Narrative Diagnosis

There are several different assessments that can be used for victims of trauma to determine the level of stress and if a victim is suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. The best results will occur if the clinical work is directed at the symptoms expressed by the resulting trauma. When assessing the treatment plan, “the psychic injury caused by the event and its impact on the survivor’s normal life patterns and his or her worldview must be accounted for” (Everstine & Everstine, 2006, p.161). A person

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).

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

is 8 year old Caucasian male who has a younger brother. He was taken from his biological parents who was on drugs thus client B. suffers from intense abuse and neglect. He and his brother was left with his father’s mother who had a schizophrenic diagnosis years of neglect and abuse. He had been to five foster homes over a 5 years period and to each he was abused physically, emotionally, mentally and sexually. Client B. has no friends and during the time in the foster homes, his biological mother would only call to say she is trying to getting him back. Client B. is now adopted by a new parents and is now living in a caring environment but he is still struggling with mistrust issues, hurts, and low-self-esteem and anger issues. His adoption parents is very concern and want to see him become less distressed and open to the care and love that they are sharing. Client B. has developed some medical issues which was of concern to the medical provider was called in children services to check in on

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

CPT is based on the social cognitive theory of PTSD. This theory focuses on how the traumatic event is understood and how it is being coped with by the client who is struggling to regain control over his or her life. CPT also refers to the emotional processing theory of PTSD which is an extension of information processing theory by Foa, Steketee, and Rothbaum (Mullen, Holliday, Morris, Raja, and Surís 2014). This theory states PTSD emerges from the development of fear in one’s memory that creates avoidance behavior and provokes one to escape these memories. Mental fear builds stimuli, responses, and meaning elements (Mullen, Holliday, Morris, Raja, and Surís 2014). Therefore anything that is associated with the trauma may provoke fear that leads to the concept of escaping and avoidance behavior. In individuals with PTSD, the fear is known to be easily accessible. When the fear is activated by the reminders of one’s trauma, one builds intrusive symptoms due to the information trying to process and enter one’s consciousness. In order for an individual to avoid these feelings and thoughts, one tries to avoid it which leads to the avoidance symptoms of PTSD which include yet are not limited to depression, alienation (Mullen, Holliday, Morris, Raja, and Surís 2014). Emotional Processing Theory states the repetitive exposure of trauma in a safe environment such as a therapeutic setting, helps reduce PTSD symptoms by calming and addressing one’s fear (Mullen, Holliday, Morris,

However, you can manage your symptoms and live a very productive life. Most people with PTSD have issues dealing with past feelings and keep them inside. Counseling or Talking to a Therapist is very beneficial in getting better. One of the most effective treatment for PTDS is Cognitive Behavioral therapy or CBT. The two forms of CBT most frequently used are Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy. The four main parts of CPT are: patients learn about the symptoms of PTSD, they become aware of their thoughts and feelings, they learn skills to help question and challenge their thoughts and understand the changes in your beliefs. There are also four main parts to PE therapy they are: education, breathing, real world practice and talking through the trauma. The most common medication to treat PTSD is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants. (Cohen, H. (2015). Some alternative treatments are yoga, acupuncture and

I will be collaborating with The National Institute of Mental Health for the funding of the research project. The research will attempt to identify what factors determine whether someone with PTSD will respond well to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) intervention, aiming to develop more personalized, effective and efficient treatments. The mission of this project is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure (National Institutes of Health, 2013).

The patients generally come to the clinical settings when secondary stage psychological problems surface. Therefore, early detection of symptoms and impactful intervention is the key to effective management of PTSD [27].

One of the most common treatment options for PTSD is cognitive behavior therapy. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is a therapy in which one recognizes the ways of thinking that keep them stuck and tries to work through it. One of the first steps in CBT is being aware of your thoughts and feelings and understanding what is triggering the PTSD. Those who suffer from PTSD often blame themselves for what happened, and feel that if they would have done something different they could have changed the outcome. In CBT, one goes through their thoughts to see whether or not they are accurate. The blame that one feels is an inaccurate thought that is causing distress. During therapy, the goals is not to change what happened, but alter what one tells themself about the event in a positive way to decrease the PTSD symptoms. By doing this the PTSD symptoms slowly disappear and the results start to show. Michael Phillips and Shirley Wang wrote in their newspaper article that various studies show two-thirds of the people who complete CBT have alleviated their PTSD symptoms (Phillips and Wang 2). This shows that over half of the people who receive CBT treatment show signs of improvement. CBT is covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs and is one of the treatments that are most highly

PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is an increasing problem in our country. PTSD has its roots in the military, but the entire populace is subject to its effects. I served my country for the past 21 years and have seen the before and after of the effects of combat, so any discussions about PTSD, diagnosis, treatments, and cures is likely to catch my eye. In this paper, we will discuss the basics on PTSD, current rates in society, and list the possible cures and or treatments that are currently in use. The prevalence in society should show that all people should be familiar with the signs and systems, as well as knowing some of the basic treatments to assist afflicted individuals. The goal of this paper is to provide just that for the reader.

Among the most common of mental health conditions is post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. Furthermore, PTSD can lead to severe physiological and psychological changes that are significantly increased when this trauma isn’t caught in its early stages. These traumas have a great impact on the patient’s personalities and perceptions. Therefore, there are different types of treatments that can be implemented accordingly to the patient to improve their psychological condition, and avoid unfavorable results on their mental health.

Many children are exposed to traumatic events before they even become adults. All around the world they are exposed to child abuse, rape, natural disasters, terrorism, car accidents, and school violence among many others. Studies have shown that these traumatic events, if left untreated, can result in significant psychological problems, such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other anxiety disorders, depression, or a number of other behavioral difficulties (Cohen, Mannarino, Berliner & Deblinger, 2000). These difficulties can become chronic and produce negative effects which could last into adulthood. It is therefore imperative that effective treatment strategies be

This treatment approach is based on cognitive and learning theories, tackling-misleading beliefs related to the traumatic events of acknowledgments related to the abuse and provides a supportive environment of which individuals are encouraged to talk about their traumatic experience. A numerous amount of research has been carried out to investigate into how effective CBT really can be for PTSD. (Resick et al, 2002) carried out an investigation comparing CBT with strong cognitive restructuring focus and CBT with a strong exposure focus and to a waiting-list control of rape survivors. Prior to this experiment approximately 80% of patients who completed either form of CBT no longer met the criteria for PTSD. Once this investigation was complete a follow up treatment took place of which it was noted 2% of the waiting list group had lost the PTSD diagnoses. Only a year after this investigation Bryant, Moulds, Guthrie, Dang & Nixon, (2003) restructured the experiment comparing exposure alone, exposure plus cognitive restructuring, and supportive counselling in civilians with PTSD resulting from various traumatic events. At this particular follow up 65-80% of participants who either completed either form of CBT were now clear of PTSD diagnosis, compared to less than 40% of those who completed supportive counselling.

CBT is a structured psychological treatment which identifies that cognition, emotion and behaviour all interact together. Therefore, it can be said that our thoughts determine our feelings and our response. A negative impact of the actions taken by someone when that person suffers from psychological distress caused by how skewed they interpret situations. CBT involves working with a therapist to distinguish thought and behavioural patterns that are either making a client more likely to become depressed, or stopping a client from getting better when experiencing depression. The purpose of CBT is to increase the client’s awareness when negative interpretations are made and when behavioural patterns reinforce distorted thinking. Cognitive therapy helps people to develop alternative ways of thinking and behaving which aim to reduce their psychological