TMS for PTSD: How Does It Help?

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Overview of TMS for PTSD

TMS for PTSD is a new, non-invasive treatment option that has shown promising results in clinical trials. Here we explore TMS for PTSD in more detail to help you decide if this is a promising option for you or your loved one.

Trauma and Our Foundations

It is no easy matter to discuss trauma. It should be said that when trauma occurs, it is as if a foundation in our heart changes shape. Places where our feet once found level ground become a steep slope of emotions and fear. It is deeply personal and painful on levels that affect our every breathing moment.

With that said, trauma is not rare. About 60% of men and 50% of women endure at least one traumatic experience in their lives. When you go through a trauma such as a car crash, sexual assault, combat, intense injury, or any other distressing event, it changes your brain chemistry. That change can last for years after the trauma occurs—and it can affect your daily life and relationships with friends and family.

What Is PTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a mental health condition that can affect people who have experienced a traumatic event on an especially intense level. Symptoms of PTSD include:

  • intrusive thoughts, memories, or nightmares related to the traumatic event
  • avoidance of reminders of the traumatic event
  • feeling emotionally numb
  • difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
  • irritability or angry outbursts
  • being easily startled or frightened

What Is TMS?

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is an FDA-approved, non-invasive treatment that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate areas of the brain that are not functioning normally.

By stimulating the prefrontal cortex, TMS helps reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and other symptoms associated with PTSD. It is an innocuous, efficient way to treat depression and anxiety disorders, including PTSD.

The treatments are administered in a series of sessions over several weeks.

Is TMS Therapy Safe?

TMS is a safe and effective treatment for PTSD. You don’t need to be sedated or prepared for the procedure, and there’s no pain involved. Some patients may experience headaches or temporary pain at the site of stimulation. However, these side effects are generally mild and manageable.

Does TMS therapy work for PTSD?

In addition to reducing symptoms, TMS can increase volume in certain areas of the brain associated with emotional regulation. This means that the therapy could have long-term benefits beyond just helping you feel better right now. One study showed that up to 80% of PTSD patients felt better after a single TMS session.

TMS can be used alone or in combination with other treatments, including medication, talk therapy, CBT, and more. Though TMS therapy for PTSD is a relatively new practice, the results are very promising. At our trauma center in Newport Beach, many patients with PTSD have found that TMS therapy helps them manage their symptoms, and the benefits far outweigh the risk for these individuals.

Is TMS for PTSD Right for Me?

Do you want to know if TMS would benefit you and your traumatic symptoms? It could be. The best way to find out if you are a candidate for TMS in Newport Beach for PTSD is to give us a call at Lido Wellness Center in Newport Beach, California. Our mental health specialists are ready to help you understand your options, including whether an outpatient mental health treatment plan would benefit you.

What Is a Panic Attack?

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Panic attacks are sudden but intense episodes when you become overwhelmed with an intense wave of fear or anxiety—despite no obvious danger being around you. Naturally, panic attacks are tremendously frightening, with most people comparing them to heart attacks or near-death experiences.

Are Panic Attacks Dangerous?

Panic attacks can happen to anyone. But people suffering from a panic disorder, agoraphobia, or receiving treatment for PTSD are likely to experience panic attacks. Something to remember is that though it feels very real, panic attacks occur when there is no real danger. A person may believe they are having a heart attack. They may even begin choking or feel like they are dying.

What Does a Panic Attack Feel Like?

One of the core things to remember about panic attacks is that they begin suddenly, without any warning. This unanticipated feature of this condition makes them extremely frightening.

Once your attack starts, you may feel a powerful and disturbing pain in your chest that makes you believe you are about to die. However, you may also feel other symptoms, such as:

  1. Trembling limbs.
  2. Excessive sweating.
  3. Chills through your skin.
  4. Headaches
  5. Dizziness
  6. Palpitations

These symptoms generally last anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes and fade away quickly after.

What Causes Panic Attacks?

Unfortunately, doctors are still not confident about what causes panic attacks, but they believe that these factors can affect their frequency:

  1. Your genes.
  2. Temperament and sensitivity.
  3. Extreme stress.

What Is Panic Disorder?

Most people will likely have a panic attack once or twice throughout their lifetime due to extreme stress. However, if you frequently have these attacks multiple times a year, then you may have a condition known as a panic disorder. People with panic disorders tend to struggle with anxiety and fear and consistently face feelings of dread, terror, and other panic attack symptoms.

What Should I Do If I’m Having a Panic Attack?

It is important to make sure you are not in danger. If it is truly a panic attack, there are some de-escalation actions to take.

  • Slow your breathing and become present with your breath
  • Put your focus on a single object in room or in the distance (notice leaves moving in the wind
  • Relax your body focusing on one part at a time
  • Recognize you are having a panic episode. Experience the feelings rather than fight them
  • Practice mindfulness
  • Create and repeat a calming mantra, such as, “This will pass.”

