How to Deal with Anxiety After Trauma

About 40 million people in the United States live with persistent anxiety. In many of these cases, a traumatic event triggered their anxiety symptoms.

If you find it difficult coping with the stress and trauma-related anxiety in your everyday life, even with conventional therapies, you can find help at Klarity Clinic. Our experienced anesthesiologists use low-dose infusions of ketamine to rewire your brain and help you find long-lasting relief of your anxiety symptoms.

Why anxiety often follows trauma

It’s often difficult to make sense of traumatic events, and you may feel distressed about your environment and your life in general. Although you’ll try to get back to “normal” as quickly as you can, anxiety and depression can disrupt your day-to-day responsibilities and make it increasingly difficult to resume life as usual.

Depending on the nature of the trauma, you might be facing a physical recovery in addition to having difficulty controlling distressing thoughts or reminders of the event. You might also have other trauma-related symptoms that worsen your anxiety, such as:

• Headaches
• Exhaustion
• Depression
• Sleep difficulties
• Lack of appetite
• Trouble concentrating

Some people will try to cope using alcohol or drugs, which can complicate the situation even more. Drug and alcohol abuse not only is harmful to your physical body, but the chronic abuse can also affect how your brain functions.

When anxiety becomes severe and you start having frequent flashbacks or other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), your life can quickly spiral out of control. To reduce the impact trauma has on your life, it's important that you seek treatment for your anxiety as soon as you notice you can no longer control it.

Steps to manage your anxiety after trauma

Some people are able to manage their anxiety through lifestyle changes. You can benefit from practicing anxiety-lowering activities. Our team recommends:

• Staying hydrating
• Eating a healthy diet
• Exercising daily
• Limiting exposure to distressing news
• Using deep breathing techniques
• Avoiding drugs and alcohol
• Reaching out for support from family and friends

You should also consult with your family physician about a referral for psychotherapy and possibly a prescription for anxiety medications.

When these methods no longer work for anxiety relief, our team at Klarity Clinic provides innovative treatment strategies using ketamine to address severe and chronic anxiety following a traumatic event.

The benefits of ketamine infusion therapy for trauma-related anxiety

Ketamine is a prescription medication that’s often used as a surgical anesthetic. In low-doses, ketamine has a positive effect on your brain function by creating healthy neural connections and rewiring the pathways to restore your brain health. The boost to your brain function also provides rapid relief of your anxiety symptoms.

Our team customizes a ketamine infusion treatment plan to your needs. In general, you can expect to receive six low-dose infusion therapies over the course of two weeks. We continue to monitor your progress with treatment to ensure your anxiety symptoms are no longer interfering with your life.

To find out if ketamine infusion therapy is right for your anxiety, call the Klarity Clinic office nearest you, or book a consultation online today.