Membership Application Post-Traumatic When you join now, you become a member of your NAMI affiliate, your NAMI State Organization and the Treatment national NAMI Organization. I wish to join NAMI-NYS PTSD is treated and managed in several ways. as a member of a local affiliate. The county that I live in Stress  Medications, including mood stabilizers, is: antipsychotic medications and ______

antidepressants. _____ Household membership ($60.00) List Names in Disorder  Psychotherapy, such as cognitive household: behavioral therapy or group therapy. ______ Self-management strategies, such as "self-soothing.” Many therapy ______techniques, including mindfulness, are helpful to ground a person and bring ______them back to reality after a dissociative episode or a flashback. _____ Regular Membership ($40.00)

 Service animals, especially dogs, can _____ Open door membership ($5) for those with help soothe some of the symptoms of financial hardships PTSD. Related Conditions ______Donation Someone with PTSD may have additional disorders, as well as thoughts of or attempts at Name: ______suicide, such as : Street: ______ Anxiety disorders, including Generalized Anxiety Disorder and OCD City: ______ Borderline Personality Disorder  Depression State ______Zip ______

 Substance abuse Phone: ______These other illnesses can make it challenging to treat PTSD. For example, medications used to Cell Phone:______treat OCD or depression may worsen symptoms of PTSD, and may even trigger them. Successfully E-Mail : ______treating PTSD almost always improves these related illnesses. And successful treatment of Thank you for joining NAMI-NYS! Please make your check payable to depression, other anxiety or substance abuse “NAMI-NYS” and mail to: usually improves the symptoms of PTSD. NAMI-NYS Source: 99 Pine St., Suite 105 Albany, NY 12207 http://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental- (518) 462-2000 Health-Conditions/Posttraumatic-Stress-Disorder www.naminys.org [email protected] Facebook: NAMINewYorkState Twitter: @NAMINEWYORK Symptoms Diagnosis The symptoms of PTSD fall into the following Symptoms of PTSD usually begin within 3 categories. months after a traumatic event, but  Intrusive Memories, which can include occasionally emerge years afterward. flashbacks of reliving the moment of Symptoms must last more than a month to be trauma, bad dreams and scary thoughts. considered PTSD. PTSD is often accompanied by depression, substance abuse or another anxiety  Avoidance, which can include staying disorder. away from certain places or objects that are reminders of the traumatic event. A People can describe symptoms in a variety of person may also feel numb, guilty, ways. How a person describes symptoms often worried, depressed, or have trouble depends on the cultural lens they are looking remembering the traumatic event. through. In Western cultures, people generally talk about their moods or feelings, whereas in  Dissociation, which can include out-of- many Eastern cultures, people more commonly Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder body experiences or feeling that the refer to physical pain. African Americans and Traumatic events, such as military combat, world is "not real" (derealization). Latinos are more likely to be misdiagnosed, so assault, an accident or a natural disaster, can  Hypervigilance, which can include being they should look for a health care professional have long-lasting negative effects. Sometimes startled very easily, feeling tense, who understands their background and shares our biological responses and instincts, which trouble sleeping or outbursts of anger. their expectations for treatment. can be life-saving during a crisis, leave people Because young children have emerging abstract with ongoing psychological symptoms because Over the last 5 years, research on 1–6 year olds cognitive and limited verbal expression, they are not integrated into consciousness. found that young children can develop PTSD, research indicates that diagnostic criteria needs Because the body is busy increasing the heart and the symptoms are quite different from to be more behaviorally anchored and rate, pumping blood to muscles for movement those of adults. These findings also saw an developmentally sensitive to detect PTSD in and preparing the body to fight off infection increase in PTSD diagnoses in young children by preschool children. Read more on the and bleeding in case of a wound, all bodily more than 8 times when using the newer preschool subtype at the National Center for resources and energy get focused on physically criteria. Symptoms in young children can PTSD. getting out of harm’s way. This resulting include: damage to the brain’s response system is  Acting out scary events during playtime called post-traumatic stress response or  Forgetting how/being unable to talk disorder, also known as PTSD.  Being excessively clingy with adults PTSD affects 3.5% of the U.S. adult population—about 7.7 million Americans—but  Extreme temper tantrums, as well as women are more likely to develop the overly aggressive behavior condition than men. About 37% of those cases are classified as severe. While PTSD can occur at any age, the average age of onset is in a person’s early 20s.