Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD; what is it, what are the symptoms, how is it diagnosed, can it be treated, what affects does it have on the family? As I have personally seen PTSD; these are some of the questions I asked myself on weekly bases. Now that I have reoccurring thoughts about my personal situations, I find myself asking some of the same questions after each deployment. I wonder I am going to come back the man I was or come back an unrecognizable void. I have done extensive research on the disorder to try to answer some of the questions that has plagued me throughout my career, and by sharing with you what I have found, the information may give someone else a little more insight of what the disorder really is. What is …show more content…
For some people these therapies work their best together and for others just one does the job. The first therapy is exposure therapy, “exposure therapy asks patients to confront, in a safe way, the very situations, objects, people and memories they have attached to the trauma” (Foa 2001) This therapy helps the patient confront their fears in a healthy way, to try to slay the beast and get on with their lives. The second therapy is anxiety management. Anxiety management is five techniques taught to people that help cope with the anxiety experienced from PTSD. The five techniques are,” breathing training, relaxation, assertiveness training, positive thinking and self-talk [and] thought stopping.” These techniques help people calm down enough to cope with their fears slowly, and is usually is used with the exposure therapy process. The third therapy is cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapy is positive thinking and “helps you understand how your thoughts affect your feelings.” (Foa 2001) By using these four steps the therapy helps achieve positive feelings and thoughts. Step one, “become more aware of distressing thoughts.” Step two, “pay attention to connections between your thoughts, feelings and behaviors.” Step three, “challenge (talk back to) your negative thoughts.” Last but not least step four, “substitute positive thoughts for negative ones.”(Foa, 2001) Psychotherapy is a
Military Pathway (2013) concluded “Military life, especially the stress of deployments or mobilizations, can present challenges to service members and their families that are both unique and difficult”. Hence, it is not surprising that soldiers returning from a stressful war environment often suffer from a psychological condition called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This paper provides a historical perspective of PTSD affecting soldiers, and how this illness has often been ignored. In addition, the this paper examines the cause and diagnosis of the illness, the changes of functional strengths and limitations, the overall effects this disease may have on soldiers and their families, with a conclusion of
In this article, Peter Katel interviews veterans returning from Afghanistan. He tells us how one service member, Coleman Bean is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after his first combat tour in Iraq. However, two years after returning home to South River, N.J., Sgt. Bean returned to duty. After that second deployment, the 25-year-old shot and killed himself. This shows us just how bad this awful disorder is, we need to stop ignoring the situation at hand and help or service men and women returning from war torn countries. Reading this article has given me incite on just how bad the situation is and will go well in my presentation.
PTSD could possibly be treated with a combination of treatments that consist of pharmaco-therapy, psychotherapy, or a combination of the two. In addition, PTSD can be treated with various psychotropic medications that helps reduce the symptoms. The researchers identified the most effective evidence-based treatment are classified as trauma-focused treatments. Examples of trauma-focused treatments consist of prolonged exposure (PE) therapy, and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) ( (Mcintyre-Smith, St Cyr, & Roth, 2013, p. 197).
There are two common types of treatment, which include psychotherapy and medication (“PTSD: National Center for PTSD”). Cognitive behavioral therapy is known to be the most effective treatment for this disease. The treatment may include learning skills to understand how the traumatic event changed the individual's thoughts and feelings. This type of psychotherapy therapy may also include repeating of the memories and discussing the event in thorough detail until this event no longer causes the individual to feel distressed in a situation that is similar. These treatments help to change how one feels about the situation and themselves (“PTSD: National Center for PTSD”).
