Friday, 11 January 2019

Using DBT As A Component For PTSD Treatment Granbury TX

By Dorothy Sullivan


Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder can bring with it a host of debilitating symptoms. These accompanying symptoms range from depression to anxiety and sometimes even panic attacks when people are out in public or left alone at home. Further, people with this mental health condition often cannot go back out into society as a productive member until they undergo extensive counseling and psychiatric care. Instead of prescribing medications and recommending therapy alone, more mental health providers are recommending these patients go through dialectical behavior therapy. When using DBT as an element of PTSD treatment Granbury TX patients may have better chances of recovering fully.

DBT therapy has been around for at least 20 years. However, it gained prominence in the mental health field within the last decade. It is now a commonly used therapeutic approach to treat a host of mental illnesses including panic disorder, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and chronic depression. People who go through it commit to a year long program that pairs individual therapy with group DBT sessions.

The basis of DBT revolves around the four components of Core Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness. These four components encompass therapeutic skills that patients practice on a daily basis while they are in therapy. These skills range from being mindful to distracting oneself in a healthy way. It also includes radical acceptance and acting opposite to one's emotions.

Mental health patients who go through DBT have a statistically higher chance of recovering from their mental health conditions and enjoying longer recovery rates. Many of them do not need further care and can even be weaned off psychiatric medications they have taken for depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. They are able to be discharged from therapeutic care.

Patients practice their skills in group sessions with their fellow classmates. They also practice with therapists who lead their groups. However, outside of the therapy group, people also are expected to practice these skills on their own. They keep track of their progress with diary cards they must turn in weekly to their therapists.

The diary cards are an important facet of this type of therapy because they report behaviors that could signal a patient's need for more intensive therapy. For example, the diary cards ask people to report behaviors like feeling suicidal or wanting to cut themselves. They also ask about dangerous behaviors like not taking medications or using drugs or alcohol. All of the behaviors are rated on a scale of zero to five.

The other part of DBT requires patients to commit to going to weekly individual therapy sessions with a licensed psychologist or psychotherapist. These sessions are designed to be an opportunity to express frustrating feelings and talk about distressing events during the week. However, they also serve as a time for the therapist to challenge a patient to try new behaviors like going out in public or talking to people like a cashier at a store.

PTSD is one of the most challenging mental health conditions from which to recover. However, more therapists are using dialectical behavior therapy to help patients overcome it. This type of therapy has high recovery rates than traditional therapy and medication. People learn skills that they incorporate into their everyday lives to create lives that they believe are worth living for them.




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