The PTSD Coach App: Help is at Your Fingertips
Find tools that can help you and your family members
If you're experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), remember that you're not alone. According to the National Center for PTSD, 8 million people have PTSD in the U.S. Anyone can get PTSD after living through or seeing a traumatic event, such as combat or a bad accident. Seeking professional treatment is the best thing you can do if you think you have PTSD. To learn more about this mental health condition, available treatments, and ways to manage symptoms, VA offers the PTSD Coach mobile app.
Learning about PTSD can help you understand your feelings and how to deal with them. With the PTSD Coach app, you can access:
Information on PTSD
A PTSD self-assessment
Support or professional care
Tools to help you manage the stresses of daily life with PTSD
The app's features can help you practice relaxation and anger management skills, as well as other self-help strategies.
"This application has significantly helped me in the heat of these moments. It has helped my ability to deal with the panic attacks and steer me from feeling completely lost," shared one Veteran. "If you don't know what to do, you don't have anywhere to go, try this app. It's seriously helping me."
Find the right treatment for you
Effective treatment for PTSD is available. Getting better means different things for different people. Since no one treatment is right for everyone, you should discuss treatment options with your health care provider. Together you can decide what works best for you based on the benefits, risks, and side effects of each treatment. If you are diagnosed with PTSD, your health care team may recommend:
Therapy. Effective trauma-focused talk therapies, such as Prolonged Exposure (PE), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) can help you to cope with the trauma and reduce your symptoms.
Medication. The therapies listed above are more effective for treating PTSD than medications. However, four antidepressant medications are effective for treating PTSD: Sertraline (Zoloft) Paroxetine (Paxil), Fluoxetine (Prozac), and Venlafaxine (Effexor). Depending on your treatment needs your healthcare provider may recommend one of these medications, often in combination with therapy.
Learn more about these evidence-based PTSD treatments within the PTSD Coach app or by checking out the online resources below.
If you are a Veteran with PTSD, upgrading your My HealtheVet account can help you better manage your treatment. Sign in to a Premium account to access tools such as Secure Messaging (sign in required) to communicate with members of your health care team.
Download the app for free on iTunes or the Google Play Store.
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Read More
PTSD Coach (VA Mobile)
PTSD Treatment: Know Your Options (YouTube)
Introduction to the Digital Safety Plan (YouTube)
Getting Treatment for PTSD (Veterans Health Library)
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (National Center for PTSD)
Updated July 12, 2021
