Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is often a very intrusive illness that impedes an individual’s daily living. Two methods of treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder are Prolonged Exposure therapy and eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing. Prolonged Exposure therapy is a behavior based therapy that uses slowly increasing exposure to desensitize the client (Goodson, Lefkowitz, Helstrom, & Gawrysiak, 2013). Eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing instructs the client to focus on the trauma while the therapist maintains a methodical motion in front of him/her (Albright & Thyer, 2010). This paper will review two articles focused on each of these treatment methods, and differentiate which method may be more

Exposure treatment has the greatest evidence base and strongest empiric support for effectiveness in the treatment of PTSD. Emotional processing therapy is described by Baker. Second, logistic regression was used to foretell continuance of symptoms. Broadly, the person’s beliefs and appraisals definitely influence the protuberance. investigations of fear-relevant imagery from the perspective of behaviour therapy for reducing fear. 2008; Marks and Dar 2000) and in some cases fear declines despite negative expectations being confirmed during exposure (Marks and Dar 2000). What encourage adaptation to emotional disturbances, and what factors impede it?

Another method of treatment utilized to address PTSD symptomology is cognitive behavioral conjoint therapy assessed in a study conducted by Macdonald, Pukay-Martin, Wagner, Fredman and Monson (2016). A critical aspect of this method of therapy is that it addresses the familial dysfunctions associated with the experimentation conducted by Tsai, Harpaz-Rotem, Pietrzak and Southwick (2012). Specifically, one of the main objectives of cognitive behavioral

Although ACT emerged in the 1980s, it wasn’t till 2005 that awareness and its popularity grew (Bach, & Moran, 2008). ACT was initially constructed as a substitute to the more classical forms of psychotherapy (Flaxman, Blackledge, & Bond, 2011). Rather than focusing on the reduction of indifferent cognitions and emotions, which is a primary focus in psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), ACT looks at the possibility of increasing effective and progressive behaviours (Flaxman, et al., 2011). The contrast however between ACT and a psychotherapy such as CBT is that the therapist doesn’t focus on the presence or altering the unlikable emotions and thoughts of individuals, however they do in fact decrease through the ACT process

An estimated 5.2 million adults will suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) every year. Every PTSD victim encounters different experiences and symptoms that coincide with their trauma. Many forms of treatment and coping mechanisms have been attempted in the past decade to produce relief. There have been a few successful forms or treatment and there have also been treatment routes that have been detrimental to the success and overcoming of victims’ symptoms. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a new treatment option that is available to PTSD victims. “While the treatment has met with skepticism, meta-analyses have indicated that EMDR is superior to most other treatments and is as effective as the best alternative treatment, i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy. EMDR is now advocated as a treatment of choice for PTSD in many Western countries” (Van den Hout 177-178). EMDR gives PTSD victims long-lasting relief from their symptoms and ensures them the best chance at regaining normalcy in their lives.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a new behavioral treatment that is being used for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). ACT goal is to help individuals by exposing them to their obsession in order to begin recognizing the obsessions for what they actually are (thoughts) (Twohig, Hayes, & Masuda, 2006). The purpose to expand the individual effective repertoire of skills in dealing with fearful events. The client learns to be present in their anxiety state instead of trying to escape the feelings by using psychological flexibility in finding alternative strategies to handle the situation.

This disorder is characterized by feelings of excessive worry and anxiety on a daily basis. These feelings may be so debilitating that these people may seek treatment from a psychologist to help reduce their symptoms. A few treatment options a psychologist may choose for their client include: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which focuses on identifying, understanding and changing thinking and behavior patterns; acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) which uses strategies of acceptance, commitment and change and lastly, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) which uses techniques for emotional regulation. These three styles of therapy are the most prominent and commonly practiced in treating generalized anxiety disorder (Andreescu et al., 2014) Regardless of which technique is selected it is clear that all of the treatment options available can help increase a person’s quality of

The group is called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for Social Anxiety, to help Veterans connect to their values and step outside of their comfort zones. The group does not focus on making anxiety go away. It focuses on doing social activities that are important to the Veterans, while taking the anxiety along for the ride.

Another treatment approach utilized by professions is cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapists view trauma disorders as being the result of maladaptive thinking concerning the specific trauma and how the incident affects their live (Ehlers and Clark 2000). Cognitive therapists help the victim recognize and challenge the maladaptive thoughts. The therapist then guides them in restructuring the dysfunctional thoughts they hold to about the incident with the goal of decreasing the fear response (Comer, 2014).

The program conducted serves adult military personnel who are diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The program implements Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) through a twelve-week program consisting of twenty-four, sixty minute sessions. The stakeholders include military personnel and their family, veterans and their family, The U.S. Department of Veterans Affair, and the U.S. Government. The program will be dissected in order to identify the goals, data and instrumentation, data analysis, and dissemination of the program evaluation.

Cognitive and behavioral therapies are subdivided severally. They include acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), behavioral therapy, cognitive analytic therapy (CAT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and cognitive therapy. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a behavioral analysis that uses strategies like mindfulness and acceptance to aid in increasing flexibility of psychology. Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) is a form that tries to assemble ideas together from both analytic and cognitive into integrative models. CAT helps the client understand the reasons as to why they behave

Exposure involves the individual suffering from PTSD to vividly imagine their experience as a means to maximize the reliving of the trauma. The patient may be asked to give their narrative in the present tense, speak in first person and mostly focus on the most distressing aspect of the experience. Cognitive restructuring involves teaching patients to identify and evaluate the evidence for their negative automatic thoughts and also to help patients evaluate their belief about the trauma, themselves and their future. Finally, anxiety management training aims to provide individuals with coping skills to help them take control of and reduce their fear. Anxiety management approaches include psychoeducation followed by stress inoculation training

(Coomarsingh, 2017) In my case, I relive the trauma daily and through my dreams although my medication helps with the nightmares I experienced before diagnosis. My “ego” tries its best to reduce the anxiety that I have because the memories of the events are always plaguing my thoughts. I do not go a day without thinking about my friends being shot and killed or trauma sustained at the hands of my family. I don’t know what pleasure truly is and I can’t experience it without false amusement. I wish to stop my compulsion of remembering these events and move on, however I can’t. My repression of such memories fails considerably and it has brought on a kind of agoraphobia in dealing with people. Behavioral Model When I am talking about PTSD and the behavior model, I’m in counseling to try to alleviate my behaviors or daily terrors by learning how to deal with them through cognitive means. However, I was conditioned to be afraid of yelling, hostile people, father figures, belts, and shootings on TV. This kind of classical conditioning has been with me throughout

The third wave of behavioral therapy includes acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. These types of therapies are designed to help people accept difficult life experiences and to persuade individuals to act on their core values. An evolution of cognitive-behavioral therapy, ACT, MBCT, and DBT not only include the thought process within the behavioral network, but mindfulness and acceptance as well. Instead of teaching people to control their thoughts and feelings in the case of CBT, ACT & DBT draws from far eastern philosophies of noticing and accepting the things in life that you cannot change.

In this case, the patient is brought into a state of safety, stability and a reduction in recurrent symptoms (Myrick et al., 2014). The second steps involve the confrontation and integration of traumatic memories, besides working through these memories to comprehensively deal with the challenge (Myrick et al., 2014). The final stage involves identity integration and rehabilitation.