Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is treatable. Research shows that people with PTSD can achieve meaningful improvement and even remission with the right treatment. The best treatments are typically trauma-focused, meaning that they address the traumatic experience directly. Medications can help too, but usually in a secondary role to the right therapy. However, there isn’t one PTSD therapy that’s right for everyone, and fortunately, there are multiple options.
Understanding PTSD and How to Treat It: What Works and What Doesn’t
If you’ve ever experienced a traumatic event, whether it’s an assault, a car accident, or something else, you might have wondered if you had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a mental health condition that can develop after a traumatic experience, and it can significantly impact your day-to-day life. Although not everyone who experiences trauma develops PTSD, for those who do, getting help is key.
What Is PTSD and Why Should You Seek Treatment?
PTSD can show up in a variety of ways. They can include any of the following:
- feeling constantly on edge or hypervigilant
- intrusive memories or nightmares
- feeling emotionally numb
- avoiding things that remind you of the traumatic event(s)
- struggling with emotions like sadness, guilt, or anger
If these feelings don’t go away, they can interfere with your relationships, your work, and your overall well-being. The good news is that there are several effective treatments out there that can help you heal and regain control of your life!
Which Kind of PTSD Treatment Works Best?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but research has shown that some PTSD treatments work better than others. Research suggests that trauma-focused therapies like CBT, CPT, EMDR, and Prolonged Exposure are among the most effective treatments for PTSD. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), the three most highly recommended treatment options for PTSD include:
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
- Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE)
These therapies have been studied extensively and have helped countless people feel better after having PTSD. They are considered “first-line” treatments, meaning that they have high effectiveness and low risk, and thus make sense to try before anything else.
Keep reading to learn what you can expect from these treatments.
What is CBT therapy?
You may have heard of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) before—it’s one of the most well-known types of therapy, and for good reason. CBT helps you change the negative thoughts and unhelpful behaviors that make PTSD worse. Through CBT, a trained therapist works with you to examine how you think about and how you cope with your trauma. You’ll learn new coping skills as well as techniques to practice thinking in a healthier way about topics related to your traumatic experience.
What’s Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)?
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a special type of CBT that’s particularly helpful for people who feel guilty or blame themselves for what happened. For example, many people who’ve experienced abuse or assault may blame themselves to some extent for what happened. CPT helps you understand how thinking in this way can affect your feelings and how to shift these thinking patterns. CPT can also be helpful for anyone who struggles to make sense of the traumatic event in a way that’s healthy.
What About Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE)?
The idea behind Prolonged Exposure therapy is to gradually face reminders of the traumatic event (like driving after a car accident) in a safe way, over and over, until they no longer make you feel anxious or scared. This process helps “desensitize” you to the trauma and lets you regain control over your reactions. Prolonged Exposure Therapy may sound a bit intense, but research shows that it’s quite effective for PTSD.
What Else Can Help? Second-Line Treatments for PTSD
There are other options out there that the APA suggests as a “second-line” treatment. These treatments may not be as widely supported to work as the first-line options. They might not work for everyone or in every situation. These include:
- Cognitive Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy
- Medications
- Narrative Exposure Therapy
If the first-line treatments haven’t helped you, or if you’re looking for something else, these are additional options to consider. Although medications can help with some symptoms, psychotherapy (talk therapy) is usually a key part of the healing process for those with PTSD. Medications like antidepressants can help with some symptoms, but they’re typically not the primary treatment for PTSD.
What about EMDR?
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR) is an effective treatment for PTSD. However, current research generally supports CBT, CPT, and prolonged exposure therapy more strongly than EMDR. In EMDR, people work through traumatic memories while engaging in guided eye movements.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can PTSD be cured?
Yes. PTSD treatments are effective and can help people achieve clinical remission. Often, these people will never again have PTSD even if they do have some symptoms recur at times in the future.
Is EMDR better than CBT?
No. EMDR and CBT are both generally effective treatments for PTSD. The APA recently concluded that research evidence suggests that CBT is likely more effective than EMDR, hence their giving CBT their highest recommendation and their listing of EMDR as a “second-line” treatment.
Does therapy really help PTSD?
Yes, typically it does. This is especially true if you are open to therapy and if you’re willing to think about aspects of your traumatic experience, despite how difficult that may be. It helps you to change your relationship with the memory of the traumatic event(s) and will help you change your thinking around that event (and sometimes about related issues too).
Is medication enough for PTSD?
Often the answer is no. Medication can sometimes reduce some symptoms of PTSD, especially if depression and anxiety are prominent. However, trauma-focused therapies are considered the primary treatments for PTSD.
The Takeaway
The good news is that PTSD is treatable. If you’ve experienced trauma and find yourself struggling, reaching out for professional help is the first step toward recovery. It’s important to remember that medication alone is rarely enough. Research has shown promising change resulting from CBT treatment of PTSD. Additionally, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) have all been shown to help people recover from PTSD and improve their quality of life.
Finding the right therapist with expertise in the treatments described above can be a real challenge. If you are having trouble finding these therapies in your area, please feel free to check the find-a-therapist directory from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies or to contact us directly using the link below.
Recovery is possible, and you don’t have to go through it alone. There’s help out there.
