Are there any better ways to cope with PTSD?

Question

I've recently been diagnosed with PTSD. The mental health center has approved for me to get psychiatric help through the state and it will be paid for. However; I've been waiting around for over a month now and they aren't doing their job. I haven't even gotten my first session or have they made an appointment for me. I call every week to follow up and they would give me some BS excuse. I know that my problem is a very serious one and know that I'm in need of help. I've actually gotten worse ever since I've found out that I was diagnosed with it. I was the one who actually diagnosed myself first then went to an assessment to find out if I was right. And now that I know I have PTSD and trying to seek help and the state isn't doing much for me yet. I wanted to know if there is anyone out there who has PTSD or know about the problem and can help me. Are there any better ways to cope with PTSD than sit around waiting for a psychiatrist?

Okay, well like I said. I'm approved from the state to get treatment but I highly doubt that they can put me under SSI without even one visit to the psychiatrist first. I'm becoming more sensitive to a lot of things... Almost anything would trigger my problem and I would cave away and/or push my BF away as say the meanest and most unhumane things. =( I can't stand seeing myself like this much longer......

Answer 1

Psychiatry is not the answer.
See this video;
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3895596783332855545&q=psychiatry+is+fraude&hl=en

Understanding Psychiatry:

"Psychiatry is not the same as neurology; whereas neurology treats diseases that have their aetiology or their physiology known and proven by medical science, psychiatry treats mental conditions where aetiology and physiology are both unknown and unproven.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_diseases

Psychiatry is not the same as Psychology; whereas Psychology studies the cognitive and subconscious mental processes of man with no regard towards physiology; Psychiatry studies theoretical mental disorder with the assumption that those disorders are based on physiological deficiencies.

Psychology develops therapies aimed to improve mans cognitive processes; whereas Psychiatry develops physiological treatments to treat theoretical physiological deficiencies where aetiology and physiology are both unknown and unproven.

The unscientific assumption that mental disorders are based on physiological deficiencies creates an arbitrary that makes any further research done by Psychiatry unscientific. You can’t base science on assumptions and arbitraries.

Psychiatry treats theoretical mental disorders with theoretical physiological treatments.

Examples of Psychiatric theoretical mental disorders:
Premenstrual dysphonic disorder (PMDD) is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome.
Gender identity disorder: If you are gay you have this disorder.
Female orgasmic disorder: Many types of conditions are under this code.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-IV_Codes_%28alphabetical%29
As you see, these mental disorders are actually unscientific arbitraries based solely on opinion.

Examples of Psychiatric theoretical physiological treatments:
1st Example
Electroconvulsive therapy is a barbaric treatment where brain damage is induced into the patient by passing 70 to 200 volts of electricity through your brain. The electro shock and the heat further produce more brain damage by the effect decomposition and toxicity of dead brain cells. The only benefit of Electroconvulsive therapy is that it produces memory loss and amnesia. So the patient forgets its problems. Electroconvulsive therapy has caused death, coma and disabilities on patients.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2431926628202445879
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2761074183936137060
“About 100,000 people in the USA undergo ECT every year.”
“The most commonly accepted theory is that ECT's mechanism of action is similar to that of antidepressant drugs and involves neurotransmitters, in particular dopaminergic, serotoninergic and noradrenergic systems.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_shock_therapy

2nd Example:
Lobotomy is another barbaric treatment developed by Psychiatry in the name of mental health. In this procedure brain damage is induced into the patient by cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex or simply destroying it.
“Even lobotomy's proponents admitted that only one third of the operated patients would improve, while one-third remained the same, and one-third got worst (25 to 30 % is the proportion of spontaneous improvement in many kinds of mental diseases! Thus, a large proportion of the operated patients could have recovered without the lobotomy).
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n02/historia/lobotomy.htm

3rd Example:
The chemical imbalance theory, this theory alleges that serotonin deficiency in the brain causes depression. The following video explains this theory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR9vtdueubc&mode=related&search=

But this theory is not based in science and experts disagree:

“I spent the first several years of my career doing full-time research on brain serotonin metabolism, but I never saw any convincing evidence that any psychiatric disorder, including depression, results from a deficiency of brain serotonin. In fact, we cannot measure brain serotonin levels in living human beings so there is no way to test this theory. Some neuroscientists would question whether the theory is even viable, since the brain does not function in this way, as a hydraulic system”
Stanford psychiatrist David Burns, winner of the A.E. Bennett Award given by the Society for Biological Psychiatry for his research on serotonin metabolism, when asked about the scientific status of the serotonin theory in 2003.

“Although it is often stated with great confidence that depressed people have a serotonin or norepinephrine deficiency, the evidence actually contradicts these claims”
Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience Elliot Valenstein

“Indeed, no abnormality of serotonin in depression has ever been demonstrated”
Psychiatrist David Healy, former secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and historian of the SSRIs, in Let Them Eat Prozac (2004).

“A sugar pill was more effective than either St. John’s Wort or the antidepressant Zoloft in providing relief to severely depressed patients, according to a new study that is unlikely to end the debate about the role of the popular supplement in treating the disorder.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3076831/

“…I wrote that Prozac was no more, and perhaps less, effective in treating major depression than prior medications…. I argued that the theories of brain functioning that led to the development of Prozac must be wrong or incomplete”
Brown University psychiatrist Peter Kramer, author of Listening to Prozac, which is often credited with popularizing SSRIs, in a clarifying letter to the New York Times in 2002.

