How to Heal From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) | Dr. Victor Carrión

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Dr. Victor Carrión. Dr. Victor Carrión is a professor and the vice chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is one of the world's foremost experts on post-traumatic stress disorder, in particular, the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents. Although his knowledge and today's discussion certainly extends to adult PTSD as well. Dr. Carrión is also the director of the Stanford Early Life Stress and Resilience Program. And today's discussion focuses on the psychological and the neurobiological underpinnings of PTSD and which treatments are most effective for PTSD. We focus heavily on a particular therapy called Q-centered therapy that was developed by Dr. Carrión and colleagues that has been shown to offset the triggering by words or events or memories that often are the precursors to PTSD episodes. And this has been shown to be effective in both children and adults. Today's discussion explores the difference between anxiety, stress and trauma. We talk about how those things of course are related, but how they can be separated out to better understand if indeed somebody has trauma and how to best approach the treatment of that trauma. As you'll soon see, what makes Dr. Carrión's work so unique is that it combines the psychological, the neurobiological, but also practical tools such as mindfulness. It relates mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy to the underlying biology and what's known about the psychiatry and psychology of PTSD at its different stages, depending on the trauma, the age of the person, et cetera. Today, Dr. Carrión clearly explains all of that so that by the end of today's conversation, you'll really understand what PTSD is and is not, and of course the best ways to treat it. Before you begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is 8 Sleep. 8 Sleep makes smart mattress covers with cooling, heating and sleep tracking capacity. I've spoken many times before on this podcast about the critical need for us to get adequate amounts of quality sleep each night. That's truly the foundation of all mental health, physical health and performance. And one of the best ways to ensure that you get a great night's sleep is to control the temperature of your sleeping environment. And that's because in order to fall and stay deeply asleep, your body temperature actually has to drop by about one to three degrees. And in order to wake up feeling refreshed and energized, your body temperature actually has to increase about one to three degrees. 8 Sleep makes it incredibly easy to control the temperature of your sleeping environment by allowing you to control the temperature of your mattress cover at the beginning, middle and end of the night. And it turns out the ability to do so allows you to get the maximum amount of deep sleep, slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep at the different stages of the night. I've been sleeping on an 8 Sleep mattress cover for nearly four years now, and it has completely transformed and improved the quality of my sleep. 8 Sleep has now launched their newest generation of the pod cover, the Pod 4 Ultra. The Pod 4 Ultra has improved cooling and heating capacity, higher fidelity sleep tracking technology and even has snoring detection that will automatically lift your head a few degrees to improve your airflow and stop your snoring. If you'd like to try an 8 Sleep mattress cover, go to 8sleep.com/huberman to save up to $350 off their Pod 4 Ultra. 8 Sleep currently ships in the USA, Canada, UK, select countries in the EU and Australia. Again, that's 8sleep.com/huberman. Today's episode is also brought to us by BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers professional therapy with a licensed therapist carried out entirely online. I've been doing weekly therapy for well over 30 years. Initially, I didn't have a choice. It was the condition of being allowed to stay in school. But pretty soon I realized that doing regular quality therapy is an extremely important component to overall health. 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