New Age Psychiatry

You cannot be manipulated if you do not react to the narcissist’s dysfunctional triggers. 🛡️ When you need to remind the narcissist about your boundaries, do so with a calm, soft tone and a slow pace of speech. 🗣️ When you confront your fears or insecurities or pain, you are tapping into your true higher self. 🌟 By doing this, you will be able to clearly see the effective coping behaviors which you are already using and areas of needed improvement. 💪 The purpose of these techniques is to focus on what’s going on around you or in your thoughts, 🧠 and these skills can be a valuable shield when you feel overwhelmed by a narcissist. 🌈

In prescribed dosages, Ketamine therapy allows depressed individuals to open their subconscious in a less threatening manner 💊. This open state of awareness helps replace traumatic and distressing memories with healthier cognitions and coping behaviors 🧠. Neuroscience studies show that the triggering of glutamate is Ketamine’s “superpower” ⚡. Glutamate is involved in over 90% of all excitatory functions in the brain and aids in forming new associations in memory and learning centers 🧩. Ketamine helps the depressed brain form new memories based on new information developed through psychotherapeutic strategies 💭. Glutamate also produces the brain’s main calming neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) 🧘. This calming effect aids in exploring the sources of depression symptoms and managing PTSD triggers effectively 🧘‍♂️.

Ketamine's Impact on the Brain

For these reasons, at-home Ketamine therapy is often complemented with psychotherapeutic strategies 🏠. These strategies aim to improve the recognition and management of depression triggers and control PTSD symptoms effectively 🌟. By facilitating the formation of new memories and associations, Ketamine therapy provides a powerful tool for mental health treatment 🌈.

Courage is necessary 💪 for confronting fears, managing daily responsibilities, and pursuing goals 🎯 after trauma. A PTSD survivor’s ability to courageously face triggers and insecurities can inspire 🌟 others and foster a sense of empowerment.

Problem-Solving Skills.
Effective problem-solving 🧩 is a cornerstone of PTSD therapy, enabling survivors to navigate their new life narratives. As survivors refine these skills, they learn to manage out-of-control moments and redefine their perceptions of self and others. 🌱

Emotional Regulation.
Developing emotional regulation skills 🧘‍♂️ is essential for PTSD recovery. Creative outlets like writing ✍️, music 🎶, or art can offer unique insights and perspectives, helping survivors manage PTSD symptoms and maintain focus on personal growth 🌿.

Holistic Treatment for PTSD and ADHD: Empower Your Journey 🌱
For those grappling with both PTSD and ADHD, holistic 🌟 treatment approaches can provide transformative healing. Trauma-Informed Therapies like EMDR 👁️, Narrative Therapy 📖, and Psychodynamic Therapy 🧠 work to revise various aspects of one’s life, addressing emotional and behavioral responses within a broader social context. EMDR, for example, uses eye movements to help reprocess traumatic memories, alleviating associated fears 😱. Narrative Therapy empowers individuals to rewrite their stories, redefining experiences and self-perception 📝. A holistic approach is vital in identifying and harnessing strengths 💪, guiding individuals toward a path of self-discovery and empowerment 🛤️.

ADHD usually begins in early childhood and involves consistent challenges with attention 🧠, behavioral control, and emotional regulation. In contrast, PTSD symptoms occur after a traumatic event 🆘, may be less consistent, and may vary in intensity. Both ADHD and PTSD can lead to difficulty concentrating 🧐, but the root causes are different. In ADHD, inattentiveness is a consistent trait that affects the ability to stay focused on tasks. With PTSD, inattentiveness may be a symptom of dissociation 🌫️, which is a mental escape from trauma triggers. Dissociation can manifest as daydreaming, spaciness 🌌, or detachment from one’s surroundings. Another difference is that both disorders can lead to sleep problems 😴 but for different reasons.

Harness Your Inner Strength Through Self-Regulation 💪

Self-regulation 🧠 allows you to reflect on your motives, values, and life goals. It's key 🔑 to cognitive growth and purposeful actions. Through self-regulation, you gain control over your environment, creating an internal locus of control 🛡️ that protects you from life's challenges. For those managing PTSD or ADHD, developing self-regulatory coping strategies is essential for functioning in all aspects of life. However, sometimes our defenses take over these strategies, leading to emotional dysregulation. Therapy can help 🗣️ by addressing past experiences and restoring balance in your present life.

