healing

PTSD Awareness

Written by Samantha S.

June is PTSD awareness month. Post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] is when people who have experienced trauma continue to feel and be affected by the traumatic event, whether that it happened recently or a much longer time back.

Examples of events that cause PTSD include witnessing or experiencing physical violence, tragic events, sexual violence, or a life-threatening situation in addition to other dangers. PTSD may cause someone to detach from people around them and have intense feelings of anger and sadness. In addition, someone with PTSD may experience flashbacks and replays of the traumatic event they experienced as if that event is happening again. For example, a war veteran may experience sensations of being back in a dangerous warzone where they have seen people get injured or killed. 

Some people suffer from PTSD from indirect exposure to traumatic events. For example, it can be extremely traumatizing for someone to hear details about a loved one’s death at the hands of a cruel person. 

There are four categories of PTSD symptoms. They are intrusion, avoidance, alterations in cognition and mood, and alterations in arousal and activity. With intrusion, people repeatedly experience disturbing thoughts and feelings related to a traumatic event. Intrusion involves flashbacks and perceiving experiencing the traumatic event again. Avoidance involves someone trying to stay away from people, things, and places that trigger memories related to the traumatic event. Avoidance also includes not wanting to talk about the trauma and the things associated with it. Alterations in cognition and mood refer to when someone with PTSD has trouble remembering significant details of the traumatic event. In addition, this category also includes the person struggling with detachment and negative thoughts and feelings as a result of the traumatic event. The fourth category considers someone’s behaviors and reactions to things as a result of the trauma.

If you are struggling with PTSD, know that you are not alone. Below is a resource page to help you or a loved one:

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/

Source: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/ptsd/what-is-ptsd

Women Struggling with Postpartum Challenges

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By Samantha Shamim

When it comes to having babies, there is often an automatically assumed positive connotation. Pregnant women are by default congratulated and baby showers are thrown-- and new life is something to celebrate! Life is always something to celebrate.

However, less talked about are the struggles of mothers’ mental wellness post-birth. According to postpartumdepression.org, this is something that affects mothers globally, and mothers of lower socioeconomic status are eleven times more at risk of experiencing struggles of postpartum depression. Also, according to the same website, 70-80 percent of mothers experience “baby blues'' and 10-20 percent of mothers are affected by postpartum depression.

There is no single type of postpartum depression. Specific types include postpartum psychosis and postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder.

It can be especially challenging for mothers to seek help as they are expected to be happy and grateful for the blessing of a new little one in their life and their new role as a mother, with the voicings of needing help being perceived as being ungrateful and shameful. There is often this societally constructed shame that recognizing one’s personal, individual needs as a person when that person is a mother implies the neglect of a mother’s child.

At Jackson Wellness Group, we know that this is unfair and that mothers deserve to seek help for their individual needs. We recognize and promote that postpartum depression is nothing to be ashamed of and that it does not take away from the quality of a woman being a “good” mother and person.

We challenge this notion that mothers need to sacrifice themselves for the wellbeing of their children. Community happiness in general, whether that community is a family or an even larger body, requires the foundation of individual happiness. Regardless of the community, an individual always has the right to prioritize themselves and adequately self-care just based on them being a person.

For the safety and wellbeing of both the mother and the child, it is always important that a mother knows that she has very valid reasons to seek help. We want mothers experiencing postpartum depression to know that they are not alone and that their struggles are valid.

According to the same websites with the statistics provided earlier in this post, there is an 80 percent success rate for being treated for postpartum depression. We highly encourage everyone struggling to seek help. Here are some resources for new mothers or soon-to-be mothers, whether you are struggling with the “baby blues” or with birth-related depression:

  • https://www.postpartum.net/ -- There are also resources for fathers struggling with postpartum. You can also read more about men struggling with postpartum mental wellness here (link to post).