Feeling blue and think you might have PTSD? Seek professional help before jumping to the wrong diagnosis, expert advises
Whether you’re a frontline worker or a COVID-19 survivor, we’ve all experienced some very low emotional moments since the coronavirus pandemic forced us to face our own mortality. But how can you tell if your sadness is just a case of the blues or a signal to seek professional help for post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD? Dr. Luana Marques weighs in.
Video Transcript
LUANA MARQUES: When we think about first responders, it's likely that we might see an increase in PTSD. For example, September 11. 10% of first responders had PTSD 10 years out. If we currently have about 18 million first responders, we're talking about a 1.8 million increase of first responders who might need help for PTSD 10 years out after COVID-19. I really think that's why we need to really give support to those individuals to make sure we don't get there.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is an emotional condition that happens after someone experiences a traumatic event. You can develop PTSD from a wide range of situations. It can be military related. It can be a severe car accident. It can be experience a significant threat, like COVID-19.
After a traumatic event, biologically, we are actually wired to have a stress response. That stress may lead to symptoms, like difficulty sleeping, nightmares, difficulty concentrating, being on guard all the time. When we put all of those symptoms together, that's when we start to talk about post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. It's really important to remember that immediately after a traumatic event, no matter how difficult it is, one can not have a diagnosis of PTSD.
So I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that you have post-traumatic stress disorder if you're feeling a little blue. Only about three months after is when you start to talk about, is that person developing just symptoms of PTSD? And if so, what do we do about it? And that's why we don't have a lot of data related to COVID-19 in terms of PTSD yet.
We have data showing the front line staff is having increased depression, increasing stress, increasing anxiety. But we still don't have solid data on PTSD, because it's a little too early to understand what that may look like. So if you or one of your loved ones are experiencing some trauma like symptoms, there a few things that might fall under the warning signs category.
For example, one may find themselves isolating, disconnecting from others. Or you may be sitting next to your loved one. The next thing you know, they're very jumpy, or they are having nightmares and waking up screaming. There are four clusters of symptoms in PTSD, re-experiencing traumatic events, avoiding trauma related cues, negative thoughts and feelings related to the trauma, and trauma related arousal.
We do know that for first line responders, there are perhaps some factors that may increase their vulnerability here. If they struggled with any emotional health difficulties before, and now, they're facing this really heightened threat, day in and day out. Your brain is constantly on this fight or flight. It might increase your likelihood of actually developing PTSD.
There are a few things you can do to decrease the likelihood of developing PTSD, so the first one is practice sleep hygiene. The second one is that we know social support is the strongest buffer against any mental health conditions. So really, the best is staying connected to your loved ones, even if it is through the internet.
Finally, giving your brain a break. If you're wondering if you have PTSD or not, you can go to the VA website. And there are several of the evidence based measures there. And they'll give you a sense of, do I have it or not? But then I would want you to seek professional guidance to formally get a diagnosis. Think about PTSD much like an infection.
If you don't treat an infection, it doesn't go away. Now I've treated several hundred patients with PTSD, and the reality is they can get back to normal. They can feel much better. They can regain quality of life, and it is not easy to get better.
The treatment makes you actually approach to the things that you are avoiding. The reality is there's a lot of hope and very good treatment for most traumatic stress disorder. During the pandemic, it's more important than ever for us to be able to destigmatize this to understand that it's something that could happen to any of us. So that's why it's so important to really understand and bring awareness to PTSD, what it is, what it's not, and how to get the best treatment for it.
