CBD for trauma

1. Does CBD Treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? CBD for trauma?

2. Symptoms of trauma

3. Post-traumatic stress disorder in statistics

4. Ways to treat post-traumatic stress disorder

5. Does CBD Treat PTSD? Are hemp products worth implementing into conventional therapy?

6. The impact of CBD on therapies in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder

Does CBD Treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? CBD for trauma?

Before we describe the effect of hemp products in the case of post-traumatic stress disorder, we will deal with the explanation of this phenomenon and its frequency of occurrence. During a person’s lifetime, there is a high probability of unpleasant or traumatic experiences. Remember that “bad” is a relative term. Each of us represents a different level of sensitivity and experiences emotions of varying intensity. The very concept of post-traumatic stress disorder is a translation of the English phrase post-traumatic stress disorder. In the medical community, we often use the popular abbreviation PTSD. So what is PTSD? If we want to explain this phrase in the simplest way, let’s define it as a mental disorder that occurs in people who have experienced severe stress or traumatic events in their lives. In order to get out of this state, we usually try to help ourselves in various ways. We often visit the offices of psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists. It is also worth considering the implementation of CBD during the treatment of trauma, given its regenerative and soothing effect on the entire endocannabinoid system, including the nervous system. Does CBD Treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? CBD for trauma can be salutary. In order to prove whether it is worth choosing hemp products as a support for PTSD therapy, let us first list the most common symptoms of this disease.

Symptoms of trauma

Regardless of how difficult an experience we had to face in life, the following stress disorders are probably the aftermath of such events:
• reminiscences – this is what we call re-visualizing a traumatic event. The most common form of reminiscence is recurring memories or thematic dreams;
• notorious feeling of tension, alertness and strong agitation,
• insomnia, shallow breathing, hyperactivity and explosiveness, increased sense of threat and irritability, intertwined with apathy and depression;
• lack of emotional balance, the so-called mood swings;
• avoiding places or people associated with unpleasant events, breaking off contact with family and friends, avoiding relationships;
• changing the hierarchy of values ​​and beliefs regarding the world around us, blaming ourselves or others for negative experiences;
• sometimes there is a strong denial of what happened or a loss of memory regarding the experienced events.

Post-traumatic stress disorder in statistics

Depending on the level of human sensitivity, post-traumatic stress disorder can occur both in the case of highly traumatic events, as well as after situations that theoretically generate less stress. To find out which events caused the most severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress, psychologists have been recording individual cases among patients for years. Among the events that rank highest in the hierarchy of traumas are: rape, severe beating, sexual harassment, sudden death of a loved one, witnessing a beating, experiencing an accident and many others. Post-traumatic stress disorder can also be caused by prolonged nervous tension and prolonged periods of elevated levels of the stress hormone – cortisol. Increased levels of cortisol – in addition to many other destructions in many areas of our body – lowers the level of serotonin, a hormone responsible, among others, for mental well-being. Post-traumatic stress disorder is therefore, in a way, the result of chemical changes in the body.

Ways to treat post-traumatic stress disorder

Let’s indicate the methods that significantly help people affected by PTSD. The most common method of treating trauma is, of course, psychotherapy. In the field of psychotherapy, there are many methods for taming stress, but each therapy takes a long time to start bringing the desired results. The common denominator of all therapies is to make the traumatized person slightly change their approach to the events that have become the cause of severe and recurrent stress. We are currently conducting research that would improve and increase the effects of treatment. Doctors are trying to find, among other things, biomarkers, thanks to which we could prove an increase in the concentration of hormones responsible for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Researchers are mainly focusing on the GLuA1 protein, which grows in the part of our brain that is responsible for mice’s sense of fear. Scientists have noticed that the decrease in this protein contributes to the reduction of anxiety. So far, researchers have only conducted research on mice, but soon similar experiments can be carried out on humans. In this way, we will minimize the number of side effects, which we currently observe quite a lot during therapy with neuroleptics or psychotropics. These are: weight gain, digestive problems, gradual impairment of internal organs, such as the liver, or the appearance of other personality disorders.

Does CBD Treat PTSD? Are hemp products worth implementing into conventional therapy?

An interesting fact in this matter is the fact that there are places in the world where hemp products with CBD content are purchased, among others, by war veterans. It should be added that the greatest controversy among people is caused by the possible content of psychoactive THC in CBD products. And unnecessarily! Hemp products intended and released for general sale contain an acceptable dose of THC with a trace amount of less than 0.02% of the content in the product. Patients who underwent PTSD therapy, especially using the so-called prolonged exposure after incorporating CBD-containing hemp products into therapy could count on increased psychotherapy results. The method of prolonged exposure consists in – in the simplest terms – taming the traumatic experience and not relegating it to the subconscious. If we want to visualize this method, let’s recall the situation when the trauma was caused by a fall from a horse. If we want to effectively get rid of fear, we would have to get back on the horse as soon as possible and tame the fear.
Life would be too simple if we could reproduce in the same way what traumatized us. Especially since we are faced with events that, by definition, we are not allowed to recreate. We can only work to tame unwanted emotions and learn to live with the negative memory. Veterans Affairs, one of the largest departments in the structures of the US government, confirmed the above findings regarding the support of prolonged exposure therapy with products containing CBD. Hemp products are therefore conducive to minimizing the sense of anxiety after implementing them in therapy. To prove the above thesis, 136 participants took part in the study, and the results turned out to be extremely favorable.

The impact of CBD on therapies in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder

Scientists conducted the first specific research on the impact of CBD on PSDT therapy in 2016. They published the results of research that confirmed that post-traumatic stress disorder is indirectly related to the weakening of the entire endocannabinoid system. Therefore, let’s provide Omega 3 and Omega 6 polyunsaturated acids, because they show good properties in the process of improving the condition of this system. The right concentration of the above acids can be found in hemp products containing CBD. Studies show that the calming properties of hemp products work holistically on the entire endocannabinoid system. Therefore, it is worth reaching for it and using it regularly. How we deal with various challenges for our body depends on our inner peace.