PTSD Treatment Center in Tacoma, Washington

Trauma and PTSD are both related to experiencing scary or distressing events, but they’re not the same thing. Essentially, the main difference between trauma and PTSD is how long these feelings last and how they affect your life. While it’s normal to have a strong emotional reaction after a scary event, most people start to feel better after a few weeks or months. But if your symptoms last longer than a month, cause you great distress, or interfere with your work or home life, you might have PTSD.

Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event. This could be things like car accidents, natural disasters, or being attacked. After the event, you might feel shocked, scared, angry, sad, or even guilty. These feelings are totally normal and usually start to fade over time as you process what happened.

PTSD is a mental health disorder that some people develop after experiencing trauma. People with PTSD continue to have intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings about their ordeal that last long after the event has ended. They may relive the event through flashbacks or nightmares. They might feel sadness, fear, or anger. They may feel detached or estranged from other people. Within our PTSD program, we offer trauma therapy in Washington, which has proven to be highly effective.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness that some people develop after going through a really scary or dangerous event. This could include:

• Being in a car crash
• Seeing violence happen to someone else
• Being attacked or bullied
• Being harassed because of your race, gender, or sexual orientation

People who have experienced any of these things might start having nightmares or flashbacks about what happened. They might feel scared or upset when something reminds them of the event. This is what we call PTSD.

Now, not everyone who experiences a traumatic event will get PTSD. Some people are more likely to develop it than others. These are some of the risk factors that can make someone more likely to get PTSD:

• Being in a war
• Being physically abused as a child
• Being sexually assaulted
• Being threatened with a weapon
• Experiencing an accident

Also, if someone has already gone through a traumatic experience before, especially when they were a kid, they’re more likely to develop PTSD if something traumatic happens to them again.

Lastly, sometimes even the sudden death of a loved one can cause PTSD.

Remember, it’s okay to ask for help if you or someone you know is struggling with feelings like these. There are treatments available that can help people feel better.

• Re-experiencing the trauma: This can happen through distressing recollections of the event, flashbacks, and nightmares
• Avoidance: People with PTSD might avoid places, people, or thoughts that remind them of the past trauma.
• Emotional numbness: They may feel unable to have positive or loving feelings toward other people and lose interest in things they used to enjoy.
• Hyperarousal: This means feeling “on edge,” being easily startled, having difficulty concentrating, or having trouble falling asleep.
• Physical symptoms: These can include chills, shaking, headaches, heart palpitations, and panic attacks.
• Feeling tense, sad, or hopeless: They might withdraw from others, act defiantly, show impulsive behavior, or have other physical manifestations.
• Other problems: These can include difficulty connecting to others, repeatedly checking for threats, or having trouble recalling details of the trauma

PTSD symptoms can vary in intensity, but it is easy to see how PTSD can be detrimental to any person’s life. Often, people with PTSD spend much of their time in fight or flight mode. This causes hormone levels in the body to be continuously elevated. The body then becomes physically and mentally stressed. People often act out or self-medicate to feel some relief from the constant stress of PTSD.

Medications used for the treatment of PTSD typically include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), which are types of antidepressants. The medications conditionally recommended for the treatment of PTSD are sertraline, paroxetine, fluoxetine, and venlafaxine.

Another type of medication that could assist with PTSD treatment is fast-acting anti-anxiety medications. This provides short-term relief of symptoms by calming the patient. Psychiatrists may also prescribe antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and alpha-1 blockers for the treatment of PTSD.

Since PTSD is a complex disorder that affects individuals differently, the choice of medication will depend on the specific symptoms, the patient’s overall health status, and their response to treatment.

PTSD therapy will usually start out with cognitive behavioral therapy, and your therapist may dive into experiential therapy techniques. Experiential therapy can be beneficial for people, especially if they have trouble accessing the memories associated with the experience.

Some individuals have also found group therapy, family therapy, art therapy, or dialectical behavior therapy helpful in managing their condition. It’s important to remember that everyone’s experience with trauma and PTSD is unique, and what works best will depend on the individual’s specific symptoms, overall health, and personal preferences.

Some types of therapy services you can expect to be involved in during a trauma therapy program are:

• Individual therapy
• Group therapy
• Family therapy
• Experiential therapy (art, music, role-playing, animal, nature)
• Mindfulness therapy program
• PTSD counseling

If you or a loved one has PTSD, seek help. Your life will improve significantly by learning to change default behaviors and process the memories and emotions associated with the event. A PTSD program in Tacoma, WA, will prepare you to better face the world after experiencing traumatic events.

Bayview Recovery also offers a PTSD and addiction treatment program with a variety of therapies for you to choose from. We specialize in co-existing conditions to help people recover from PTSD and addiction. Through our PTSD treatment program, we can address a wide array of co-occurring substance abuse conditions, including:

• Alcohol addiction treatment
• Heroin addiction treatment
• Cocaine addiction treatment
• Meth addiction treatment
• Opioid addiction treatment

Additionally, during PTSD treatment, you should first be exposed to many different types of treatment services to see what will work best for your healing process. Everyone has different learning preferences and different healing preferences. Exploring options and finding techniques that work for you is going to be the fastest way to a happier and healthier mind.