June is PTSD Awareness Month, which means it’s the month dedicated to spreading awareness about PTSD, providing people with the education necessary to identify PTSD, and offering people the information necessary to get help through accessible and helpful treatments. If you or a loved one is living with PTSD, you may wonder what you can do during PTSD Awareness Month to help spread awareness. Fortunately, there are a few things every person can do during June to help spread awareness for PTSD.

Educating Yourself and Others About PTSD

One thing that helps to spread awareness for PTSD is learning more about PTSD. And, sharing this knowledge of PTSD with others. The more people know about PTSD, the fewer people stigmatize this issue. And, the more accepted it is in society for people living with this condition to get the help they need. This way, they can better manage debilitating symptoms. Finally, when there is more knowledge of PTSD shared throughout the community, more people can work to identify the symptoms of PTSD in their own lives, And, work through the process of finding the help they need to feel better and establish lives of mental wellbeing.

Part of educating yourself and others is knowing how to recognize potential signs of PTSD. One way to identify PTSD in one’s own or others’ lives is to be able to identify potential PTSD symptoms. Some of the symptoms of PTSD can include:

• avoidance behaviors – avoiding people, places, and things that can remind a person of a traumatic event
• feelings of guilt, remorse, and shame
• memory problems – especially with traumatic events
• distortions in how one feels about themselves
• sudden shifts in mood – especially anger and irritability-self-destructive and impulsive behaviors
• experiencing flashbacks of traumatic events
• having vivid nightmares – especially about traumatic events
• being scared or startled easily
• apathy towards hobbies, interests, responsibilities, and loved ones

Working to End Stigmas Surrounding PTSD

Another thing people can do to help spread awareness about PTSD and for helpful and successful PTSD treatments is to work on ending stigmas that surround this mental health issue. Many times, when people think of mental health issues, conditions, and illnesses, they associate the people that have a diagnosis of these issues as “weak”, “crazy”, or “dangerous”. However, people with mental health issues are none of these things. In fact, they are some of the most courageous and strong people on the face of the earth. Every day, they work to face their debilitating symptoms and live productive lives regardless of the stigmas associated with their conditions and the symptoms they live with on a daily basis.

No one chooses to experience mental health issues. And, having a mental health issue doesn’t make a person more of a threat to others. Spreading these stigmas only hurts the people who are living with these issues because it keeps them from opening up to others and feeling accepted, which, in turn, can keep them from reaching out for help.

Spreading Awareness for Mental Health Treatments

Finally, one of the most helpful things people can do during PTSD awareness month is to spread information on available and successful treatments. Certain therapies and treatments are successful in reducing the severity and frequency of debilitating symptoms of PTSD. So, spreading awareness for these treatments can help people living with this mental health condition finally look for the treatment options they feel most comfortable utilizing.

Yellowbrick, an outpatient mental health facility located in Evanston, IL, offers help to people living with the effects of trauma. If you feel that you want to explore some of the treatment options available to you or a loved one living with the effects of trauma, find out more about how we can help from our website.