PTSD is a multi-faceted mental health condition that develops after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event or from ongoing exposure to social injustices and structural inequities. While PTSD has long been closely associated with military combat, experts now recognize that a wide range of traumatic events, including sexual assault, child abuse, or surviving an accident or natural catastrophe—even narrowly escaping severe harm, such as being threatened with a weapon, can have long-lasting effects.
To meet the threshold of a disorder, symptoms must persist for longer than one month and be severe enough to interfere with daily life. Symptoms must also not be attributable to the physiological effects of medications, the use or misuse of substances, or other illnesses, such as a seizure condition.
Some groups are disproportionately represented among those experiencing trauma. This means that they may be exposed to trauma at particularly high rates or be at increased risk for repeated victimization. For some populations, co-occurring issues and unique adversities can complicate recovery from trauma. Others may face significant challenges related to access to services or require services that are specially adapted for their needs.
Effective treatment offers coping strategies that can reduce symptoms or allow patients to go into remission from their PTSD. Although there are very few FDA-approved drugs for treating PTSD, medications that act on neurotransmitters affecting the fear and anxiety circuitry of the brain are recommended by the American Psychological Association.
Trauma-focused psychotherapies, Prolonged Exposure (PE), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), have been shown to be effective treatments for PTSD. These therapies offers coping strategies that can reduce symptoms or allow patients to go into remission from their PTSD.
Meditation, particularly transcendental meditation, has been shown to reduce symptoms of PTSD in several studies. A consistent meditation practice produces effects that are opposite to the fight-or-flight stress response. This physiological state came to be referred to as a restfully alert, hypometabolic, physiologic state, or “restful alertness”. Meditation may also speed recovery from PTSD and reduce the need for pharmaceuticals.