Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
What is it?
If you, or your child, has experienced a life threatening, terrifying, physical or sexual assault, then you might have PTSD. PTSD can disrupt your sleep, your ability to enjoy life, your ability to trust, your ability to concentrate and your willingness to take risks and try new things. It can make you feel like you live under a cloud of doom and rob you of hope and faith in a good world. If you have PTSD, you might also struggle with other disorders, such as depression, substance abuse, body image problems, functional neurological disorders, chronic pain and impulsive behaviors in risky situations that places you at higher risk for repeated trauma.
How we treat it?
Successful treatment involves multiple types of therapy that helps you learn how to build and restore self-confidence, trust, hope, the ability to wind down and develop new skills that are adaptive instead of stuck in old defensive patterns that worked during a trauma but are maladaptive in the present. Medications, acupuncture, massage and other integrative therapies can also be helpful.
