like the ones listed above.

Pyschopharmacology Treatment – An Important Part Of Psychiatric Treatment

 What Is Psychopharmacology?

Psychopharmacology is the study of the effect that drugs have on peoples’ minds and behaviour. Without psychopharmacology, we wouldn’t have anti-anxiety medications, anti-psychotic medications or anti-depressants. Thanks to psychopharmacology, many lives have been changed for the better, and many find that their mental health problems are now manageable. However, this can’t be said for everybody, as the mind is a complicated thing, and everybody is different.

 

Why Do Psychotropic Medications Have A Bad Reputation?

Medications used to treat mental health problems have a lot of stigma attached to them. We’ve all heard people say things like, “They turn you into a different person,”, and, “They make you feel numb to everything.” Although exercising regularly, having a healthy diet and taking time for your own hobbies and relaxation all have a good effect on mental health, for some, this is not enough. Medication affects every person differently. Some people benefit greatly from mental health medication. They might find that anti-depressants take the edge off of their lows, allowing them to continue with their therapy, their routine or their work. They can make things more manageable. Like all medication, there is the possibility of side effects. Possible side effects are what the medication is supposed to prevent. To minimise risk, doctors insist on monitoring patients who are new to anti-depressants to make sure that they start to have the right effect.

 

Why Is Psychopharmacology Important?

For many, psychopharmacology treatment is life-saving. For those people, the ‘cure’ to their depression isn’t simply going on more walks in nature, or taking more time to relax. They need more. Unfortunately, many people that take medication for their mental health are judged for their decision to take medication. People sharing their negative beliefs with those who take medication for their mental health don’t realise that sometimes they’re acting as a saboteur to that person’s mental health.

 

Side Effects

Like any treatment requiring medication, psychopharmacology treatment has side effects. Side effects are a little less predictable with certain psychoactive medications. Some side effects may be weight gain and difficulty sleeping, difficulty concentrating or difficulty staying awake. Some may prefer their life without the side effects, and life may be more manageable without the medication. However, for some who need medications like anti-psychotics, weight gain or insomnia may be favourable to the alternative, which could be psychosis, paranoia, delusions, hallucinations and anything else that could put them or others at risk.

 

What About Addiction?

Some substances used to help treat mental health problems have a bad reputation because they are addictive. This is true, but sometimes it is the best option for somebody who is suffering. Also, most   medications have some kind of withdrawal effect. Newer versions of anti-depressants are said to have less severe withdrawal than older ones. These are known as SSRIs (serotonin sensitive reuptake inhibitors). It’s important to be guided through treatment and monitored regularly by a psychiatrist or your GP to ensure things are under control.