DIFFICULTY WITH EMOTIONAL REGULATION

Challenges in regulating emotions can occur in both ADHD and PTSD. 🌟 With ADHD, individuals might experience quick mood changes and difficulty managing their emotional responses. 🧠 In PTSD, emotional dysregulation is often a reaction to trauma triggers, resulting in intense anxiety, anger, or sadness that can become overwhelming in current situations. 💔 In ADHD, many individuals experience a form of trauma when undiagnosed. 😔 This trauma includes a chronic sense of being negatively perceived or rejected, low self-esteem, struggles in academic or social settings, and, in some cases, engaging in impulsive and self-destructive behaviors. 💡 Negative thought patterns can cause emotional “stuckness,” which occurs when fearful, painful, and insecure thought patterns interfere with one’s motivation toward any meaningful action, ranging from simple self-care tasks to self-empowering actions in one’s career and relationships. 🌈 Those with PTSD and ADHD often stay in a cycle of past-oriented emotional pain, shame, and identity confusion.

SENSORY HYPERAROUSAL
Individuals with ADHD have extreme difficulty organizing and responding appropriately to sensory information. 🌟 Those with PTSD also have heightened sensory sensitivity, but it is typically tied to trauma cues. 🧠 Being in situations with too many stimuli can trigger extreme anxiety in both PTSD and ADHD individuals. 😟 ADHD and PTSD together can create extreme hyperarousal, impulsive behaviors, and heightened emotional responses to traumatic reminders in those with PTSD, or shameful reminders in those with ADHD. 😢 Those with ADHD exhibit a consistent pattern of excessive physical movements or a feeling of restlessness that can impede functioning in various situations. 🌀 Hyperarousal in PTSD, however, is a state of heightened alertness as a reaction to trauma, leading to vigilance for potential threats and an exaggerated startle response. 🔔 The external reaction looks much like ADHD and may look like being unable to relax or a need to be constantly “trying to get things done.” 🏃‍♂️

Scientists have found that both ADHD 🎯 and PTSD 🛡️ cause changes in the prefrontal cortex, 🧠 an area of the brain that controls attention span, impulse control, emotional regulation, and long-term goal achievement. Both disorders create a heightened "fight-or-flight" 🏃‍♂️ response to daily stressors, causing surges of adrenaline 🌟 and hypervigilance of one’s environment. The amygdala, responsible for managing fear 😨 and controlling anger, does not function effectively in those with PTSD and ADHD, leading to exaggerated anger and fear responses. The crisis-focused amygdala sends disorganized information to the hippocampus, resulting in a decreased ability to retain short-term memories and increased vulnerability to further trauma.

CAN YOU BE DIAGNOSED WITH BOTH PTSD AND ADHD?

The answer is “yes!” 😊 However, many individuals are often misdiagnosed as having either one or the other, not both. 🧠 The reason for this confusion is that these disorders have overlapping symptoms and often coexist in a bidirectional relationship, 🌐 meaning that each one can impact the other. Many research studies have found that those with ADHD are four times as likely to also have PTSD, 📊 and those with PTSD are twice as likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for ADHD. In fact, those with ADHD and PTSD have evidenced very similar struggles in their academic and professional pursuits, 👩‍🎓 their social interactions, and their effectiveness in managing daily activities. These struggles have been correlated with the shared symptoms of difficulties with concentration, 💭 memory, emotional regulation, decision-making skills, impulse control, communication skills, 🗣️ and thought organization. When an individual has experienced a severe trauma or chronic trauma, 🛑 the diagnosis is typically PTSD. However, trauma debilitates the same brain areas which cause ADHD symptoms. ⚠️ Therefore, ADHD symptoms can actually result from trauma and, if undiagnosed or misunderstood, can also be a form of ongoing trauma, such as social embarrassment, 💔 poor academic or work performance, and a constant fear of making mistakes.

If your partner or a family member tries to control, weaken, and manipulate you through gaslighting, 🕯️ you may frequently question your self-worth, your abilities, and your mental and emotional stability. 😓 In fact, you may often question your core beliefs and even your perception of reality. 🌍 Over time, this cycle of manipulation and distortion of reality can greatly erode your sense of dignity and self-confidence, 💔 and this “shredding” of your identity can actually cause you to remain dependent upon this person. 💭 This dependence results from believing that the relationship problems are your fault. 🔄 Remember that gaslighting is particularly damaging when it comes from your intimate partner, ❤️ but it is also a common pattern within families, such as from a parent to a child or teen. 👶 There are several residual effects of surviving narcissistic abuse, 🌀 such as actions which are focused solely on pleasing others, chronic self-doubt, 🪞 social isolation, self-defeating inner talk, identity confusion, guilt, shame, loss of your previous identity, 🧠 poor decision-making abilities, dissociation, and poor self-care. 🧘