This paper explores post-traumatic stress and how it is seen as a disorder. Post-traumatic stress can manifest into post-traumatic stress disorder. According to Sareen (2014), Post-traumatic stress disorder is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5 as having 4 core features that are as follows. First, the person must witness or experience a stressful event. Secondly, the person or persons would re-experience symptoms of the event that include nightmares and/or flashbacks. The person or persons would also have hyper arousal symptoms, such as concentrations problems, irritability, and sleep disturbance. The final core feature dictates
PTSD having been on the rise following various deployments necessitated by the various wars against terror, where the soldiers encounter traumatic experiences like harsh training conditions, unfavorable living standards, enemy attacks, extreme working environment, explosions, torture by enemies, loss of colleagues as well as long term separation from family back at home (Melinda S & Jeanne S., 2012). This therefore calls for a concerted effort in handling the pandemic of PTSD since it has been constantly on the increase and as a
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is defined by the National Institute of Mental Health as a “disorder that develops in some people who have seen or lived through a shocking, scary, or dangerous events”. This being one of the titles strapped on to most returning veterans from war is an issue that is heavily debated and relevant to future war veterans. There is no known cure for this disorder and can be destructive to one who has it. This report will be going over 1) A brief history of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 2) Why does Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder pertain to Vietnam veterans specifically how the veterans helped PTSD be what it is today 3) Some evidence from other sources that
When Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is mentioned or thought of, often the thought that enters the mind is military veterans who have witnessed, experienced and even suffered the tragic or violent events of war. It is true military experience can trigger PTSD and PTSD was brought to the attention of the medical profession by war veterans. According to the National Center for PTSD between 11 – 20% of those who served in Iraqi, 12% of those who served in Desert Storm and the numbers have been adjust to 30% of those who served in Vietnam have been diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetime. The National Center for PTSD goes on to list another cause of PTSD in the
First and foremost the topic covered is the physical and mental injuries soldier's suffer and through them family's after and during war. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is defined by the National institute of health as "a anxiety disorder that may develop after exposure to a terrifying
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (commonly known as PTSD) is an important issue associated with military soldiers. The primary focus of this paper will be on the causes of PTSD and the effects it has on returning soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I will attempt to elaborate on the soldiers' experiences through my own experiences in combat both in Iraq and Afghanistan. I will explain what PTSD is, look at the history of PTSD, how people get it, and differences of PTSD between men and women, and treatment options.
There have been many diagnoses of PTSD in American soldiers. As Mark Thomas said in a magazine article, “The National Academy of Sciences have report estimated that up to 20% of 2.6 million US men and women who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq may have it (PTSD)”(Thomas). This quote expresses that nearly 520,000 US families have been affected by this disorder. It also shows that PTSD has become a large enough issue that more and more people and
Posttraumatic stress disorder can occur after someone experiences a traumatic event. Once the mind hits the coping threshold, it is imperative to seek professional help. The VA offers evidence-based treatments, individual, group treatments, and medications. Coping mechanisms range from individual to individual, hence the need for a diverse PTSD program. Under the evidence-based treatment there are two sections: prolonged exposure therapy and cognitive processing therapy. Prolonged exposure therapy is when someone continues to talk about their fears/trauma to gain control of feelings associated with those fears. The cognitive processing therapy is to understand the feelings associated with trauma and finding a way to replace negative feelings with positive
Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder is possible. The current treatment of PTSD encompasses several types of psychotherapy combined with a medication regimen. Cognitive therapy is one type of therapy used to combat PTSD. The goal of cognitive therapy is to allow the patient to slowly experience feelings, thoughts, and events associated with the trauma in a controlled setting. This allows the PTSD sufferer, to categorize the traumatic feelings associated with the event and assign a more positive meaning to them. Thus providing a coping mechanism. Another school of thought places the therapeutic focus on gradually exposing the PTSD sufferer to elements of the trauma. The goal is to desensitize the patient to the traumatic event. This allows the patient to resume a normal life. One other form of therapy used in treatment of PTSD is EMDR. EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a form of exposure therapy that places the emphasis on guided eye movements. The theory is that the movements help retrain how the brain reacts to memories of the traumatic event. Success has
The first method of treatment is trauma-focused cognitive-behavioural therapy. In this method, a patient is gradually but carefully exposed to feelings, thoughts, and situations that trigger memories of the trauma. By identifying the thoughts that make the patient remember the traumatic event, thoughts that had been irrational or distorted are replaced with a balanced picture. Another productive method is family therapy since the family of the patient is also affected by PTSD. Family therapy is aimed at helping those close to the patient understand what he/she is going through. This understanding will help in the establishment of appropriate communication and ways of curbing problems resulting from the symptoms (Smith & Segal, 2011).
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a relatively new diagnosis that was associated with survivors of war when it was first introduced. Its diagnosis was met largely with skepticism and dismissal by the public of the validity of the illness. PTSD was only widely accepted when it was included as a diagnosis in 1980 in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) of the American Psychiatric Association. PTSD is a complex mental disorder that develops in response to exposure to a severe traumatic event that stems a cluster of symptoms. Being afflicted with the disorder is debilitating, disrupting an individual’s ability to function and perform the most basic tasks.