PTSD

PTSD: Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: What is C-PTSD? An overview of signs and symptoms of C-PTSD

GalleryJudy Gurfein Leave a comment

PTSD: Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: What is C-PTSD? An overview of signs and symptoms of C-PTSD

By: Zoe Alekel

The Mayo Clinic defines Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as, a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Although overlapping with PTSD, Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) has additional symptoms and complications due to prolonged and repeated trauma over periods of time (i.e. domestic physical, emotional, or verbal abuse, childhood abuse, long-term torture, and long-term exposure to ongoing crisis conditions).

The US Department of Veterans Affairs defines C-PTSD as experienced chronic trauma that continues or repeats for months or years at a time. Some have suggested that the current PTSD diagnosis does not fully capture the severe psychological harm that occurs with prolonged, repeated trauma. Symptoms of C-PTSD can include: behavioral difficulties, emotional difficulties, cognitive difficulties, interpersonal difficulties, and somatization.

A person who has experienced a prolonged period (months to years) of chronic victimization and total control by another or other types of trauma, may also experience difficulties in the following areas:

  • Emotional regulation: Includes persistent sadness, suicidal thoughts, explosive anger, or inhibited anger.
  • Consciousness: Includes forgetting traumatic events, reliving traumatic events, or having episodes in which one feels detached from one’s mental processes or body (dissociation).
  • Self-perception: Includes helplessness, shame, guilt, stigma, and a sense of being completely different from other human beings.
  • Distorted perceptions of the perpetrator: Includes attributing total power to the perpetrator, becoming preoccupied with the relationship to the perpetrator, or preoccupied with revenge.
  • Relations with others: Includes isolation, distrust, or a repeated search for a rescuer.
  • One’s system of meanings: Includes a loss of sustaining faith or a sense of hopelessness and despair.

If you or someone you know needs support with C-PTSD, please contact our psychotherapy office in New York or New Jersey to talk to one of our licensed professional psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, or psychotherapists at Arista Counseling & Psychotherapy. Contact our Paramus, NJ or Manhattan, NY offices respectively at (201) 368-3700 or (212) 722 – 1920 to set up an appointment. For more information, please visit http://www.counselingps.ychotherapynjny.com/

Image: https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*LbDcZnejtTf0UC5F.jpg

Sources: https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/essentials/complex_ptsd.asp

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20355967

PTSD in Women

GalleryJudy Gurfein 1 Comment

By: Catherine Cain

Experiencing trauma is common and sometimes it may develop into PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder. While PTSD does affect men and women, women are significantly more likely to experience it than men. So, what is PTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder develops after someone experiences or witnesses a traumatic event, and the symptoms caused by this trauma continue for more than a month. While PTSD usually develops in the month following the event, it may develop months or even years after. Symptoms of PTSD include intrusive memories, avoidance of anything or anyone that reminds them of the trauma, changes in mood or thinking, and changed in behavior.

Females are twice as likely to experience PTSD as men. Why is that? While exposure to trauma is lower for women than men the type of trauma is significant in the development of PTSD. Men experience traumas that result in injuries or death, such as accidents, combats, and physical assaults. Women, however, experience childhood abuse, rape, and sexual assault. The effects of sexual assault are so detrimental that in the 2 weeks following an incident of sexual assault, 94% of women experienced symptoms of PTSD.

Another key reason for this difference is the difference in coping strategies. Everyone has heard of the “fight or flight” response to dangerous situations, but it is found that women often use the “tend and befriend” response following an event. “Tending” is taking care of those around you, while “befriending” is reaching out to others for support. Because of this reliance on others, women become more vulnerable to PTSD symptoms if their support system fails them.

If you or someone you know is struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, please contact our psychotherapy offices in New York or New Jersey to talk to one of our licensed professional psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, or psychotherapists at Arista Counseling & Psychotherapy. Contact our Paramus, NJ or Manhattan, NY offices respectively, at (201) 368-3700 or (212) 722-1920 to set up an appointment. For more information, please visit http://www.counselingpsychotherapynjny.com/

Sources: https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/October-2019/PTSD-is-More-Likely-in-Women-Than-Men https://www.womenshealth.gov/mental-health/mental-health-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder

Therapy: What is Music Therapy?

GalleryJudy Gurfein Leave a comment

Therapy: What is Music Therapy?

By: Keely Fell

Music therapy is a relatively new form of therapy being used across the nation. According to the American Music Therapy Association, music therapy is described as “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program”. (AMTA) To be considered a qualified music therapist, an individual must attend a school that is currently accredited by the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA). Upon completion of a degree, an individual will then take the National Examination Certification Board for Music Therapists, which will then give them the title of Music Therapist – Board Certified (MT-BC). While there are other certifications that an individual can acquire, most states will only recognize individuals with the MT-BC certification.

Music therapy can be used for a wide array of interventions, some of those being: stress management, pain relief, promoting the expression of feelings, physical rehabilitation, memory enhancement, and enhancing cognitive functioning due to early delays. The integration of music therapy into schools, rehabilitation centers, assisted living centers, hospitals, and hospice care is growing rapidly throughout the nation.

The integration of music therapy in hospitals has been growing rapidly as well. Using music to sooth patients before medical procedures, as well as using singing, instrument playing, lyric discussion, and forms of song writing to “allow the patients to reconnect with the healthy parts of themselves”. What was recorded is that with the use of music therapy, patients were able to achieve acute pain relief which then allowed them to rest.

Studies have shown that the brain reacts to music in a very different way than it reacts to anything else. When music enters the brain the first mechanisms that are triggered are the release of dopamine in the pleasure centers. Moving past just making an individual feel good, research has shown that music is associated with an increase in immunity-boosting antibodies, which means that music is also improving an individual’s immune system. Doctors have recently studied the use of vibroacoustic therapy in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, by using “low-frequency sound” to produce “vibrations that are applied directly through the body. The rhythmic pulses allow for stabilization of the disorientation.

If you or someone you know is experiencing these symptoms, please contact our psychotherapy offices in New York or New Jersey to talk to one of our licensed professional psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, or psychotherapists at Arista Counseling & Psychotherapy. Contact our Paramus, NJ or Manhattan, NY offices respectively, at (201) 368-3700 or (212) 722-1920 to set up an appointment. For more information, please visit http://www.counselingpsychotherapynjny.com/ .

 

Sources:

https://www.ashford.edu/online-degrees/student-lifestyle/how-does-music-affect-your-brain

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/11/music

https://www.musictherapy.org/

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6873880/music-brain-effect-scientists-mit-study