Embracing growth 🌱 through trauma therapy allows survivors to reclaim their freedom of choice and redefine their identities. By transforming symptoms into strengths 💪, they shift from perceiving themselves as damaged to recognizing their resilience and courage. This appreciation for life and supportive relationships 🤝 is the essence of Post-Traumatic Growth. Embrace your journey toward healing, and let your inner strength guide you. 🌟

For more information on PTSD treatment, trauma therapy, and mental health services, contact [Your Practice Name]. Our experienced therapists 🧠 are here to help you on your journey toward resilience and recovery.

Courage.
Courage is necessary 💪 for confronting fears, managing daily responsibilities, and pursuing goals 🎯 after trauma. A PTSD survivor’s ability to courageously face triggers and insecurities can inspire 🌟 others and foster a sense of empowerment.

Problem-Solving Skills.
Effective problem-solving 🧩 is a cornerstone of PTSD therapy, enabling survivors to navigate their new life narratives. As survivors refine these skills, they learn to manage out-of-control moments and redefine their perceptions of self and others. 🌱

Emotional Regulation.
Developing emotional regulation skills 🧘‍♂️ is essential for PTSD recovery. Creative outlets like writing ✍️, music 🎶, or art can offer unique insights and perspectives, helping survivors manage PTSD symptoms and maintain focus on personal growth 🌿.

Empathy and Mindfulness in PTSD Recovery.

Empathy: 🧡 PTSD survivors often develop heightened empathy, allowing them to connect 🌟 deeply with others who have experienced trauma. This empathy fosters strong commitments to personal well-being and compassionate 💖 relationships, which are essential components of the Post-Traumatic Growth process.

Mindfulness: 🧘‍♀️ Mindfulness-based therapy is instrumental in helping PTSD survivors maintain control 💪 over their emotional responses. Techniques like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (MBCT) support individuals in staying present, thereby facilitating 🌈 smoother transitions through the growth process.

Key Traits in PTSD Therapy: Building Resilience and Courage

Resilience is crucial in PTSD recovery. 🌟 It’s the ability to emotionally, mentally, and behaviorally navigate distressing life experiences. 🧠 A resilient PTSD survivor uses their internal locus of control—such as motivation, mindful actions, and positive self-talk—to overcome negative external events. 🗣️ Resilient individuals persevere through challenges, seeking deeper self-understanding and redefining their life’s purpose. 🔄 Building resilience not only fosters recovery but also enhances one's ability to cope with future adversities. 💪 Remember, resilience is a journey, and each step forward is a testament to your courage and strength. 🌈

Understanding Post-Traumatic Growth in Mental Health Treatment 🌱 Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) refers to the positive psychological transformation 🧠 that can occur after experiencing significant trauma. 🌟 It challenges one’s core beliefs, identity, and self-worth, 🌈 leading to profound personal growth. Developed in the 1990s by psychologists Richard Tedeschi, Ph.D., and Lawrence Calhoun, 🧑‍⚕️ Ph.D., PTG has become a critical concept in trauma-focused therapy. It helps trauma survivors develop deeper self-awareness, 🌍 greater insight into relationships, a renewed sense of purpose, and a broader appreciation for life. 🌺

Traumatic experiences can trigger uncontrollable emotional responses and flashbacks, 💥 making it difficult for survivors to move forward. However, they may not realize that they have developed strong self-reliance 💪 and wisdom through their experiences. 🧘‍♀️ Neuroscience continues to explore how trauma affects the brain’s memory systems 🧠 and how therapeutic interventions can reverse these effects. 🌿

Post-Traumatic Growth: Resilience and Courage in PTSD Survivors
Everything happens for a reason.” This common statement doesn’t resonate with 🌧️ trauma survivors who have faced chronic emotional or physical abuse 💔, witnessed the death of a loved one, or endured life-altering events. For those grappling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) 😔, there often seems to be no logical reason behind their suffering. The aftermath of trauma disrupts the brain’s 🧠 emotional control center, leading to persistent fear and disorganized thoughts.

