Dealing With PTSD
damaged.” Depression at the length of time the survivor must struggle with symptoms and work at healing can also occur, and cause lowered self esteem.
Poor health and various addictions, including food, alcohol, drugs, or smoking can also occur in an attempt to cope with the anxiety that occurs with PTSD.
Treatment of PTSD For treatment to be successful, it is best if the person is safe, or removed from their ongoing trauma (although many survivors begin treatment while their cult abuse is still occurring, and finding afety may be a process that takes time for some).
Safety issues are usually addressed first (ie stopping cult contact, dealing with severe depression or suicidality). Factors that could slow healing such as addictions to drugs, alcohol, or sex may also be addressed fairly early in therapy, and the use of positive, healthy coping skills in place of numbing behaviors will be taught.
Education about PTSD, what it is, the symptoms, what causes it is also done and can help both the survivor and their family cope with the effects of trauma better. Coping skills such as slow breathing, anxiety containment, positive distraction (the use of a positive or healthy method to distract from the memories to avoid being overwhelmed), and grounding techniques will often be taught. Intrasystem cooperation will be used, and as the survivor of ritual abuse gets to know his/her internal people, they will learn to slow down memories to avoid flooding.
Therapy may include both talk therapy (telling the therapist about the painful events, and discussing the feelings the survivor has; often just learning to have permission to feel at all will be addressed early in therapy since the cult often teaches members to not feel or show emotions), the use of imagery to reaccess traumatic memories, or cognitive restructuring (discussing the survivor’s beliefs about him or herself caused by the events that they underwent).
Learning new social and interaction skills may also be taught, to help make the “here and now” better for the survivor and to help them develop a good support system. Learning to ask others for support, and giving and receiving it from others is often a large part of the healing process. This can help to decrease the sense of isolation and “differentness” that often occur.
EMDR (Eye Movement Densensitization and Reprocessing) is another technique that has been used to help survivors reaccess trauma memories.
Medication can also
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