“Some have argued that depression may be due to a deficiency of NE [norepinephrine] or 5-HT [serotonin] because the enhancement of noradrenergicnor serotonergic neurotransmission improves the symptoms of depression. However, this is akin to saying that because a rash on one’s arm improves with the use of a steroid cream; the rash must be due to a steroid deficiency”
Psychiatrists Pedro Delgado and Francisco Moreno, in “Role of Norepinephrine in Depression,” published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in 2000.

We must be able to differentiate real scientific research against special interest research. The fact is that the chemical imbalance theory is unfounded because:
1) A connection of ‘emotional states’ and neurotransmission levels have not been established.
2) It is impossible to measure the serotonin levels in living human beings.
3) There is no evidence that brain cells produce and then reabsorb serotonin.

In the following video two college professor explain exactly what I’m saying in Fox News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbTqjSfMPKA&mode=related&search=

We must understand that psychiatric drugs are a multi billion dollars industry, and that careful marketing campaigns are created to push these drugs. We can even say that the whole “Chemical Imbalance Theory” was created in an effort to market these drugs. We can also say that anti-depressants are actually a marketing name for stimulants and anti-psychotic are actually a marketing name for depressants.
Three types of drugs:

Narcotics: (OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet), also known as analgesics or opiods are drugs that are prescribed for moderate to severe physical pain. They are abused because of their euphoric, sedating, and numbing effects. Narcotic abuse causes tolerance and dependence and the withdrawal symptoms are severe.

Depressants: (Xanax, Valium, Librium) are drugs that are prescribed to treat anxiety and sleep disorders. They are abused because of their sedating properties. With abuse, depressants cause tolerance and dependence and the withdrawal symptoms can be severe.
Stimulants: Ritalin, Dexedrine, Meridia) are prescribed to treat ADD/ADHD and other conditions such as asthma. They are abused because of their energizing and euphoric effects. Stimulants do not generally cause tolerance or dependence but abuse is associated with hostility and paranoia. There is also great risk for cardiovascular failure and seizures.

-Ritalin: Prescribed for individuals (usually children) who have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has a high potential for abuse and produces many of the same effects as cocaine or amphetamine. http://www.streetdrugs.org

Psychiatrists are not common people. Psychiatrists have a different point of view than the rest of society:
“A recent survey in the UK found that 83 per cent of psychiatrists thought that ECT( Electroconvulsive therapy) was more likely to be beneficial than harmful – this figure fell to 69 per cent of mental health nurses and 14 per cent of psychologists.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy

So how come Psychiatrists have such a different point of view than Psychologists and the rest of society?
Whereas Psychologists confronts the human mind or psyche and understand that each person behaviors is an evolution of his own personal experiences. Psychiatrists are unable to confront the human psyche; Psychiatrists don’t care about your emotional issues or traumas; Psychiatrists only deal with man as an object, a biomechanical machine incapable of controlling his mental processes.

How else can you explain Psychiatry barbaric treatments? Like Electroconvulsive therapy, Lobotomies, strait jackets and severe drugging of patients. For them you are not a person; for them you are only a biomechanical machine. People that join the Psychiatric profession do it in order to learn to deal with man in a mechanical way.

The real role of Psychiatry in society is that they are psyche executioners of society. Whenever a person doesn’t conform with the behavioral rules of society they can be sent to a Psychiatrist. And the Psychiatrist enforces the person to conform by the use of multiple control mechanisms; these mechanisms are drugs, electroshock, lobotomies and incarceration (When you are committed into a Psychiatric hospital against your will you are being incarcerated and your freedom is taken away from you. After this the patients are so scared that they will do anything in order to get out of that place.).
The behavioral rules of society are clearly expressed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association.

http://www.drugawareness.org/
http://www.adhdfraud.org/
http://www.escapefrompsychiatry.org/
http://www.antipsychiatry.org/
http://www.mindfreedom.org/
http://www.endofshock.com/
http://www.stopshrinks.org/
http://www.gwenolsen.com/
http://psychrights.org
http://www.prescriptionsuicide.com/
http://www.breggin.com/
http://www.healthyskepticism.org/
http://www.aspire.us/

Answer 2

There are others ways to get access to low cost therapists. You could always ask your primary care doctor. Those crisis hotlines usually have numbers to sliding scale clinics as well. I found a school in my area that offers therapy at a sliding scale rate. Many colleges that offer a masters in psych will have some type of clinic offiliated with it. In the mean time try anything you can to keep yourself occupied. Stay away from as many triggers as possible. Find a friend who is willing to listen or journal anything that comes to mind. I let my PTSD get way out of hand before I started to get treatment. Don't let that happen. If one option fails try another and another untill you get the help you need.

Answer 3

I used to be quite bothered by PTSD - it helps me to remember that events happen. Period. Things happen, and they happen to everyone, and there is nothing that can reverse the fact that an event has happened. You should try and see the event in the light that you are special - you got thru the event - you experienced the event. This event is extrordinary, otherwise it would not have effected you in the first place. Don't see things as a bad experience - Don't see things as a good experience - Just see things as quite an experience. Just see all of life as quite an experience.

Answer 4

TALK, TALK, TALK ! ! You are doing xaxtly wot u shud be doin.Talking about it!10 years ago I was diagnosed w/PTSD.. I had a breakdown,anxiety attacks,abused drugs,self etc.At first, I couldn't approach the subject w/out shaking,crying,and freakin-out. Now it comes out softly,the pain is still there,but in a fuzzy far-away kinda way.Go to social security office and apply for mental disability.Shrink visits?Once you get SSI they'll be payin your rent too. Good Luck!