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Gift From Within - PTSD Questions & Answers with Frank Ochberg, M.D.

PTSD: Definition of PTSD How Common, Who Gets PTSD? Is PTSD a normal event? Does PTSD Affect The Brain? Duration Pregnancy Delayed Onset PTSD PTSD Tip Sheet for your Doctor Medications for PTSD Distinguishing PTSD from BPD Generalized Anxiety Disorder Can the Wounds of PTSD Heal? Complex/Chronic PTSD: CPTSD Explanation Long Term Prognosis & Complex PTSD PTSD vs. CPTSD Managing Past Intense Feelings Overcoming Complex PTSD PTSD Symptoms: Anger and Brain Injury Anger Flashbacks Loneliness Feelings Of Loss And Sense Of Self Anxiety Numbing Re-Traumatization Differences bet. Depression, Dysthemia, Major Depression Depression vs. Sadness and Grief Biological Depression Memory Loss Triggers and Body Sensations PTSD & Facial Tics Emotional & Physical Reactions Delayed Stress Response after Experiencing a Shock Can A False Memory Happen? Differences Between Hypervigilance and Hyperarousal Negativity & Pessismism after Trauma PTSD/PTSI Insomnia: Not Being Able To Sleep PTSD/PTSI & Psychosis Relationships: Peer Support Issues Explaining PTSD To Children False Memory Toxic Family Of Origin Protection From Unwanted Contact Preventing Intergenerational PTSD Numbing in Male Survivors of Domestic Violence How To Increase Social Support Caregivers/Partners with PTSD: Starting a Conversation about PTSD Both Partners with PTSD & its Complications Fiancé Doesn't Believe in Therapy Managing PTSD After Partner Pushes Too Hard Childhood Abuse: Emotional Abuse Childhood Trauma & Intrusive Images Revisiting The Scene Of Trauma And Abuse Gaslighting Stockholm Syndrome & Child Abuse Survivors Can a Child be Born Depressed Childhood Survivors and Being a Parent Work Issues: Disability Letter for Attorney-Sample Low Stress Jobs Doctor's letter for Employer Sample Dealing with Co-Workers Job Searching with PTSD Recovery: Frank Ochberg's Color Wheel of Positive Emotion Triggers Rebuilding Self Esteem Life After Trauma Coping During The Holidays Substance Abuse Improving A Damaged Self-Concept Explaining PTSD is a Responsibility Grief & Loss from a Tragic Death The Trauma Bond & Forgiveness Sudden Panic, Anxiety & Flashbacks Stockholm Syndrome, Trauma Bond and Undue Influence Therapy: Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Inadequate Therapy When to End Therapy Repeating Your Trauma Story PTSD Symptoms After The Therapy Hour Exposure Therapy Service/Therapy Dogs & PTSD ECT (Electro-Convulsive-Therapy) Bipolar & ECT Therapy: An Interview Telling Trauma Story to Therapist PTSD Client Expectations from Therapy Sessions Veterans & PTSD: PTSD A Disease Seasonal PTSD & Anniversary Reaction. Emotional Injury Therapy Sessions Active Listening for Moms and Friends Military Sexual Assault Professionals: Compassion Fatigue Consequences Of Emotional Numbing School Teachers And PTSD Using The Counting Method with Clients Helping Clients with PTSD Other Conditions: Borderline Personality Disorder Social Phobia Dissociation Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) Cutting & Self Harm Link between PTSD, BPD and Bi-Polar Somatization Disorder or Briquet's Syndrome Stockholm Syndrome & Child Abuse Survivors Dealing with Psychopaths & Narcissists PTSD/PTSI & Psychosis

PTSD Questions & Answers with Joyce Boaz & Dr. Frank Ochberg, M.D. Read "Survivor Psalm" by Frank Ochberg

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PTSD/PTSI & Psychosis Q: Dear Frank, I found this article and wondered what you thought about the science behind it on PTSD and Psychosis. See (http://www.mentalhealthcare.org.uk/post_traumatic_stress_di?) A: Dear Joyce, The consultants who contribute to the site are high quality people in London but are not the UK ISTSS PTSD experts. They are psychosis experts. PTSD, per se, is seldom a psychotic condition. People with PTSD may also have psychoses such as schizophrenia and should receive both diagnoses. PTSD often includes dissociation--an altered state of consciousness. Dissociation is not psychosis. The critical distinction has to do with "reality testing." A person in a dissociated state has a sensation of being in an unreal situation and is aware of it. A psychotic person is deluded or hallucinating and usually unaware of having entered an unreal state. In a flashback, a person with PTSD may feel and act as though he or she were in a place from the past. This may qualify as psychotic. The flashback state of PTSD can, in my opinion, cross from dissociation into psychosis when the trauma-survivor lacks the ability to know real from unreal and right from wrong. If a deadly crime is committed in a flashback, you can bet that well qualified experts will debate both sides of the case. The defense will claim insanity. There is a well-established diagnosis called brief psychotic disorder (http://www.uptodate.com/contents/brief-psychotic-disorder) (formerly brief reactive psychosis). I have given this diagnosis as a forensic expert and prevailed in establishing "not guilty by reason of insanity." Technically, this diagnosis should be used rather than PTSD when the post-traumatic unreal symptoms last less than a month, more than a day, and fit the pattern described in DSM-5. But after a month, other diagnoses need to be used, including PTSD - if it fits. In sum, PTSD and psychosis may co-exist but PTSD is usually not considered a psychotic condition. Frank Tweet Was this helpful to you? If so, please consider supporting our work.

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