Long Term Panic Attack Treatment

We understand how challenging it can be to face panic attacks consistently in your life. A panic disorder can affect your social life and lead to other issues, such as depression. Fortunately, it does not have to be this way.

There are panic disorder treatment options.

The most successful involve various mental health counseling and therapeutic techniques, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectic behavior therapy, and exposure therapy. EMDR treatment is a non-invasive electromagnetic therapy that can also help with chronic panic disorders. These forms of treatment allow you to dive into the root cause of your panic attacks and transform how you react to anxiety.

Intensive Outpatient for Panic Disorders

Mental health counseling can help with panic disorders and other anxiety related disorders, but a more intensive mental health outpatient option may help individuals delve deeper into the source of recurring panic attacks.

Lido Wellness in Newport Beach offers an intensive outpatient program based on scientific backed therapeutic models. If you want to know more about this unique mental health treatment option, call us today. Our team is ready to answer any questions.

What Are Dissociative Disorders?

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Growing up in Western culture, there are certain aspects of life that become ingrained on our collective subconscious. Movies, music, TV, media, they all play a part. For better or worse, this unified understanding of topics and issues also plays a role with mental health. In the realms of dissociative disorders, these have largely received a collective understanding that has been forged by fiction.

That’s not to say it’s a completely false understanding. However, there is always more to the story. An easy way to illustrate this is by understanding that dissociative identity disorders were once called a multiple personality disorders. Movies and soap operas have long maintained this storyline for it’s surprising dramatic effect.

However, the caricatured display can help reveal the underlying symptom of dissociation. Quite simply, there is a dissociation (disconnection) when your thoughts, emotions, even perceptions are not a result of what is “really” happening.

For example, you are a 42-year-old woman but, from time-to-time you experience reality through the perceptions of a 7-year-old, and you behave as such, you may have a dissociative disorder (dissociative identity disorder to be precise).

What Are the Dissociative Disorders?

Dissociative disorders are a group of mental disorders characterized by disruption and discontinuity in the normal integration of memory, identity, emotion, consciousness, motor control, and behavior (DSM-5). There are four main types of dissociative disorders:

  • Dissociative amnesia – Characterized by a person’s inability to recall important autobiographical information that would ordinarily be easily remembered. There are 5 types of amnesia: Localized amnesia, selective amnesia, generalized amnesia, systematized, and continuous amnesia.
  • Dissociative fugue/psychogenic fugue – Characterized by the sudden loss of memory of who they are and memories, they immediately adopt a new identity.
  • Depersonalization/derealization disorder – Characterized by episodes of detachment or unfamiliarity with one’s whole self or aspects of oneself.
  • Dissociative identity disorder/multiple personality disorder – Characterized by at least 2 distinct personality states

What Causes Dissociative Disorders?

Chronic childhood trauma is thought to be the underlying cause of dissociative disorders. They are a way to cope with a life experience. This may include repeated, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. Or a highly toxic, dangerous, or unreliable foundation of life. Incredibly sad and unfortunate events can lead to a person’s mind reverting to this state.

Living in an unpredictable and unsafe family environment may cause the child to dissociate from reality during the more stressful moments. It is evident that the severity of dissociative disorder is directly proportional to the severity of childhood trauma experienced.

Some other causes of dissociative disorders may include:

  • Physical trauma such as head injury
  • Other mental disorders such as panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder
  • Some prescription drugs and recreational drugs

Signs and Symptoms of Dissociative Disorders

These depend on the type and severity of the disorder and may include:

  • Feeling disconnected from yourself
  • Sudden unexpected shifts in mood
  • Depression and anxiety
  • Derealisation—where you feel as though the world is not real
  • Significant memory loss
  • Identity confusion and adopting new identities
  • Being unable to concentrate

Diagnosis and treatment Dissociative Disorders

Dissociative disorders are complex mental disorders to diagnose. However, medical professionals follow the criteria listed in the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5). The treatment options available include:

  1. Providing a safe and relaxed environment
  2. Using medication such as barbiturates
  3. Hypnosis to repress memories
  4. Psychotherapy which is a long-term form of treatment
  5. Stress management
  6. Treating co-occurring disorders

 Complications of dissociative disorders

Without treatment, a person with a dissociative disorder may suffer the following complications:

  • Insomnia and other sleep-related disorders
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Severe depression
  • Eating disorders such as anorexia
  • Drug use-related disorders such as alcoholism
  • Self-harm and suicide
  • Difficult social life and broken relationships

Help for Dissociative Disorders in Newport Beach, California

If you or a loved are experiencing the symptoms of dissociation, please call us for help today. Lido Wellness is a premier outpatient mental health facility in Newport Beach, California. We specialize in the treatment of many mental health issues, including a high competency and success in treating trauma and trauma related disorders.

If you or a loved one are dealing with issues regarding mental health, we can help