Trauma Disorders Treatment

Trauma can happen to anyone. It occurs when a person experiences intense, often tragic or jarring experiences that the brain does not process properly. Trauma can include any type of significantly stressful or frightening event that happens to them, or they see happen to another person.

Trauma is not uncommon. However, when trauma processing does not occur as the brain needs it to, that can lead to long-term complications, including flashbacks and nightmares. In these situations, seeking mental health treatment for trauma is paramount to regaining your mental health and well-being.

Trauma treatment requires specialized care. Mental Health Hope can provide comprehensive support and guidance in overcoming these challenges. Contact us now to find the treatment best suited for your recovery from trauma.

What Is Trauma?

Trauma refers to any type of very stressful, frightening, sudden, or devastating event occurring to a person. Some people develop trauma after watching a loved one die or suffer an assault. Trauma may occur to those who live through a natural disaster, navigate a combat zone, or suffer a serious accident.

When such an event occurs, not everyone will react in the same way. Some people may spend a few weeks or months struggling to cope with the experience. Over time, the brain processes and moves on from it. In others, that does not occur, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop.

Trauma is a normal reaction to high stress. What happens once that trauma occurs in the brain determines if you need mental health treatment.

Types of Experiences That Can Be Traumatic

Every person deals with trauma in their own way. What is traumatic to one person may not have the same impact on another. Some of the most common instances in which trauma can occur include:

Feeling intensely unsafe or at a high risk of danger
Being rejected
Feeling under threat physically or emotionally
Being unsupported in a difficult situation
Feeling powerless in your situation
Being trapped
Invalidated, feelings or thoughts are dismissed
Humiliating events
Watching a loved one die
Suffering a tragic accident
Watching a person die in combat

It is also important to know that trauma can occur in various ways. For example, many people experience trauma after experiencing the event just one time. Others face trauma that develops over time, due to repeated exposures to threats, abuses, or frightening events.

Trauma can happen when you experience the event firsthand, meaning it happens to you. It can also occur when you watch it happen to someone else in person. Some people live in a traumatic environment, in which there is a lack of support, the presence of abuse, and other frightening situations on a constant basis.

Types of Trauma

Trauma ranges in so many ways, all of which are valid and very real experiences that can change the course of a person’s life. Some of the most common forms include:

Childhood trauma: This refers to trauma experienced when a person is young. Being young may have made the event more traumatic than if it had occurred to an adult.
Collective trauma: This is trauma that happens to a group of people at one time. Not everyone will feel the same way, but most people were impacted by that traumatic event in some manner.
Generational trauma: This refers to trauma that spans generations in a family, group, organization, or culture. The trauma is virtually passed down from one person to the next.
Moral injury: This is a type of trauma in which a person is exposed to or put in a situation in which they are acting or witness something that goes against their morals, beliefs, or values.
Racial trauma: This form of trauma relates to traumatic exposures due to racism and the impact it can have on a person’s mental and physical health.
Secondary trauma: This term refers to the trauma of watching another person suffer, especially one you are close to

Trauma Treatment

Trauma is a natural emotion and reaction to an intensely stressful event or events. It is not, in itself, a mental health disorder. However, in situations where trauma symptoms become debilitating and the feelings do not improve, treatment is necessary.

This occurs when a person develops PTSD, a condition in which the trauma is not fully processed by the brain and mind, leading to complexities like intense anxiety, flashbacks, negative thoughts, and hypervigilance.

Treatment for PTSD and related conditions may include medication to ease symptoms as well as psychotherapy, also known as talk therapy. This type of therapy aids in:

Understanding what the trauma cause is and why it happened
Exposure therapy in a controlled environment to encourage the processing of the trauma properly
Individual therapy sessions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, to work on the negative thought processes that often lead to negative behaviors

Trauma treatment is individualized to address your needs. If you face something difficult, reaching out to speak to someone is wise.

Seek Help from a Mental Health Treatment Center

Mental Health Hope connects those battling trauma with the treatment facilities that can offer help. Contact us to learn more about these strategies and how we can help you.

Acute stress disorder

ASD results after experiencing or witnessing an intensely traumatizing event. Symptoms last a month or less and may include:

Intense fear or hopelessness
Anxiety
Flashbacks or nightmares
Emotional numbness
Avoidance behaviors
Sleep problems

Post-traumatic stress disorder

PTSD features a trauma response that lasts for more than one month. Symptoms include:

Flashbacks, recurring thoughts, nightmares, or dreams of the incident
Anxiety
Depression
Anger, hostility, irritability
Emotional detachment
Avoidance behaviors

Adjustment disorder

Symptoms emerge in response to a stressor that the individual has difficulty adjusting to it. Examples of stressors include major life changes, the death of a loved one, divorce or breakup, or job loss. Symptoms last less than six months and may include:

Anxiety
Withdrawing from friends and family
Low self-esteem
Crying often
Trouble concentrating
Feelings of hopelessness or sadness
Suicidal thoughts

Inpatient Treatment for Trauma Disorder

When outpatient treatment for the effects of trauma no longer provides adequate results, residential treatment offers the next level of care. Inpatient or residential treatment centers offer a more intensive approach to healing. Multidimensional treatment elements are designed to work together to restore healthy functioning. These elements include:

Psychotherapy
Individual therapy sessions allow the individual to discuss the traumatic events or stressors while expressing the emotional impact of the trauma. Therapy helps the individual process the painful event and start healing. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy is especially effective for relieving the resulting thought distortions surrounding the event.
Group therapy
Group sessions with others also affected by trauma allow participants to share their stories and feelings with each other.
Exposure therapy
The therapist exposes the individual to the stressor that they have been avoiding within a safe and supportive setting. The stressor gradually loses its power over the individual as a result.
Eye movement desensitization reprocessing
EMDR is another type of exposure therapy. The individual follows a therapist’s finger or other object back and forth with their eyes while discussing the traumatic event. This, too, reduces the impact of the stressor.
Medication
For some patients, antidepressants may mitigate the psychological effects of trauma disorder.

If you are struggling with the lingering effects of trauma, please reach out for support today.

Residential Mental Health Retreats & Treatment Programs

Confidential & Private Mental Health Retreats

In the residential level of care, clients reside in a private setting, offering the comforts of home. The treatment residences are often in private and secluded houses that offer the client increased confidentiality. The treatment programs offer options for a private or semi-private rooms in a tranquil and therapeutic environment.

How Mental Health Hope Helps

When you call, you will be connected with a Treatment Specialist will provide guidance and assistance with regards to: Work related matters such as FMLA, Travel Assistance & Health Insurance guidance to help you overcome barriers to treatment.

Trauma Disorders Treatment

What Is Trauma?

Types of Experiences That Can Be Traumatic

Types of Trauma

Trauma Treatment

Seek Help from a Mental Health Treatment Center

Acute stress disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder

Adjustment disorder

Inpatient Treatment for Trauma Disorder

Residential Mental Health Retreats & Treatment Programs

Confidential & Private Mental Health Retreats

How Mental Health Hope Helps

Call Admissions for Help Now: (424) 622-6369

Confidential Support, Call to Speak to a Treatment Specialist Now

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