Movies like American Sniper and The Deer Hunter portray post-traumatic stress disorder caused by wartime combat, but Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can occur when a person survives any profoundly upsetting event that’s dominated by terror, fear for one’s life, serious injury, abuse or other kinds of grave harm. Consider Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, who has emotional breakdowns after being sexually abused by an aunt. PTSD can co-occur with other mental illnesses like depression. When both disorders are present, it can be hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Treatment can also be more challenging.
People with PTSD are much more likely to have depression than the baseline US population. Given that about 7 percent of Americans will experience PTSD in their lifetime[1], it’s common for depression and PTSD to co-occur[2]. In fact, people living with PTSD are around 5 times more likely to also have major depressive disorder than those without PTSD.
Symptoms of PTSD and Depression
PTSD and depression share symptoms, like:
- Anhedonia (loss of interest in activities you usually enjoy)
- Feelings of uselessness, hopelessness and despair
- Feeling helpless to change one’s situation
- Trouble concentrating
- Impaired memory
- Persistent feelings of deep sadness
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Disturbed sleep (too much sleep or too little sleep)
- Restricted emotional range, trouble feeling any emotion at all
Immersive flashbacks are the hallmark symptom of PTSD. Other symptoms of PTSD include hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response and an inability to fully relax. People with PTSD go to significant lengths to avoid situations and conditions that provoke stress[3]. Their avoidance strategies can become a big hurdle to living a satisfying life. Avoidance also paradoxically prevents people from processing the memories and emotions that are so terrible in PTSD.
Treatment for PTSD and major depressive disorder works best when it includes both medication, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and psychotherapy. Psychotherapy often uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help a person change destructive patterns of thought and behavior that are common to both PTSD and depression.
Exposure therapy is another treatment approach that’s well-suited to PTSD. Prolonged Exposure therapy involves imaginal exposure, in which the patient describes the traumatizing event with guidance from the therapist while practicing deep breathing. As the patient progresses, exposure can be increased to include locations, conditions or situations that the patient has been actively avoiding in their life.
People with either depression or PTSD are at risk for suicide. Those who have both conditions are particularly at risk. If you or a loved one is regularly experiencing symptoms similar to those listed in this post, seek help from your local Spokane healthcare professional. Reach out to Damaris through her contact page or calling 509-342-6592.
[1] https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd.shtml
