What is Medical PTSD?
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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder related to medical/health trauma
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Patients with inflammatory bowel disease may have medical PTSD for a variety of reasons: traumatic experiences in clinic, with symptoms, or even extreme fear/uncertainty/anxiety from living with a chronic illness
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Trauma is a subjective experience! Patients may go through the same experience, and one may experience it as traumatic while the other does not​
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Trauma can be a threat of death or fear of being near death, or being very scared of the unknown
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Patients do not get to choose what they experience as traumatic and what they do not
Supporting Someone with Medical PTSD:
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Validate their experience, even if you do not understand it
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If the source of trauma is from medical malpractice, support the patient if they wish to seek accountability
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Understand that avoidance is the #1 outcome of traumatic experiences
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Patients may strongly avoid the source of trauma​
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Although it can be impossible to avoid all triggers, some are able to be removed
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Providers: actively listen and validate your patients' trauma and ensure triggers are removed or respected if possible​
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Listening and validating is the most important step towards healing​
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Gaslighting can be invalidating and triggering in itself
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In Collaboration with Noel Jacobs, PhD, Oklahoma University Health Science Center