Page 49 - July2021

Mental Health and Wellness Support
A resource guide for Chicago Lodge 7 members
A mental health message from Transformations Treatment Center
Worried about your money lasting in retirement? We can help.
Working with our planning professionals at COUNTRY Trust Bank®, we can help you:
• Identify your income sources and see how they can be used to reach your goals
• Understand investment options during retirement to protect your existing assets
• See how planning and savings now will affect you during retirement
Find out more today!
Steve Phillips
(312) 583-1475
1401 S. State St., Suite 150
Chicago, IL 60605 steve.phillips@COUNTRYFinancial.com
Registered Broker/Dealer, offering securities products and services: COUNTRY® Capital Management Company, 1705 Towanda Avenue, P.O. Box 2222 Bloomington, IL 61702-2222, tel (866) 551-0060. Member FINRA.
Investment management, retirement, trust, and planning services provided by
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Fixed Annuities are either issued by COUNTRY Investors Life Assurance Company®, Bloomington, Il or are issued by unaffiliated third-party insurers through CC Services, Inc., or COUNTRY® Capital Management Company. In some states where COUNTRY operates, CC Services, Inc. is also known as CC Services of Illinois, Inc., or CCSI of Illinois, Inc.
0221-500HO
Learning to cope, live and thrive with PTSD
When you think of someone who has PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), you may think of a soldier of war who has en- dured unspeakable torture or seen horrendous deaths while in battle, but the disorder en- compasses so much more. Ed- ucating yourself about the causes of PTSD, how to recognize its symptoms and where to seek treatment will enable you or your loved one to be able to cope with the disorder and embrace a
much better quality of life.
About PTSD
If a group of people were exposed to the same type of trauma, some individuals would get PTSD, while others would not. Your personality, life experiences, genes and neurological factors all play a part in whether you would suffer from the disorder. Researchers feel that when an individual faces overwhelming trauma in his or her life, sometimes the person can’t process the thoughts and feelings in a normal way. Later on, when the expe- rience causes enormous distress, disrupts their life negatively and intrudes into their consciousness, they are diagnosed as having PTSD.
Risk factors
There are some risk factors that indicate there is a greater chance that you will get PTSD if you experience trauma in your life. These include:
• Experiencing abuse or neglect as a child
• Experiencing trauma that lasts for a long time or seems never-ending
• A history of mental illness in your family, or mental health concerns
• Having an occupation that exposes you to traumatic ex- periences
• A past that includes alcohol or drug abuse
• Having few friends or close family members you can turn
to and rely on for emotional support
• An experience of intense, severe trauma, even if it lasts
only a short time
Causes of PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental illness that afflicts some people who have experienced an event — either alone or while in a group — that is psychologically traumatizing. Typi- cally, it involves exposure to a situation where you feel that your life is in danger, you see someone killed or tragically injured or you’re a victim of sexual violence. Almost any disturbing situ- ation can cause PTSD if you are abnormally distressed, fright- ened or overwhelmed by the experience. Often the victim feels powerless in the situation.
The types of situations that cause PTSD in an individual in- clude being involved in a criminal attack, rape, incest, natural disasters such as tornadoes or earthquakes, war, an automo-
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