"A mental and behavioral disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a person's life or well-being."
Coping with trauma teaches techniques like exposure therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and trauma-focused therapy to help manage post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Understanding Trauma: This includes learning the definition, causes, types, and symptoms of trauma, as well as its effects on mental health.
Developing Coping Skills: This involves learning how to manage stress, anxiety, depression, and other emotional reactions that may arise from traumatizing experiences.
Building Resilience: This involves learning how to bounce back after traumatic experiences and face difficult situations with confidence and strength.
Seeking Help: This includes learning about the different types of mental health professionals, how to seek help, and how to find a therapist who specializes in trauma.
Mindfulness: This involves learning techniques for staying present and focused on the present moment, such as meditation, deep breathing, and grounding exercises.
Self-care: This includes learning how to take care of oneself physically and emotionally through exercise, healthy eating, getting enough sleep, and engaging in hobbies and other enjoyable activities.
Validating Emotions: This involves acknowledging and accepting one's emotions and working through them in a healthy way, rather than suppressing or avoiding them.
Building a Support System: This includes learning how to identify and connect with people who will provide emotional support and understanding during difficult times.
Post-traumatic Growth: This involves learning how to use traumatic experiences as an opportunity for growth and personal development, rather than allowing them to hold one back.
Educating Others: This involves learning how to talk about trauma with others and educating them about how to be supportive and understanding to trauma survivors.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT helps individuals to identify and change negative thought patterns that can worsen symptoms of trauma.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR): MBSR is a type of meditation that helps individuals to focus their attention on the present moment and develop a more positive relationship with their thoughts and emotions.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): EMDR involves guided eye movements that help to process and reframe traumatic memories.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): DBT combines elements of CBT with mindfulness practices and aims to help individuals develop healthy coping mechanisms for regulating emotions.
Narrative Therapy: Narrative therapy involves telling and re-telling one's personal story of trauma in order to reframe it in a more positive light.
Art Therapy: Art therapy encourages individuals to express themselves creatively, which can help to alleviate symptoms of trauma.
Exposure Therapy: Exposure therapy involves gradually exposing individuals to stimuli that trigger trauma-related symptoms in a safe, controlled environment in order to desensitize them to those triggers.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT): TF-CBT is a type of CBT that specifically targets trauma-related symptoms.
Psychodynamic Therapy: Psychodynamic therapy helps individuals to understand how their childhood experiences may be impacting their current thoughts, behaviors, and relationships.
Group Therapy: Group therapy provides a safe and supportive environment for individuals to share their experiences and receive feedback and support from others who have experienced similar traumas.
"Symptoms may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alterations in the way a person thinks and feels, and an increase in the fight-or-flight response."
"These symptoms last for more than a month after the event."
"Young children are less likely to show distress, but instead may express their memories through play."
"People who experience interpersonal violence such as rape, other sexual assaults, being kidnapped, stalking, physical abuse by an intimate partner, and incest or other forms of childhood sexual abuse are more likely to develop PTSD than those who experience non-assault based trauma..."
"C-PTSD is similar to PTSD, but has a distinct effect on a person's emotional regulation and core identity."
"Prevention may be possible when counseling is targeted at those with early symptoms..."
"The main treatments for people with PTSD are counseling (psychotherapy) and medication."
"Antidepressants of the SSRI or SNRI type are the first-line medications used for PTSD..."
"Benefits from medication are less than those seen with counseling."
"Medications, other than some SSRIs or SNRIs, do not have enough evidence to support their use..."
"In the United States, about 3.5% of adults have PTSD in a given year..."
"9% of people develop it at some point in their life."
"Higher rates may occur in regions of armed conflict."
"It is more common in women than men."
"The term 'post-traumatic stress disorder' came into use in the 1970s..."
"During the world wars, the condition was known under various terms, including 'shell shock', 'war nerves', neurasthenia, and 'combat neurosis'."
"It was officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980..."
"Symptoms of trauma-related mental disorders have been documented since at least the time of the ancient Greeks."
"A few instances of evidence of post-traumatic illness have been argued to exist from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as the diary of Samuel Pepys, who described intrusive and distressing symptoms following the 1666 Fire of London."