Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is diagnosed in about one out of 11 adults in the United States annually. PTSD’s symptoms can disrupt a person’s life, often making normal functioning difficult. People with PTSD can struggle to hold down a job or maintain close relationships. PTSD treatment can be very effective in giving people their lives back. If you have symptoms of PTSD or care about someone who does, reach out for help.
Apex Recovery Nashville offers mental health treatment for people struggling with PTSD and other psychiatric disorders. If you are curious about PTSD symptoms and how PTSD treatment works, contact us by completing this online form or calling 615.703.4639.
What Is PTSD?
PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, is a mental health condition that people who have lived through one or more traumatic events often experience.
Fear is a normal emotion that arises during and immediately after a traumatic experience. People react to danger with physical and mental responses meant to protect them. A surge of cortisol and adrenaline shifts brain function from the frontal lobes to the amygdala, and other changes during extreme stress take place to help you survive. If this heightened stress response continues after the traumatic event is over, and they continue to experience the trauma again and again as if it is still happening, they probably have PTSD.
The symptoms of PTSD can disrupt and negatively impact a person’s quality of life. Often, people struggling with PTSD turn to drugs or alcohol to self-medicate, which may result in substance abuse and a need for drug addiction rehab.
What Are the Signs of PTSD?
PTSD symptoms come in categories that are divided by how they present. A person with this disorder is likely to have symptoms of PTSD that bridge all these categories. The four types of PTSD symptoms are reliving, avoidance, arousal and reactivity, and cognition and mood.
Reliving symptoms may include:
- Flashbacks—reliving the event over and over
- Nightmares
- Frightening thoughts
- Avoidance symptoms may include:
- Avoiding reminders of the traumatic event
- Emotional numbness
- Guilt, depression, or anxiety
- Lack of interest in past hobbies or activities
- Difficulty remembering the traumatic event
Arousal and reactivity symptoms may include:
- Easy to startle
- Tension and edginess
- Sleep dysfunction
- Angry outbursts
- Cognition and mood symptoms may include:
- Negative or fearful thoughts
- Having trouble remembering the event or parts of it
- Loss of interest in activities that once gave pleasure
- Distorted or baseless feelings
These symptoms can occur anytime during the day, interrupting daily life and making basic functioning difficult. Experiencing a traumatic event one time is terrible, but to relive the event over and over again can be unbearable.
Find PTSD Treatment at Apex Recovery Nashville
Because PTSD can present differently in different people, some people have primary symptoms that others rarely experience, and vice versa. If you suspect someone you care about, or yourself, suffers from past trauma and want to know, “What are the signs of PTSD?”—reach out to the PTSD treatment center at Apex Recovery Nashville to find out.
In PTSD treatment, you will benefit from evidence-based treatment that includes psychotherapies such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy or dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), holistic treatments such as acupuncture therapy or hypnosis therapy, and experiential therapies like music therapy. Our program supports the whole person with wrap-around care in a safe setting. Peer support groups, family, group, individual therapy options, and the choice between inpatient and outpatient programs are all critical pieces of the mental health and addiction therapy options at Apex Recovery.
Learn more about the signs of PTSD and how to get the help you need by calling 615.703.4639 or filling out this simple form to connect with someone from our staff.