Post-traumatic stress doesn’t have to be a disorder

Bad things often happen to good people, and those good people have to live for the rest of their lives with the memories. And the guilty feelings. And maybe a little bit of self-blame. These feelings are unfair to the sufferer. The founding member of Youthful Minds Psychiatry is a Marine Corps veteran of 9 years, with two deployments as a combat leader. Other members of team know trauma in the form of interpersonal violence. We know trauma. And we also know that dealing with trauma shouldn’t hold anyone back in life.

The most important thing to know about trauma and post-traumatic stress is that it's ok to be traumatized. You just went through something horrible. Feeling anxious, feeling paranoid, feeling emotional and angry and sad, the flashbacks and the nightmares, these are all normal and an important part of healing. Of course you feel this way. You just survived something horrific. It would be abnormal to go through a traumatizing event and coming out on the other side without any negative emotions. That’s a person you should worry about.

Sometimes the trauma can be too much for a person to bear by themselves, and that’s where we can help. We offer the best science-based treatments to help people get past their trauma and start living normal days again. The best treatment for PTSD is trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). In this mode of therapy, usually lasting around 12 sessions, the client will follow a program that can help them come to terms with their past event.

Psychiatric medications can also take the edge off of the pain while you learn to cope with your past. At Youthful Minds Psychiatry, we can provide gentle and responsible prescription psychiatric medications to help you access the benefits of therapy and newly-learned coping mechanisms. Although children are generally resilient to the pain of a traumatic event, talking to our psychiatric professionals can help the scars heal.

Bad things often happen to good people, but the past doesn’t have to hold you or your loved one back.