PTSD Treatment

Traumatic events can be very difficult to come to terms with, but confronting your feelings and getting professional help is often the only way of effectively treating PTSD.

It's possible for PTSD to be successfully treated many years after the traumatic event or events occurred, which means it's never too late to get help.

Assessment

Before having treatment for PTSD, a detailed assessment of your symptoms will be carried out to ensure treatment is tailored to your individual needs. This may be carried out by a GP or specialist.

You can see a GP to start on this process, or you can refer yourself for assessment to a talking therapy service. You're likely to be offered treatment if you've had symptoms of PTSD for more than 4 weeks or your symptoms are severe.

There are a number of mental health specialists you may see if you have PTSD, such as a psychological therapist, psychologist, community psychiatric nurse or psychiatrist.

Post-traumatic stress disorder treatment can help you regain a sense of control over your life. The primary treatment is psychotherapy, but can also include medication. Combining these treatments can help improve your symptoms by:

• Teaching you skills to address your symptoms
• Helping you think better about yourself, others and the world
• Leaing ways to cope if any symptoms arise again
• Treating other problems often related to traumatic experiences, such as depression, anxiety, or misuse of alcohol or drugs

You don't have to try to handle the burden of PTSD on your own.

Psychotherapy

Several types of psychotherapy, also called talk therapy, may be used to treat children and adults with PTSD. Some types of psychotherapy used in PTSD treatment include:

• Cognitive therapy. This type of talk therapy helps you recognize the ways of thinking (cognitive pattes) that are keeping you stuck — for example, negative beliefs about yourself and the risk of traumatic things happening again. For PTSD, cognitive therapy often is used along with exposure therapy.
• Exposure therapy. This behavioral therapy helps you safely face both situations and memories that you find frightening so that you can lea to cope with them effectively. Exposure therapy can be particularly helpful for flashbacks and nightmares. One approach uses virtual reality programs that allow you to re-enter the setting in which you experienced trauma.
• Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR combines exposure therapy with a series of guided eye movements that help you process traumatic memories and change how you react to them.

Your therapist can help you develop stress management skills to help you better handle stressful situations and cope with stress in your life.

All these approaches can help you gain control of lasting fear after a traumatic event. You and your mental health professional can discuss what type of therapy or combination of therapies may best meet your needs.

You may try individual therapy, group therapy or both. Group therapy can offer a way to connect with others going through similar experiences.

The Potential of Psilocybin for PTSD Treatment

With the recognition of various therapeutic approaches for trauma-related disorders, the therapeutic potential of psilocybin in reducing and improving symptoms of PTSD has gained attention among researchers since the late 1990s. Significant improvement and sustained alleviation of symptoms, including increased focus and mood enhancement in patients, are among the characteristics of PTSD treatment with psilocybin.