Not Just Soldiers: Civilians with PTSD Struggle to Find Effective Therapy

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From NPR: “PTSD has long been associated with members of the military who have gone through combat and with first responders who may face trauma in their work. It’s also associated with survivors of sexual assault, car accidents and natural disasters. But researchers have also learned it can develop in adults who have experienced chronic childhood trauma — from physical, emotional or sexual abuse by caregivers or from neglect or other violations of safety.

Walls was fortunate to find a therapist trained to treat PTSD. Outside of military and veterans’ health facilities, finding knowledgeable help is often difficult . . .

The push to expand the trained workforce coincides with a growing understanding of trauma’s effects. The National Council for Behavioral Health, a nonprofit organization of mental health care providers, calls trauma a ‘near universal experience‘ for people with mental and behavioral health issues.”

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Well yeah but they are recommitting the original sin- not going to those who have survived and the second layer which is separating themselves from being human and actively traumatized as humans living in this world. Then the third layer the difficult, moral harm done to those they tried to help by their ignorance.
    Until there is a true clearinghouse we all will be bogged down by separations.
    One of the psychiatrists I respected and there are some – not all are evil, he was a Vietnam vet and had a small disability. At clinical rounds- bad idea but okay it was there he would get in a discussion of cooking with the patient presented. Just an over the fence conversation. He got dissed but I really , really liked him for his ability to see a patient as an actual human being. And he was not perfect but he tried. And maybe errors and mistakes and misguided learning but who of all of us had not walked in those wrong foot shoes or untied shoelaces.
    Empathy needs to go all ways or the anger will become bitterness and then hostility and then hate and then voila moral harm.
    Keep the memory but don’t injest the outrage.

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  2. I have CPTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and I absolutely detested Prolonged Exposure Therapy. It did not help me in any way. I was exposed to my traumas enough when they were occurring and I do not need to continue to expose myself to them. My intrusive memories of them do that often enough. So many of these “newer therapies” like PET and DBT are really overrated. They have done nothing to relieve my symptoms. The only things that have ever offered me relief are distance running, walking, and talking to friends and peers who also suffer from PTSD.

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    • The first problem is grouping all people who fit the “PTSD” criteria into one group and trying to find one intervention that helps everyone. Some people may like “exposure therapy,” some hate it. Some people find meditation to be a very difficult experience, I personally found it very helpful. People are all different, and different approaches help different people. Why anyone would try to force a “therapy” on someone who said it didn’t feel right is beyond my comprehension.

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