Eye Movement Integration (EMI) is a powerful 💪 technique rooted in Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP). EMI leverages the connection 🔗 between eye movements and specific brain areas associated with sensory experiences. This method helps reprocess traumatic memories by disrupting 🧠 dysfunctional patterns through targeted eye movements. The process induces physiological changes that activate information processing, aiding in the reorganization of deeply ingrained trauma responses. By breaking habitual patterns, EMI fosters healing 🌱 and paves the way for healthier mental pathways. Whether you're dealing with past trauma or seeking to improve mental health, EMI offers a promising approach to regain control over your life ✨.

In sum, our thoughts 💭 and emotions 😔 are primarily experienced through our memories of visual experiences 👀. By consciously focusing 🧘‍♀️ on one’s eye movements, an individual can mindfully control 🧠 and redirect responses to painful memories 💔. Self-defeating reactionary patterns can be reorganized 📚 into a more distant compartment of one’s life narrative, making room for an individual to tap into one’s “resources” 🌟. Emotional pain is an inevitable aspect of the natural order of life 🌍 but feeling overwhelmed 😣 and “frozen” ❄️ is not natural and can negatively impact an individual’s sense of self 🧑‍🤝‍🧑, one’s relationship satisfaction 💑, and one’s work 🖥️ and academic performance 📚. EMI has been successful in helping trauma survivors to restructure their current perceptions 🧠 about past events, so that they can move beyond the shame, self-blame, and sense of powerlessness over their traumatic memories 🧠.

🌟 Imagine having the power to face a triggering situation with confidence and control. 🎯 The Conducting a Rehearsal technique is your mental practice field, where you visualize tough scenarios and rehearse your coping strategies. 💡 Just like an athlete prepares for a game, you can prepare your mind to handle emotions and reactions. 🛡️ This process builds an emotional "armor," giving you control over situations that once felt overwhelming. 💬 By working with your therapist, you create personalized relief plans, turning distress into a stepping stone toward resilience and peace. 🌱 Together, you can reduce impulsive responses and embrace a stronger, more empowered you. 💪

In sum, our thoughts 💭 and emotions are primarily experienced 🧠 through our memories 📸 of visual experiences. By consciously focusing 👀 on one’s eye movements, an individual can mindfully control 🧘‍♀️ and redirect responses to painful 😢 memories. Self-defeating reactionary patterns 🔄 can be reorganized into a more distant compartment 📂 of one’s life narrative, making room 🏡 for an individual to tap into one’s “resources.” Emotional pain 💔 is an inevitable aspect of life, but feeling overwhelmed 🌊 and “frozen” 🥶 is not natural and can negatively impact self, relationships 💑, and performance 🎓. EMI helps trauma survivors 🚶‍♂️ restructure current perceptions 🧩 about past events, moving beyond shame, self-blame, and powerlessness over traumatic memories.

Self-Administered EMI Techniques

EMI is effective for regulating traumatic thoughts 💭 and emotions by using interruptive strategies 🛑 and changing sensory responses 🌈 to trauma, abandonment, insecurities, or fears. When a pattern is interrupted, it can then reorganize 🌱. After learning EMI techniques during therapy sessions 🧑‍⚕️, clients can self-administer them as needed. EMI is recommended for those with PTSD or anxiety disorders 😟 and should be used with other approaches, like Solution-Focused Therapy or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy 🧘‍♂️. Self-administering EMI techniques can be liberating and life-changing 🌟. However, it is crucial for clients to maintain ongoing contact with their therapist 📞 and attend therapy sessions at least once per month 📅.

The primary goal of Eye Movement Integration (EMI) is to move traumatic memories from one’s implicit memory to one’s explicit memory. 🌟 Traumatic experiences are often stored in the unconscious part of the brain, making them uncontrollable and highly charged with emotions. 🌪️

Implicit memories, filled with fragmented images, sounds, and sensations, have no sense of time. 🕰️ When a traumatic incident is recalled, it feels like it's happening again, triggering stress responses. 🧠💥

EMI works by helping clients retrieve painful memories while using meditative eye movements to calm themselves. 🧘‍♂️ This allows for reprocessing these memories, moving them to a more controllable state. 🚀 In as few as four sessions, significant progress can be made, though chronic trauma may require more time. ⏳

Eye Movement Integration (EMI) in Trauma Therapy

🌟 Eye Movement Integration (EMI) 🌟 has its roots in Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP). In NLP studies, the associations between eye movements and specific sensory brain areas, combined with the mental reprocessing of images and related self-talk, provided the first empirical evidence that eye movements might be associated with neurological processes which perpetuate trauma responses. 🧠 A dual-attention stimulus, such as eye movement, is an integral component of EMI therapies, because it induces certain physiological conditions that activate information processing. 🌟 We acquire attitudes, beliefs, values, behaviors, and language from our experiences, and they form organized and systematic patterns. 🧠 They also tend to be enduring human attributes. However, if interrupted, habitual patterns, such as images of traumatic memories, will reorganize. 🌟 EMI techniques use eye movements to interrupt dysfunctional patterns. 🧠

