Episode 12: Breaking Down PTSD
Nearly 7 or 8 of every 100 people will experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in their life. It affects people of all ages. In this episode, we are joined by Jennifer Young, LPC, a therapist at Right Track Medical Group to get a better understanding of what this mental health condition is — and what it isn't. Listen now below, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Rhes Low, Host:
Hello, everyone. Today, we are talking about post-traumatic stress disorder, what we all know commonly as PTSD. Like the other mental health conditions we've talked about here, we've all heard the term PTSD, whether it be in movies or the news or casual conversations. But do we really know what it is? If we know anything about it, we know that it commonly impacts military veterans. However, PTSD can impact anyone at any age. In fact, about seven or eight out of every hundred people will experience PTSD at some point in their lives. So let's all settle in and get this thing rolling. Glad to have you back.
Welcome to South of Fine, a podcast from Right Track Medical Group, dedicated to de-stigmatizing mental health in the South through genuine conversation about the challenges that we all face every day. For more information, please visit our website, righttrackmedical.com/SouthofFine. While hope you enjoy listening to our podcast, please remember that this is not a substitute for professional diagnosis or for the treatment of any mental health condition. All right, guys. So to learn more about PTSD and its impact on those affected, we are joined by Jennifer Young, a therapist at Right Track Medical Group. Jennifer, thanks for being here with us.
Jennifer Young, LPC:
Thank you for having me.
Low:
Of course. Now, first of all, would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself and about what you do?
Young:
Okay. I am a new therapist at Right Track Medical Group and at our medicine campus, I have experience working mostly with kids and families. I did that for a number of years and had a few roles supervising staff and training staff. And so here recently, I decided to get back into direct service and service our families who need help. And so I decided to come to the Right Track and so things have been going great since then.
Low:
Cool. Good deal. I know that they're very excited to have you in that role. So, let's get to the subject of what we're talking about. So tell us, we've all heard, I said this in the opening, but we've all heard PTSD. We're all familiar with that, but we don't know really what it is. We think military. But tell us a little bit about what PTSD is.
Young:
Okay. So, PTSD is a term that stands for post-traumatic stress disorder, and it is a mental health disorder that actually develops in one who has experienced or witnessed or learned that a relative or close friend was exposed to some kind of a traumatic event, usually in the form of an actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence in some way.
Low:
Okay. So, that's what causes it typically, is a traumatic event. Either you witness it or can it be third-party? Can you just be a family member that you knew and loved, but didn't actually experience the event?
Young:
So it can be experienced directly or indirectly. I think the thing that differentiates PTSD from some other, either stress or trauma-related disorders is that it typically involves an exposure to an actual or threatened death or serious injury, or like I said, sexual violence in some way.
Low:
Okay. All right.
Young:
So, it threatens the safety.
Low:
Okay. And you work with a lot of kids, as you said in the beginning. Are they affected differently by PTSD than an adult would be?
Young:
Interesting question. I mean, of course, kids don't have the coping mechanisms and their brains are not as developed as an adult. So, yes. I mean, they do experience it, some differently. But some of the symptoms are the same for kids.
Low:
Do you see it a lot in kids or is it more prevalent in adults?
Young:
Again, well, I wouldn't say it's necessarily more prevalent. I mean, kids and adults actually experience quite a bit of trauma, actually, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you will qualify for a PTSD diagnosis.
Low:
So, what would qualify you for it? So what are some of the just immediate symptoms of PTSD?
Young:
Okay. So some of the main ones are intrusive thoughts. A person may have involuntary memories of the event. They may have distressing dreams or flashbacks. So that's one. The second one is avoidance. So anything that reminds them of the event. When you think about people, places, and things, so they avoid that because they don't want to trigger those, distressing memories. Another one is their mood or their cognition. So after one experiences an event like this, they look at the world differently. The world is scary. They may view themselves differently. So alterations in their thoughts or in their mood is another one. And then alterations in arousal. And by that, I mean that they may be irritable. They may have angry outbursts. And these symptoms affect their daily life in some way. It could be work. It could be school, could be at home. So it affects their daily life in some way.
Low:
Okay. And do their symptoms occur immediately after the trauma or does it take a while or does that differentiate between the person?
Young:
So it can be delayed, actually. And I think that one of the misnomers about PTSD is that people think they may experience it immediately. But truth be told, they may not experience the symptoms until well after the event, sometimes months, sometimes years.
Low:
Really?
Young:
Yes.
Low:
With kids and adults?
Young:
With kids and adults, yes.
Low:
I have a lot of interesting questions I'm going to avoid because I'll go down a rabbit hole. So if you are experiencing PTSD, I mean, you said that it creates angry outbursts and things like that, is a person that's experiencing PTSD able to know that they're going through PTSD or recognize the symptoms?
