PTSD: A Summary

"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs, 2007. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has severely affected the lives of countless military veterans throughout the years. Consequently, there likely are many more PTSD cases that exist and go unreported, or misdiagnosed due to misconceptions when reported (Samuelson, Bartel, Jordan, & Valadez, 2017). To this extent, I am going to discuss my views on two articles. The first article explains the patient’s perceptions of PTSD symptoms. The second article explains the effects of performing Yoga as an unconventional form of treatment for PTSD patients. Each study was conducted on the men and women veterans of our Armed Forces. As citizens of the United States of America, we owe the Armed Forces a debt of

PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a mental health condition that can occur after a person experiences a traumatic event such as disasters, assault or combat. This is an issue that many Veterans encounter while being involved in military duty. However, there is help available.

A study in 2008 showed that about 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans suffer from PTSD or major depression, and about 320,000 may have experienced at least a mild concussion or brain injury in combat (Zoroya). American society is witnessing a hasty rise in the need for treatment of PTSD for returning soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Most of have heard the term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. The Nebraska Department of Veterans Affairs estimate that 7.8 percent of Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives. We commonly associate PTSD with soldiers who have fought in wars. About 30 percent of the men and women who have spent time in war zones experience PTSD. (Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs. (2007). No one is immune to it. Other traumatic events can also cause PTSD. The general knowledge required to understand PTSD include: The definition, possible causes, symptoms and current treatment options. Learning these you will be able to come up with a treatment plan to help your clients.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): is a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault. Common problems that usually follow the traumatic event if you have PTSD are survivors guilt, shameful, angry, depressed, night terrors, sleeping problems and untrusting of others around you. Drugs and alcohol become a problem among some people that have PTSD (The National Center for PTSD Prolonged Exposure, 2013).

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological condition that can follow a traumatic incident (Emory). PTSD can stem from a variety of traumatic events, such as sexual assault, floods, being kidnapped, and major catastrophes like 9/11 (PTSD: A Growing Epidemic). A major symptom of PTSD is re-experiencing trauma by either distressing thoughts or memories, and sometimes by vivid flashbacks in the most severe cases. Other symptoms can include increased anxiety and paranoia, depression, or avoiding situations where flashbacks can be triggered. An estimated 5% of men and 10% of women experience some form of PTSD in their lives (Emory). However, in a smaller demographic, veterans, The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have estimated

An American novelist wrote, “That is what death is like. It doesn’t matter what uniforms the soldiers are wearing. It doesn’t matter how good the weapons are. I thought if everyone could see what I saw, we would never have war anymore” (Jonathan Safran Foer). According to The National Center for PTSD, VA Medical Center, soldiers who have served in war the last fourteen years, 11-20% have Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is mostly caused by a significant emotional event during a war. I worked at the NATO Role III hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan when Pfc. Keith M. Williams died on the trauma table. Williams’ death affected everyone in the trauma room that day, however, even today it has caused me horrible anguish.

My girlfriend’s brother, Mary served in the Marines for four years. In those four years, he made three combat tours and four other small deployments. During his first trip to Iraq, he was severely injured in a land mine accident. He was the only one out of the other three soldiers in the tank that survived. The accident left him with a severe brain injury and partly blind in his left eye. Mary was in an Iraqi hospital for about two weeks. He then decided to continue with his duty of being of Marine.

PTSD is a disorder soldiers get when they come back from war.But not only soldiers can get it,people can get it to.But there are ways you can stop it,like going to counseling.For some bases they have counselors for soldiers that live on the base.Untreated PTSD ends up getting worse.PTSD was first diagnosed in 1980 by the American Psychiatric Association.Also natural disasters can give a person PTSD (such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions).

PTSD is a disease/disorder that many of our own soldiers have to live with for the rest of their lives. PTSD is a slept on thing that many people do not believe in. About 11-20 out of every 100 soldiers have to live with it. Many soldiers live with PTSD because of how life threatening and stressful war is.

Mental health illness is a major issue that several United States systems faces daily. Mental illness can contribute to high crime rates, suicide, drug addiction, mass shootings, prison overcrowding, and several other problems. This paper will discuss and examine mental health issues as it develops and result in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the United States Military, and specifically how PTSD can result in suicide among military service members. PTSD is commonly and well known to infantry soldiers who were mostly deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq war between 2001 and 2003 due to an overwhelming and challenging environment. The war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq conflicts, both have had a an actual impact on soldiers' mental health. In addition, infantrymen are most likely to experience at least one event as a minimum that may result in PTSD than any other divisions in the military. According to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Major Gary Wynn provides statistics shows that "93 percent report coming under fire from artillery, rockets, and mortars. 91 percent say their unit has been attacked or ambushed. 87 percent say they know someone who has been seriously injured or killed" (Robson 2012).

America the beautiful, land of the free, but at what cost is that freedom attained? Freedom is usually attained through war and suffering. Many soldiers lose their lives fighting for their country. Even though many returned physically healthy, some of the men and women are fighting a new battle on the home front of their own minds. Living with something as mentally tormenting as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is something many veterans have to deal with on a daily basis. Not only do these men and women have to deal with the regret of their own actions, but they have to deal with the horrible treatment of those around them. They are living a life of torture knowing there is no cure; however, some people have found natural and positive ways to treat the symptoms. Even though many skeptics believe this disorder doesn’t exist, tests have been run proving the nightmare is as deep as

The third effect of PTSD is a physical one. Many people who have PTSD have scars. While many of these scars are mental, many are physical. Many times due to abuse or war, a person suffers from illnesses, such as Vitamin D deficiencies, from being denied from going outside, blindness due to abuse or war trauma, and even becoming deaf. There are sometimes deformities too. These deformities can range from scaring, to missing limbs. Sometimes the scarring is self-inflicted. Self-harm is yet another consequence of PTSD. Often times, the act of harming one’s self gives a sufferer of PTSD a moment of control and relief in their minds and life. Usually, self-harm is brought on by many things, from flashbacks, to stressful situations, to the fear that

According to a Tanielian and Jaycox (2008) study, as of September 2014 there were approximately 2.7 million American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars”. Of the 2.7 million at least 20% of the veterans in Iraq and Afghanistan wars obtained PTSD and/or depression. However, it was noted that when interviewed, the military counselors stated that they believe that the percentage rate of veterans with PTSD was much higher. The number is said to continue to increase when combined with traumatic brain injury (TBI).