Eye Movement Integration (EMI) for PTSD and Anxiety

Eye Movement Integration (EMI) 🌟 is a brief neurotherapeutic approach 🧠 which teaches clients how to use their voluntary eye movements 👀 to become “unstuck” from frozen trauma. 📅 EMI is the processing of different trauma-associated memories while consciously moving eyes 🌀 back and forth in a repetitive and meditative manner. 🧘‍♂️ The goal is to push the trauma into the brain’s long-term memory 📂 so that an individual experiences the memories as more passive than active in daily life. 🌿 The brain can then move forward without the fear of flashbacks about past events. 🚀 EMI works through “adaptive information processing” 🛠️ and creates new orienting responses (OR’s). These orienting responses are key 🔑 in retrieving information from previous experiences and integrating them into positive emotional and cognitive schema. 📖 These new orienting responses desensitize an individual to anxiety and trauma triggers through this adaptive information process. 🌈

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurological disorder which can be genetic or can result from chronic life stressors or traumas. Low dopamine and norepinephrine levels can severely limit the ADHD brain’s executive functioning abilities, which are primarily created within the prefrontal cortex. These executive functions include short-term and long-term goal formation, task completion strategies, goal-directed actions, self-monitoring, attention span, response inhibition, emotional regulation, thought processing speed, thought organization, and effective motor skills coordination and response times. Dopamine is also necessary in the brain’s nucleus accumbens, so that an individual can respond to rewarding stimuli and can experience pleasurable thoughts and emotions.

💡 Executive functions include short-term and long-term goal formation, task completion strategies, goal-directed actions, self-monitoring, attention span, response inhibition, emotional regulation, thought processing speed, thought organization, and effective motor skills coordination and response times. Dopamine is also necessary in the brain’s nucleus accumbens, so that an individual can respond to rewarding stimuli and can experience pleasurable thoughts and emotions. 🌟

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Stimulant medications reduce ADHD symptoms by increasing the dopamine levels in your 🧠 brain. They slow down the reabsorption of dopamine back into the neural network. As a result, more neurotransmitter is held in the synapse 🧩 between neurons long enough to properly bind to the receptor, helping messages within the brain be more effectively 🗣️ transmitted and received. This improves activity and communication in those parts of the brain 🧬 which operate on dopamine and norepinephrine and signal for specific tasks. This process leads to better focus 📚 and reduces impulsive behaviors.

In the prescribed dosages, Ketamine therapy can allow depressed individuals to open their subconscious in a less 🤔 threatening manner. This open state of awareness allows the individual to replace traumatic and other distressing memories with 😌 conscious and healthier cognitions and coping behaviors. How does Ketamine produce this open state of awareness? Based on neuroscience studies, the triggering of glutamate is the “superpower” 🧠 of Ketamine therapy, because glutamate is involved in more than 90% of all excitatory functions in the human brain and allows nerve cells in the memory and learning centers of the brain 🧠 to form new associations. Ketamine can help the depressed brain to form new memories, based on the new information which can be developed through certain psychotherapeutic strategies. Glutamate is also responsible for the production of the brain’s main calming neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). This calming effect can greatly help depressed individuals to explore the sources of their symptoms 🌿. For these reasons, at-home Ketamine therapy is often complemented with psychotherapeutic strategies aimed at the improvement of recognizing and managing depression triggers and also for controlling PTSD symptoms 🌈.

By 🌟 using Therapeutic Dissociation, you are moving 💫 away from the chaos and toward 🧘‍♂️ your true higher self 🌿 as the wise and calm observer of the insanity, rather 🌈 than being a part of it or thinking 🤔 that you are the cause of it. The 🧠 human brain has the neurotransmitters and structures 🌱 to organize information, to continually learn 📚 from unproductive information, and to create new 🌟 information. Narcissists are unlikely to communicate 🔊 about their responsibilities within a romantic 💖 relationship and will distort the facts about 🌀 situations. You can free yourself from the narcissist’s 📖 narrative through this strategy of intentional 💡 disconnection. A helpful self-statement to make 🗣️ while using Therapeutic Dissociation is, “I will observe 👀 but not absorb the narcissist’s emotional toxins.”