Trauma Treatment

Some research estimates that 60–75% of people in North America experience a traumatic event at some point in their life. [2] Seeing that, trauma can cause a wide range of physical and emotional symptoms in the case of being in a war zone, a natural disaster, or an accident.

Three Main Types of Traumas

• Acute trauma: This results from a single stressful or dangerous event.
• Chronic trauma: This results from repeated and prolonged exposure to highly stressful events. Examples include cases of child abuse, bullying, or domestic violence.
• Complex trauma: This results from exposure to multiple traumatic events.

As a matter of fact, trauma can have long-term effects on the person’s well-being. If symptoms persist and do not decrease in severity, it can indicate that the trauma has developed into a mental health disorder called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD develops when the symptoms of trauma persist or get worse in the weeks and months after the stressful event. This mental disorder is distressing and can interfere with your daily life and relationships. Moreover, PTSD symptoms may include severe anxiety, flashbacks, and persistent memories of the event.

Trauma Symptoms

Not everyone who experiences a stressful event will develop trauma. Some people may develop symptoms and will get better after a few weeks, while some may experience long-term effects.

A traumatized person can feel a range of emotions both immediately after the event and in the long term. They may feel overwhelmed, helpless, shocked, or have difficulty processing their experiences. Trauma, in addition, can also cause physical symptoms.

To begin with, if you’re traumatized, you may have emotional outbursts. Consequently, you’ll find it difficult to cope with how you feel, resulting in your withdrawal from others. Additionally, you may experience flashbacks. This is where you relive the traumatic event in your mind, and sometimes in a form of nightmares.

When you experience a traumatic event, it activates the limbic system in the brain. This “fire alarm” shuts down all nonessential systems (rest, digestion, sleep) and floods your body with stress hormones, like cortisol, so you can prepare for a fight, flight, or freeze.

Once the danger passes, your parasympathetic nervous system provides an inner calm, otherwise known as your “rest and digest” mode.

At this point, the normal cognitive function returns, and you can go back to your day with relatively few side effects, perhaps only feeling a little jittery for a while, or a bit on edge.

But for people who live with complex trauma, this balance doesn’t quite return all the way.

Some symptoms of complex trauma include:

• Flashbacks
• Lapses in memory
• Difficulty regulating emotions
• Hyperarousal, or being “on alert”
• Dissociation or lapses in memory
• Depersonalization or derealization
• Sleep disturbances or nightmares
• Struggling in interpersonal relationships
• Low self-esteem or negative self-perception
• Avoiding people, places, or scenarios that upset you

2. Prolonged Exposure Therapy

Prolonged Exposure (PE) is a type of psychotherapy for PTSD or trauma. It is one specific type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. PE teaches you to gradually approach trauma-related memories, feelings, and situations that you have been avoiding since your trauma. By confronting these challenges, you can actually decrease your PTSD symptoms.

3. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

We Level Up rehab centers treat the entirety of behavioral health disorders including secondary corresponding illnesses to improve long-term recovery outcomes. Get a free substance abuse and or mental health assessment and find out what treatment options are most suitable for you. Call to learn more.

Programs, services, and treatments vary. We Level Up rehab facilities do not provide EMDR therapy. Because patient stability should come prior to EMDR treatment. That’s why EMDR therapy to process trauma for patients actively drinking and abusing drugs should await their stability phase of treatment. EMDR phases 3 – 8 therapy is best enacted for patients that feel and experience a safer, trustful connection with their treatment team.

EMDR is another common trauma therapy suited for longer-term treatment post-patient stablity. EMDR aims to help people process and integrate traumatic memories. Several trials have demonstrated that EMDR is an effective trauma treatment.

Its ability to rapidly treat unprocessed memories of these adverse experiences has important implications for the medical community, as they appear to be the foundation for an array of clinical symptoms. Clinical applications of EMDR include a wide variety of psychological problems affecting patients and family members, as well as stress-induced physical disorders and medically unexplained symptoms. 

4. Stress Inoculation Training

It is also one specific type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). By teaching you coping skills, SIT can help you find new ways to deal with PTSD symptoms. These skills can also help you manage other stressful situations or events in your life.

Inpatient Trauma Treatment

Treating dual diagnosis clients is a critical aspect of an inpatient treatment experience; because co-occurring disorders are strongly correlated with instances of substance abuse.

More often than not, people with mental health disorders either seek clinical medication or self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. People that acquire prescriptions for their condition are less likely to develop abuse disorders, but conversely, often the medications that they get access to have high abuse potential, creating great risk.

Creating a treatment plan that addresses the physical aspects of withdrawal, the psychological connection with drug use, and addressing underlying mental health disorders is all a part of setting clients up for success. A thorough mental health analysis identifies opportunities for trauma treatment. Meeting with mental health counselors and medical care providers means access to behavioral therapy and medication treatment. Proper treatment leads to change for better, healthier living.