Young:
Well, I think that's kind of the benefit of something like this, is to educate the public about what the symptoms would look like. So just in and of itself, a person may not know. I mean, in our society, we've been kind of conditioned to be strong and to just experience things and just kind of keep going. And so I think, again, just educating the public about things to kind of look for either in themselves or loved ones is an advantage. I mean, they may or may not know. And then they may know that they're under distress. They might know that they have some things that they may be trying to avoid, but they may not necessarily know the reasons or what it's attributed to. They might not even be able to link it back necessarily to that traumatic event.
Low:
Huh, really? So they may be just going through some things that like you said, they're like, "Well, I don't know what's happening, but I feel different. I need to just tough this out and figure it out." They can't even put a name to it, typically.
Young:
They may not. I mean, some can. I mean, they may just not know what to do about it.
Low:
Wow, wow, wow. Because this is a pretty serious ordeal. I mean, can it lead to other problems down the line?
Young:
It can, mainly because the body is in a state of hyper-arousal because of stress, because of anxiety. And so, of course, people are trying to cope. So what may end up happening is they may have a co-occurring disorder, meaning they may have some other disorders, whether it be depression or whether it may be alcohol, that they may be also going on, that they may be using to cope, which may compound the issue that they're already experiencing.
Low:
Yeah. So what are some misconceptions with PTSD that people may have?
Young:
Well, we kind of alluded to one of them. I think one of the misconceptions is that one will experience the symptoms immediately. Somebody may experience a traumatic event, whether it's a car accident or whether it's sexual assault, and because they may not experience the symptoms immediately, they may just kind of dismiss it. Whereas the symptoms may not appear like we said early, until months or sometimes even years down the line.
Low:
I just had a thought. I've studied a lot of World War II and met a lot of veterans of World War II that have been through very traumatic events and I'm specifically thinking of a few in Europe. And they suppressed those events for so long and once they got older all of a sudden, their mind couldn't keep those events at bay, and all of a sudden they started having those experiences that you're talking about, that PTSD would create. I've never actually put a label on it. So that's a good point of you said, this is the point of having this conversation on things like a podcast is so you can say maybe this is PTSD. Maybe what I'm experiencing is normal. There's a reason for it. Let me go talk to somebody and see if it's PTSD. It may not be. Maybe something else, like you said.
Young:
Well, exactly. I mean, I think the thing that I liked that you said is maybe. I mean, just even the thought of having an awareness that, okay, well I'm feeling this way, let me go talk to somebody and kind of see what's going on, I think is a healthy choice to make. Because sometimes again, just like going to a medical doctor, we may experience some things but we may not be able to put a name to it, or we might not be able to associate it to certain things, so talking to a mental health professional, we'll be able to kind of align some of those things or be able to put a name to it.
Low:
Yeah. And that's a great point. And we've talked about it on the show in the past. And if you're feeling a little weird and off physically like, "Oh, I'm just going to go to the doctor and see what's going on," why not do the same thing with our mental health, which is just as important or more important to our wellbeing. That's a great point.
Young:
Yeah. And I think we've definitely made some strides just in the mental health world with, again, just kind of changing our thinking as it relates to our mental health and looking at it with the totality of just overall health and the way we think, the way we handle our emotions and other things, all are important, all affects our overall health. And so hopefully, we can continue to open the door and continue to change our thinking as it relates to our mental health because it affects so much of what we do.
Low:
Yeah. Really well put. That was really well put. So in the entertainment world, we see PTSD and actors are portraying it as people that are very violent and dangerous, but that's not really the case. I mean, maybe there's that element, but that's typically not the case, or is it? I don't know.
Young:
No. I mean, no, I think in a lot of ways it can be a mischaracterization at best, not to say that there aren't some cases where people in the PTSD community, may commit violent behavior. But all the research that I've shown have pretty much said that that percentage is under 10%. The truth be told, there's a lot of confounding or contributing factors, even when you account for violent behaviors. Again, it could be another mental health disorder. It could be the use of alcohol. It's difficult to look at PTSD and understand it as it relates to violent just in isolation for PTSD.
Low:
And that's actually another good point, Jennifer, is a lot of times I would imagine with PTSD, once they come to you or to another mental health professional, they're probably pretty far into it and other things have occurred. Is that fair to say?
Young:
I mean, I think that's definitely possible mainly because of some of the things that we stated earlier. But I think just the support with those kinds of symptoms, because people may not know, again, just we may delay coming to a mental health professional or seeking mental health treatment just because of a myriad of reasons. So just like you said, by the time somebody has enough courage and there's a lot of time what it takes and support, then there may be other things that are going on just as you mentioned earlier.
Low:
Just for our listeners, how common is PTSD in kids and adults.
Young:
So, a good question. So between 3.6% or around that and 10% of adult Americans have PTSD during the course of a year. So that's, I mean ...
