Lady Gaga on PTSD

World Mental Health Day 2022

10^th October 2022

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well-being for all a Global Priority

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Music sensation Lady Gaga, in an interview revealed that she is suffering from PTSD. She was repeatedly assaulted sexually by her boyfriend at the age of 19 and due to this she has developed PTSD. She got indulged in self harm practices.

“I like to say I used to cut as opposed to saying I am a cutter. I also used to throw myself against the wall. I used to do some horrible things to myself when I was in pain,” she added.

Gaga disclosed that she suffers from physical signs of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). "My diaphragm constricts. Then my body starts to spasm, and I have trouble breathing. I started crying, she said." That is how trauma victims feel every day, and it is horrible... Trauma has a brain, as I frequently emphasise. Additionally, it permeates everything you do. The 34-year-old singer may have appeared bold in public, but her psychological distress became so severe that it led to excruciating physical discomfort that was later identified as fibromyalgia.

After her personal experiences she emphasized the purport of talking about mental health and the need to talk about it. “Mental health is a medical condition, it should be treated as a medical condition. It should not be ignored.” She also revealed that her coping mechanism includes hope, faith, inspiration, support of people surrounding her, her belongingness. All this helps her in overcoming her PTSD.

She also revealed that majorly medication really helped her in battling her struggle. But Dialectical Behavioural Therapy and Cognitive Behavior Therapy also helped her to remain in a working condition and also to remain creative. People with PTSD process "threats" differently in their brains, in part because the balance of chemicals called neurotransmitters is off. They have an easily triggered "fight or flight" response, which causes you to be jittery and on edge. Constantly attempting to shut that down may leave you feeling emotionally cold and detached. Medications assist you in ceasing to think about and react to what occurred, including having nightmares and flashbacks. They can also assist you in regaining a more positive outlook on life and feeling more "normal."

Making sure she "gives back with that experience instead of keeping it up and fake it" is a part of her recovery process. Every young person can securely assist their peers in creating a kinder and braver world. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition caused by witnessing or experiencing a terrifying event. Flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event, may be symptoms. Some of the celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Chris Brown, Tracy Morgan, Whoopi Goldberg, also suffered from post traumatic disorder. Some of the symptoms for PTSD can includes, being easily startled or terrified, always being on the lookout for danger, self-destructive behaviour, such as excessive drinking or driving too fast, sleeping problems, irritability, rage, or aggressive behaviour, overwhelming feelings of guilt or shame.

Most people who go through traumatic events have temporary difficulties adjusting and coping, but they usually get better with time and good self-care. Sudden demise or loss or grief, divorce, separation etc., may sometime result into stress, if your symptoms worsen, for more than one month or even years, and interfere with your daily functioning, if not treated well it results into PTSD.

You can seek online consultation with best clinical psychologists near me or best psychiatrist near me.

Because of technological advancements, professional therapists use specially designed assessment and interview tools through online counseling. The goal of PTSD treatment and recovery is to reduce physical and emotional symptoms, assist the person in coping with the triggering event, and improve daily functioning.

In the treatment of PTSD, Cognitive behavior therapies (CBT), is very effective. The different forms of CBT useful for PTSD are:

Cognitive Processing Therapy. In this form of therapy the focus is on modifying painful negative emotions (such as guilt, helplessness, shame, etc.) and beliefs (such as “I have lost or failed”; “the world is dangerous place”) due to the trauma. Best Mental Therapists help the person confront such painful memories and emotions.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy. It uses repeated, detailed imagining of the trauma or progressive exposures to “triggers” in a safe, controlled way to help a person face and gain control of fear and distress and learn strategies to cope.
Stress Inoculation Therapy. It aims to help the individual with the necessary coping skills to successfully defend against stressful triggers through the exposure of milder levels of stress.
Group therapy. It helps the survivors of similar traumatic events like bomb blast, rape etc., to share their experiences and reactions in a comfortable and non-judgmental setting. Group member’s help one another realize that many people would have responded the same way and felt the same emotions. Another form of group therapy for better management of family issues is Family Counseling is of great help because the behavior and distress of the person with PTSD normally affect the entire family who need ways to cope up.

Other forms of psychotherapies such as interpersonal, supportive and psychodynamic therapies focus on the emotional and interpersonal aspects of PTSD.

The PTSD patient can learn and acquire several symptom management and coping strategies during online counseling. The other mental therapies like Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy, Bereavement Counselling, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) etc., are of immense value depending upon the symptoms of patient.

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