It can be caused by trauma from things like explosions, sexual abuse, natural disasters, loss, physical violence and more. “On the outside you should be OK, you should be feeling that its safe, put it behind you, forget it, but for those of us who have had the PTSD, it’s not possible,” said Lee Health Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Psychotherapist David Cantos.
However, treatment is available. Cognitive processing therapy is an evidence-based approach that is considered the gold standard by the VA. “It’s premised upon the connection between our thoughts, our emotions, and our behaviors. If they’re working in tandem towards adaptive behavior, it’s great, most of us have some version of that,” said Cantos.
It starts with the patient writing down their story for the clinician so it’s less distressing. “So you get that pain saturated story out, and then the clinician with a patient will kind of identify some of the cognitive errors that they’re telling about themselves, and then they start really challenging them,” said Cantos.
The goal is to modify and challenge the negative beliefs the patient has about the trauma. “It’s when the emotions pop up and they’re negative, and those lead to negative thoughts and negative behaviors, and those reinforce each other. The premise with that is if you can change one, you can change the other two,” said Cantos. “Basically you’re training yourself in a much more titrated way to go to that dark place, but you’re using cognition to change your mental experience regarding it.”
Lee Health has a fully staffed outpatient Behavioral Health center for safe and effective therapy. Speak with your doctor if you or a loved one is struggling with PTSD.
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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Lee Health - Caring People. Inspiring Care.
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