Low:
That's pretty common.
Young:
Right. But an estimated 7.8 may develop PTSD at some point in their life. And then as far as children, again like I said earlier, I mean, there's about 15 to 43% of girls. And 14 to 43% of girls go through at least one trauma or one traumatic event. But then out of those, less than 20% of girls and less than 10% of boys may develop PTSD.
Low:
Is that why it's more common in women because they're more likely to go through a traumatic event?
Young:
It actually is more common in women. Yeah. And there are also some gender differences in the types of traumatic experiences that women experience versus men. But yes, it's more common in women.
Low:
That's, yeah, okay. Different. Yeah. Depending upon how you're made up. And I guess that sort of experience would be different for everybody regardless of gender because we're all made differently.
Young:
Exactly.
Low:
It's very interesting. So if someone thinks that they have PTSD, what do they do? Do they just call, like you work for Right Track, do they call Right Track, or how do they go about finding out something?
Young:
I would definitely say call Right Track. I mean, we have counselors who are trained in a variety of therapies that have good outcomes for PTSD, one of them being EMDR. But I think the good thing about Right Track is that we have a system in place to where we can screen for some of those and get a person connected to who they need to get connected to in order to be able to effectively treat it. So I just think making that first call is key.
Lau:
Yeah, just pick up the phone.
Young:
I'm sorry.
Low:
Just pick up the phone.
Young:
Yeah, just pick up the phone.
Low:
Yeah. Okay. And I want to be clear to the people listening, you're talking about, because it's so ingrained in our head that this is a military disorder, and we're talking about kids, boys and girls, men and women that have never been in the military in their life that have experienced a traumatic event, which most of us go through at least one in our life.
Young:
Correct. Yeah. I mean, it's certainly not limited to just the military. I mean, when it first came out and when we ... Thinking around 1980, we were kind of limited in our thinking to that. But the fact of the matter is there's a myriad of traumatic events that one may go through that again, like I said earlier, that may actually threaten the safety. It could be again, a car accident or a life-threatening illness. I mean, those are just a couple, but there are definitely several that can fall into that category, for sure.
Low:
Is PTSD something that could be managed or does it go away or what's the lifespan of this illness?
Young:
So, I will say that PTSD can definitely, the symptoms can definitely be significantly reduced. As far as it disappearing, I would venture to say that it really disappears completely. But I think the kids, getting to the point where are functioning in those domains that matter, at home, at work, at school that that's improved and that can happen with the right treatment and with the right combination of treatments.
Low:
Okay, cool. So if they're a family member and somebody in your family has been diagnosed with PTSD, how do you support them in that journey?
Young:
Well, I think there are a few ways. I think first I would say be supportive, be supportive as you can be and just be empathetic, even if you don't understand. I think sometimes when we don't understand we may get frustrated. But one of the things that I would venture to say anybody going through a mental illness needs is support. So I would probably say that's the one thing that their family members can do, and just encourage them to seek mental health treatment, express your concern for them in how they're functioning, and how these symptoms may be interfering with their daily life.
Low:
Yeah. So it's kind of that theme of communicate and just be with somebody.
Young:
And just being with them, exactly.
Low:
All right. You're very, very ... I love you being on the show because you're very to the point and you're succinct with your answers. Madison is very fortunate to have you, especially after talking to you. Are you originally from Madison?
Young:
I am not. I'm actually from the Jackson area, born and raised and grew up. But the cities are very close to each other, yeah, so I can consider myself a part of Madison for sure
Low:
Well, Right Track is very lucky to have you. I'm quite impressed.
Young:
Well, I'm glad to be a part of Right Track.
Low:
Cool. Well, Jennifer, I know that you had a bit of trepidation before-
Young:
Trepidation, indeed. I sure do.
Low:
But I would love to have you back at some point if you're okay with that.
Young:
Listen, I don't have a problem admitting it. But I would love to come back at any time.
Low:
Awesome. All right, guys. Jennifer, thank you so much for sharing with us. And we really, we've learned a ton and hopefully, we've expanded this conversation about mental health and that it's okay to seek help. It's just like going to a doctor for a physical ailment and it's just as important. And your insights have really helped guide us in that direction.
Young:
Wonderful. I'm honored to do it.
Low:
Awesome. All right. If you're looking for more information about Right Track Medical Group or the South of Fine podcast, please visit righttrackmedical.com. I'm Reese, and I look forward to continuing this conversation, guys. See you the next time.
If you have questions about mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic that you'd like our providers to answer in a future episode, please email South of Fine at righttrackmedical.com. And if you'd like more information about Right Track Medical Group or the South of Fine podcast, please visit
Thanks to our production team, Kelley Hunsberger, Caitlyn Clegg, Carol Ann Hughes, Aleka Battista and Reese Lau. A special thanks to Squadcast for providing superior remote interview services.
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