Nearly 1/3 of individuals struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is the most common mental health disorder. There are often several overlapping symptoms between major depressive disorder and PTSD, particularly issues relating to sleep, anxiety, cognitive focus, and more. Given this prevalence of overlapping symptoms, it’s important to learn how you can manage symptoms of PTSD vs. major depressive disorder at the same time.
Understanding PTSD and Major Depressive Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder is something that is diagnosed several months after an individual experiences a traumatic event. That experience might be something that directly happened to the individual, was witnessed, or happened to a close family member or even friend. Under these circumstances, the body responds in a predictable way with issues sleeping, some flashbacks or nightmares, stress, anxiety, heightened levels of adrenaline, and more.
Under normal circumstances, these symptoms will go away with time, but if they don’t and they continue to get worse, an individual might be diagnosed with PTSD. Major depressive disorder is often a co-occurring mental health disorder alongside PTSD, something that develops as a result of changes to the brain and extreme stress.
Diagnosis and Professional Care
If you are struggling with PTSD with major depressive disorder, it’s important that you get an accurate diagnosis so that you can engage in the right level of professional care. An accurate diagnosis allows you to get the right type of psychotherapy, the kinds that are specifically targeted to support those with trauma, like trauma-informed psychotherapy or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.
Role of Healthcare Providers
Healthcare providers play an essential role in getting an accurate diagnosis and providing the right type of care. Through your healthcare provider, you can get a diagnosis and start on a customized treatment plan that extends to all possible combinations of lifestyle modifications, stress reduction techniques, and effective therapy.
Medication Management
If you have major depressive disorder vs. PTSD, you might find that medication management is very much the same.
Medications for PTSD and MDD
The medication prescribed for PTSD and major depressive disorder is primarily antidepressants or SSRIs.
Tips for Managing Side Effects
There are side effects that come with these medications, and they can include weight gain, increased suicidal ideations, as well as changes to sleep patterns. Managing side effects is something that you will need to discuss with your doctor, particularly given your physical and mental health history.
Psychotherapy Techniques
In addition to medication management, you might also participate in psychotherapy. Therapy actually increases the efficacy of medication because it can help you change the root cause of your PTSD with major depressive disorder, whereas medication helps control the symptoms that are already caused.
Effective Therapies for PTSD and MDD
The most effective therapies used are:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Cognitive behavioral therapy can help you recognize the way your negative automatic thoughts contribute to how you feel and how you behave. Through this type of interactive therapy, you will learn to replace automatic negative thoughts with positive ones and subsequently control the severity of your symptoms for major depressive disorder and PTSD.
Dialectical behavioral therapy is a subset of cognitive behavioral therapy, and this one helps you recognize how you feel, legitimize those feelings, and learn to change your relationship with symptoms of PTSD vs. major depressive disorder.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is currently the standard treatment for PTSD by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the World Health Organization. This method of treatment for major depressive disorder and PTSD is one of the most effective treatments, and it doesn’t require you to sit and discuss the trauma that led to your PTSD. This plan is based on the notion that traumatic memories don’t get stored properly, so they continue to disrupt your current cognitive function and influence subsequently created and stored memories for the worst.
By thinking about the trauma in detail without having to speak it out loud while following certain eye movements guided by a professional therapist, you can help your brain properly store those traumatic memories and disrupt the cycle of negative impact those memories have on new memories.
Lifestyle Modifications
In addition to medication management and psychotherapy, you can handle symptoms of PTSD vs. major depressive disorder with lifestyle modifications.
Diet and Exercise
Diet and exercise go a long way toward helping with PTSD and major depressive disorder.
For example, many people with major depressive disorder and PTSD struggle with low levels of Serotonin, and things like diet and exercise can help increase resting levels of Serotonin and decrease other issues like inflammation.
Sleep Hygiene
Sleep hygiene is essential to managing symptoms of both. It is common for people who struggle with PTSD and major depressive disorder to have significant issues with sleep, either sleeping too little or sleeping too much, but a good sleep hygiene routine that includes proper diet and exercise while reducing things like sugar and caffeine before bed can go a long way toward improving the sleep you get.
Stress Reduction Techniques
Stress reduction techniques work hand in hand with lifestyle modifications.
Mindfulness and Relaxation
Mindfulness and relaxation are important. Mindfulness and relaxation can help individuals who are struggling with major depressive disorder and PTSD to focus on the present moment and recognize that discomfort is temporary.
Too often, people with these issues will try to hide or mask the negative feelings that arise, but this only leads to suffering twice.
- Mindfulness helps you recognize that it’s okay to acknowledge all of your feelings and emotions and doing so is healthier for you.
- Relaxation techniques help you calm your mind when it’s overactive and focus on the present instead of lingering on the past or ruminating about the future.
All of this helps you keep a good routine, focus on exercise, and improve your sleep hygiene.
Routine and Structure
Routine and structure are important for those with PTSD and major depressive disorder as they help to keep the mind occupied and do away with the number of small decisions that have to be made throughout the day.
For example, willpower is like a muscle in that you have a limited amount each day. If you use all of your willpower to make small decisions throughout the day because you don’t have any structure or routine, you won’t have any left when you get triggered.
However, if you have a structure in a routine where you exercise at the same time every day or you make the same breakfast every day, you take away small decisions that would otherwise eat away at the amount of willpower you have and leave yourself in a better position to handle your symptoms if they get worse.
Conclusion
Overall, there are several symptom management strategies that you can use for major depressive disorder and PTSD. A holistic approach is essential to keeping your mind relaxed, having the right structure and routine, and supporting your overall mental and physical health with a good diet and exercise. All of these things can support any medication management strategy or therapy that you partake in.
Don’t be afraid to seek help and use these strategies to improve the management of PTSD and major depressive disorder symptoms.