How Our Inpatient PTSD Treatment Program at Icarus Nevada Can Help
PTSD stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. To best explain what it feels like to have PTSD, you need to think of it like pottery. When you shape a vase, let it dry, and fire it, dropping it afterward may cause it to crack. But if you drop the vase while the clay is still wet, it reshapes the entire form. Once it dries and you fire it, that new shape becomes permanent.
People who experience a traumatic event often struggle to get past it, but when the trauma reshapes their entire existence, that’s when it can become PTSD.
People with PTSD experience insomnia, have flashbacks, and tend to dissociate. In many cases, they develop destructive behaviors to adapt to their environment. These behaviors get so ingrained with time that it’s often hard to identify and change them.
However, there’s hope, and with the right support and treatment, you can start to rebuild and regain control over your life. Experts at Icarus Behavioral Health Nevada specialize in trauma treatment plans. They can help you work through it by helping you avoid problematic thinking patterns. They enable you to shed unhelpful baggage caused by the beliefs you have about your traumatic events without minimizing or ignoring the reality of things.
Read on to learn when to go inpatient for PTSD and how our program at Icarus in Nevada can benefit you with robust residential trauma treatment support.
What is the Nature of PTSD?
According to the National Center for PTSD, about 6% of people in the US will experience PTSD in their lifetime, a serious mental health condition. Women (8%) are more likely to develop PTSD than men (4%). Some children and teens also develop PTSD, especially girls (3-15%), more than boys (1-6%).
Witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event can cause you to develop post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD. Any situation that triggers intense fear, helplessness, or horror can induce PTSD and often includes car accidents, abuse, and combat.
For those who deal with this mental condition, PTSD is more than a distressing memory. It affects your thought process, emotions, and behaviors in an overwhelming way.
Choosing when to attend a more structured, residential treatment program for trauma is ultimately a personal choice, though the symptoms that would benefit from inpatient trauma treatment are outlined in detail below to help you decide the proper path forward.
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What are the Symptoms of PTSD?
PTSD alters the way you experience life and can affect both your physical and mental health. You often dissociate from your surroundings, are easily startled, and constantly feel like you’re walking on a tightrope.
As a result, you frequently strain your relationships. These are common symptoms of PTSD.
Intrusive Memories
Intrusive memories in PTSD are unwanted, distressing memories of traumatic experiences. If you have post-traumatic stress disorder, you can’t help but recall the traumatic event. You don’t have control over your thoughts, which often manifest into undesired flashbacks and nightmares.
These trauma-related involuntary memories are emotionally charged and trigger your autonomic nervous system’s ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ response. As a result, your body reacts as if faced with a real threat, causing increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing, often fueled by negative beliefs.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR), intrusive memories are a core PTSD symptom. To meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, an individual must experience at least one symptom of intrusive memories, such as:
- Recurring, traumatic memories
- Nightmares
- Flashbacks (feeling like you’re reliving the trauma)
- Feeling distressed (mentally or physically) when reminded of the traumatic event
The exact prevalence of PTSD is unclear because re-experiencing symptoms can vary widely. However, the most studied symptoms include nightmares and flashbacks.
A 2018 University of Reading study found that 49% of people with PTSD experienced flashbacks. These flashbacks made them relive the traumatic event.
A 2023 study of 398 people found that 92% with PTSD or complex PTSD had nightmares. This symptom was more common in those with complex PTSD, potentially leading to substance abuse as a coping mechanism.
Rollercoaster Emotions
People with PTSD have various coping mechanisms. Sometimes they keep busy, confide in a friend, or use self-help methods. However, these mechanisms may not work when emotional highs and lows don’t seem to calm down.
The emotional rollercoaster keeps you anxious, sad, and irritable, so much so that it makes you feel like a different person. Self-guided methods may not help in this situation, which indicates you need inpatient treatment to heal in a supportive environment. If you find your symptoms hard to manage, let your mental health professional know immediately.
Avoidance
Intrusive thoughts can disrupt your life. Therefore, those who experience them try to avoid them. Avoidance is a normal human behavior, as people tend to avoid experiences that cause distress. However, for individuals with PTSD, avoidance can become extreme. It causes them to avoid key day-to-day activities, which affects their ability to live normally.
While avoidance may seem like an escape in the moment, it’s counterproductive. By constantly avoiding your triggers, you’re delaying confrontation. It makes recovery more complex and can cause symptoms to intensify. Exhibiting at least one avoidance symptom is required for a PTSD diagnosis.
Mood Changes
Living with trauma is exhausting and can take a toll on your mental health. People with PTSD often develop a shame response to everything, along with an instinct to isolate and difficulty trusting others. They may also struggle to express emotions, communicate, or feel worthy of taking up space in the world. They often blame themselves for the traumatic experience, feel anxious, depressed, and unmotivated. They become withdrawn and defensive and find reasons to skip social events.
Coping with Substances
People coping with PTSD often turn to substances as they offer a quick escape or dull the ache. Using alcohol and drugs may provide temporary relief, but make the recovery far more complicated. They intensify the PTSD symptoms and cause dependency, creating more challenges for those dealing with a grave mental health issue. If relying on substance seems like the only option, you might be a candidate for an inpatient treatment.
Our clinicians at Icarus Behavioral Health specialize in PTSD inpatient treatment. Our compassionate clinicians use evidence-based therapies and group support to help you replace substances with sustainable coping tools so that you can take charge of your life.
Cognitive Decline
PTSD can cause a decline in mental acuity. Anxiety and disrupted memory from a traumatic event can interfere with the ability to listen and focus. It can also cause poor memory and affect decision-making and problem-solving skills.
All of this happens because this disorder physically changes your brain and may lead to other mental illnesses.
The amygdala, which controls survival instincts, becomes overactive and triggers intense fear. Meanwhile, the prefrontal cortex slows down its calming function, disrupting rational thought processes.
The hippocampus fixates on the traumatic event, making it hard to remember other things. Two or more cognition or mood-related symptoms must occur to receive a diagnosis.
Increased Physical Reactions
When people feel threatened, their body reacts in three ways: fight, flight, or freeze. People with PTSD often feel threatened, so they might get defensive.
They might get startled easily, become aggressive, and feel bad about it later. Their mental health condition can make them avoid others or distance themselves to prevent hurting someone.
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Trauma Treatment at Icarus Nevada Offers Proven PTSD Support
We know that PTSD is a serious condition that can affect anyone who has experienced a traumatic event. Our expert staff at Icarus Behavioral Health Nevada understands this.
Our treatment center offers the best care and personalized plans for inpatient PTSD treatment. We use holistic therapies such as talk therapy, exposure therapy, group therapy, and family therapy sessions for treating PTSD, and to help you get back on track.
If you or your loved one is experiencing PTSD and considering residential programs, turn to Icarus Behavioral Health in Nevada. We are here to support you every step of the way.
Call us confidentially today to learn more about our services and get proven options for support now.