What term describes when we overlook or ignore unpleasant realities?
What is... Denial
This term describes when an individual is diagnosed with both a mental health disorder and a substance abuse problem.
What is... Co-occurring disorder (dual diagnosis is also an acceptable response)
PTSD is a common condition that affects up to 14 million adults in America.
Fact
Men are more likely to develop a co-occurring disorder than women.
Fact
The most common symptom of PTSD related to psychosis is __________, where you may feel like you see or hear things that aren’t there, but that are related to the trauma.
What is... Hallucinations
Typically the result of trauma, this term describes when we become emotionally withdrawn from a healthy sense of self and the real world.
What is... Dissociation
This therapeutic approach in particular is effective in helping people with dual diagnosis learn how to cope and change ineffective and irrational thinking patterns.
What is... CBT
Hallucinations are fairly similar, if not virtually identical to, experiencing flashbacks.
Myth. Hallucinations can be correlated with, but are distinct from, flashbacks. A flashback is when you are suddenly overcome by such an intense memory that it is as if for a moment you are back in time, whereas a hallucination is when you perceive something as real that is not only not real, but it never even happened.
Mental illness always develops before a substance abuse problem.
Myth. Either substance abuse or mental illness can develop first.
Name the four types of known flashbacks.
What is...
This term describes when we channel a negative or destructive impulse into a socially constructive action.
What is... Sublimation
This term describes when a person uses non-prescribed medications, street drugs, or alcohol to alleviate mental health symptoms.
What is... Self-medication
While men are statistically more likely to have PTSD at some point in their lifetime than women, women are more likely to seek treatment for the condition.
Fact
About a third of all people experiencing mental illnesses and about half of people living with severe mental illnesses also experience substance abuse.
Fact
Holding something ice cold or very warm, followed by describing the sensations to help bring the individual back into their bodies from their flashback experience, can assist in this well-known coping process.
Hint: DBT often utilizes this skill.
What is... Re-grounding (grounding itself is also an acceptable answer)
This term describes unconsciously taking unwanted emotions or traits that you dislike about yourself and attributing them to someone else.
What is... Projection
The technical term "prodromal symptoms" is used to describe...
What is... A specific group of symptoms that may precede the onset of a mental illness.
Negative symptoms are most frequently identified as being connected to PTSD, although positive symptoms are sometimes reported in patients who have had PTSD for an extended period.
Myth. It's the other way around. Positive symptoms (the addition of thoughts, behaviors, and mental states such as paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions) are most frequently identified with PTSD, while negative symptoms (a loss of functioning that includes a loss of motivation, emotional withdrawal, dissociation, apathy, social withdrawal, and other symptoms) are sometimes reported in these cases.
Standing up and moving does little to nothing to address the freeze response associated with our reaction to stressors.
Myth. Standing up and moving not only helps to counteract the freeze response, but can also help the individual reclaim a sense of control over their body.
Hyperactivity in this part of the brain associated with emotional processing and fear may put a person at risk for developing PTSD in the aftermath of a trauma.
What is... Amygdala
This term describes when we take out our frustration on a substitute the way we would want to take it out on the actual source of that frustration.
What is... Displacement
Name an example, or examples, of comorbid mental health and substance abuse issues.
Examples include:
While PTSD wasn't added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until 1980, its symptoms had actually been recognized for decades prior to its inclusion.
Fact
Because the re-experiencing of a prior threat through a flashback is happening in the more primitive parts of one's brain, it is impossible for them to have the insight that can discern the past from the present.
Fact
Preliminary research has shown that treating people with this type of antipsychotic medication may help alleviate symptoms of psychosis when comorbid with PTSD, though more investigation is still needed to make a definitive statement on its effectiveness.
What are... Atypical antipsychotics