Treatment after Trauma

PTSD Can be Treated

How do I know if I need help?

You may want to consider getting help if you have experienced any kind of trauma and if difficulties related to the trauma are interfering with your daily life. However, it is important to note that symptoms of depression or anxiety may not necessarily seem to be related to your trauma. You may therefore want to consider seeing a professional even if your symptoms of anxiety or depression do not seem related to your trauma, as only a professional can diagnose PTSD.

How can I help a friend who has PTSD?

If you know someone who has PTSD, their symptoms may affect you too. The first and most important thing you can do to help a friend or relative is to help him or her get the right diagnosis and treatment. You may need to encourage your friend to make an appointment and go with him or her to see the doctor. Encourage him or her to stay in treatment, or to seek different treatment if his or her symptoms don't start to get better after 6 to 8 weeks.

To help a friend or relative, you can:

• Offer emotional support, understanding, patience, and encouragement.
• Learn about PTSD so you can understand what your friend or relative is experiencing.
• Talk to your friend or relative, and listen carefully.
• Listen to feelings your friend or relative expresses and be understanding of situations that may trigger PTSD symptoms.
• Invite your friend or relative out for enjoyable activities such as walks, outings, and other activities.
• Remind your friend or relative that, with time and treatment, he or she can get better.
• Never ignore comments by your friend or relative about harming him or herself, and report such comments to your friend's or relative's therapist or doctor.

Information for Parents

When Your Child Has Been Traumatized

Children and teens can have extreme reactions to trauma, but their symptoms may not be the same as those of adults. In very young children, these symptoms can include:

• Bedwetting, when they'd learned how to use the toilet before
• Forgetting how or being unable to talk
• Acting out the scary event during playtime
• Being unusually clingy with a parent or other adult.

Older children and teens usually show symptoms more like those seen in adults. They also may develop disruptive, disrespectful, or destructive behaviors. Older children and teens may feel guilty for not preventing injury or deaths and they may have thoughts of revenge.

If your child has experienced a trauma, you, too, may be struggling with your reactions to what happened to your child. For one, your sense of attachment to your child may make you feel as though you also experienced his/her trauma. Consequently, you may experience intrusive thoughts, react to reminders of the trauma, and have feelings of guilt and self-blame due to not being able to protect your child from harm. In addition, you may avoid situations and/or places that trigger memories surrounding your child's trauma. Likewise, you may try to avoid thinking about your child's trauma and may also encourage your child to stop thinking and talking about it. While statements like, "Forget it ever happened," "Think about happy thoughts," and "Put it behind you" can be well meaning, they can make it more difficult for you and your child to process what happened.

Wanting to protect your child from further harm, you may also become extremely fearful and anxious about your child's safety and well being. As a result of such feelings, you may try to overprotect child. However, doing so may cause more harm than good, as you may be communicating your fears to your child through your overprotective behavior, thereby adding to your child's distress and anxiety.

Other difficulties you may be experiencing include sleep and concentration problems. For example, you may have trouble falling and/or staying asleep, and you may find yourself constantly scanning the environment for danger. This sense of heightened arousal can lead to poor concentration, irritability, and feelings of incompetence.

As is true for your child, processing and understanding what happened to your child is essential to helping you feel better. Before you can start feeling better, however, you must first identify the reactions that you are having as a result of your child's trauma. If you are struggling to deal with your reactions to your child's trauma, or if you feel your reactions are interfering with your ability to help your child recover, it is important for you to see a professional. Doing so will help you and your child to be able to move past the trauma.

What if I or someone I know is in crisis?

If you are thinking about harming yourself, or know someone who is, tell someone who can help immediately:

• Call your doctor.
• Call 911 or go to a hospital emergency room to get immediate help or ask a friend or family member to help you do these things.
• Call the toll-free, 24-hour hotline of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255); TTY: 1-800-799-4TTY (4889) to talk to a trained counselor.
• Make sure you or the suicidal person is not left alone.

More information:

• NPR: Mental Health Disaster Relief Not Always Clear Cut