PTSD And Anxiety – Is Treatment The Answer?
Healthcare and Medical treatments are truly amazing gifts. For most of us, it’s hard to imagine a world without access to quality healthcare. If you injure yourself or develop a major disease, there is zero doubt that ‘treatment’ is the wisest first (and possibly last) stop. Yet it’s worth asking whether the same principles always apply to healing PTSD and Anxiety – Is Treatment the Answer?
I have suffered from anxiety for as long as I can remember. I can remember having panic attacks as early as five years of age when my mum dropped me at school—and crushingly consistent social anxiety throughout my teens and early adult life. I am not sure where my anxiety came from, but I do know where it went.
The ‘treatment’ model of healing anxiety never proved to be necessary in my case. Over years of self-care, self-enquiry, learning and meditation, I have resolved my anxiety to a point where I no longer see myself as a particularly anxious person. And as a result, I am hugely grateful that I chose this less travelled path rather than handing over my healing journey to a ‘treatment’. By carving my own path, I have used my anxiety to grow as a person. Reduced anxiety is only one of a constellation of benefits this has bestowed upon me.
In so many ways, I am still a messy human. But by spending the necessary time and effort to dig my anxiety weeds up by their roots, I feel I have grown immeasurably as a person. If I had sought ‘treatment’ or ‘symptom relief,‘ it’s possible that I would have missed this tremendous opportunity. Yet, for the record, I don’t necessarily believe that the path I chose is right for everyone, far from it. We are all beautiful and unique and our ‘treatment’ pathways should mirror that.
But I do know that stories like my own (and plain old common sense, for that matter) point to the importance of a conversation. One about where ‘treatment’ really belongs in the list of ways to manage complex human experiences like PTSD, anxiety and depression.
According to statistics, approximately 1 in 4 New Zealanders suffer from an anxiety disorder during their lifetime. Estimates for the percentage who seek help vary, but it is generally agreed that it is less than ⅓. So potentially, more than ⅔ of all anxiety disorder sufferers never receive any form of treatment. When considering PTSD, it is likely that the numbers are similar, given the vast numbers of people living with PTSD who go undiagnosed due to our famous tendency not to seek help.
In short, approximately ⅔ of anxiety and PTSD sufferers never seek treatment.
Sadly it’s inevitable that a significant portion of trauma and PTSD sufferers who do not receive treatment continue to suffer for a lifetime and form a desperately sad and largely invisible epidemic of mental suffering, physical sickness, addiction and even early mortality. In contrast, others will carve their own healing path and fail to show up as a statistic. These people (they definitely exist because I am one of them) find ways to work through their anxiety disorders and trauma without classical ‘treatment’.
These ‘untreated’ yet successfully managed people may be a very important part of the conversation for several reasons. The first is that treatment is not easy to come by in NZ; we have a crisis regarding treatment availability for anxiety and PTSD sufferers. Secondly, we know that many of our treatments have serious issues with effectiveness and side effects.
Thirdly we are notoriously bad at asking for help, which is a major barrier to entry into a classic treatment process for many Kiwis suffering from PTSD and trauma. And fourthly, treatment is often not cheap. So we are stacking practical reasons why a conversation about ‘managing’ or ‘healing’ anxiety and PTSD as opposed to ‘treating’ them may be one of the most meaningful conversations we could have.
But maybe we haven’t even touched on the most compelling reason why ‘treatment’ may not always be the most meaningful framework for healing PTSD and anxiety disorders.
Another compelling case for at least questioning whether ‘treatment’ is the ultimate solution for PTSD and anxiety disorder symptoms is that neither of them are diseases. It is more accurate to say that they are simply psychological and physiological processes that relate to a person’s past and present reality. If this sounds a bit abstract or nit-picky, please bear with me.
If I am overweight, do I need ‘treatment’? Or do I need to make personal lifestyle changes? Would you advise that I first seek a weight loss pill or reduce my sugar intake and start exercising? Basic wisdom states that caring properly for my body is the preferable option for me to lose weight. This is because the extra weight is not a ‘disease’; it relates to my lifestyle and the way I am living / the way I have lived.
There are obvious differences between weight gain and having an anxiety disorder. But there are many similarities also.
We know from vast experience that the symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety disorders reduce significantly when proper self-care is observed. In much the same way as we know that in most cases, a person’s excess weight will reduce when they make changes to their diet and exercise regimens.
Proper sleep, time spent in nature, cardiovascular exercise, mindfulness exercises, reduced alcohol consumption, reduced refined sugar consumption, reduced social media consumption, healthy relationship boundaries, breathing exercises and trauma release exercise all individually have an excellent ‘non-treatment’ record for healing anxiety and PTSD. What cumulative effect might they have if the average sufferer observed all of them on a regular basis?
Ultimately it may be the case that for some anxiety and PTSD sufferers, the type of changes listed above are as relevant as exercise is to obesity. Yet we have a tendency to view obesity as a self-inflicted condition and one that is more amenable to ‘self-care’. While understandably, PTSD and anxiety are seen more as things that ‘happen to us’.
Proper sleep, time spent in nature, cardiovascular exercise, mindfulness exercises, reduced alcohol consumption, reduced refined sugar consumption, reduced social media consumption, healthy relationship boundaries, breathing exercises and trauma release exercise all individually have an excellent ‘non-treatment’ record for healing anxiety and PTSD. What cumulative effect might they have if the average sufferer observed all of them on a regular basis?
Ultimately it may be the case that for some anxiety and PTSD sufferers, the type of changes listed above are as relevant as exercise is to obesity. Yet we have a tendency to view obesity as a self-inflicted condition and one that is more amenable to ‘self-care’. While understandably, PTSD and anxiety are seen more as things that ‘happen to us’.
The truth may be more complex, and there are often many more shades of grey. I personally know obesity sufferers whose problems are deeply rooted in childhood trauma. And conversely, I know countless anxiety sufferers (my former self included) whose anxiety is deeply rooted in a list of persistently poor lifestyle choices (like bad food and bad relationships).
If we are willing to question the ultimate wisdom of applying ‘treatments’ (like medication) to obesity in favour of meaningful lifestyle change, we should be willing to consider at least the same policy for anxiety, PTSD and depression.
Yet not in every case, of course. Treatment will probably always have its place for those who suffer the most. And we should also consider that this may not be an ‘either/or’ question in every case. Complex conditions like PTSD tend to respond to a more integrated and holistic approach than one with a narrow therapeutic focus.
There is enough research to support the validity of this conversation, as you will see in the following links:
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/depression-and-exercise/art-20046495
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0887618520301250
- https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/774421
- https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/well/move/exercise-anxiety.html
The countless research articles on the extreme effectiveness of cardiovascular exercises in reducing anxiety disorders, panic attacks and generalized anxiety are the very tip of an enormous iceberg. There is a deep well of knowledge to draw on when it comes to healing our mental health challenges without the use of ‘treatments’.
All this being said, this is a conversation piece, not a medical advice piece. I am, and always will be, hugely supportive of using wisely chosen treatments to manage our mental health crises. And I would hope that it goes without saying that if you are really struggling with your health, you should seek help from a qualified health practitioner immediately. Don’t try and go it alone without first carefully weighing up all your options under professional guidance.
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