Essay about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

PTSD, or Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of a life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or physical or sexual assault in adult or childhood. Most survivors of trauma return to normal given a little time. However, some people will have stress reactions that do not go away on their own, or may even get worse over time. These individuals may develop PTSD. People who suffer from PTSD often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged, and these symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair the person’s daily life.

An anonymous veteran sends in his story about serving for the U.S military. He states that he was diagnosed with severe PTSD. While at work, he sometimes had to go outside due to the lack of being able to control his emotions. His wife and son also take caution by keeping their distance on the days he is emotionally unstable. Drinking also became a habit to try to calm the emotional episodes he was facing. Even though his family and friends noticed these issues, they decided not to bother for the sake of his anger. (PTSD and Me: True Stories from Military Veterans). These things happen to many veterans all over the world. PTSD affects every aspect of a person's life.

Post-traumatic stress disorder has always been an important issue to me. PTSD became an interest of mine when I saw the effects that it has on my husband and other Veterans suffering from the same issue. I wanted to pursue this research topic to further education myself, and inform others. PTSD not only effects the Veterans mentally, but it also has an effect on their family members as well, living with someone who is easily startled, has nightmares, or avoids social situations can take a toll on everybody. In this particular topic, I will focus on inquiring information about combat Veterans, families of combat Veterans, and others interested in learning or gaining more information about post-traumatic stress disorder. I will inform my audience about this topic through various reports from past century wars and convince my audience on how post- traumatic stress disorder effects combat Veterans later in life. I am conducting this project with combat Veterans, and their families in mind as my audience. Family members of a combat Veteran may not know the signs and symptoms of PTSD.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or as many know by the abbreviation PTSD, is a complex mental issue that affects several every day. People that know of post-traumatic stress disorder tend to connect it to military personnel. In recent years, PTSD has been diagnosed in people who have endured other types of high-stress experiences as well (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)). In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) added PTSD to the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III). Although PTSD was recognized as a mental disorder in 1980, in the 1800’s doctors began to notice that soldiers were “exhausted” from war and would experience mental shutdowns and similar symptoms of

Author Carl-John X. Veraja once stated “ The world has PTSD. It is a veteran a blown mind, having flashbacks as it begs the Sun for one more go-round. ” This statement uses the Earth and orbit of the Sun as a metaphorical representation of the constant struggle that veterans and non-veterans face daily due to PTSD. PTSD or formally known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is known as, “…a psychiatric disorder that can occurs following the experiences or witnessing of a life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or physical or sexual assault in adult or childhood”( “What is PTSD?”) . PTSD has affected millions that have encountered a traumatic experience. People that have more stressful occupations or life experience such as being a military employee seem to be more prone to being subject to PTSD. PTSD among soldiers have soared over the last fifty years even with the increase reports of rape, domestic violence, and sexual assault reported by The New York Times (Bannerman). Though the military have impanelment more action toward the growing dilemma it has yet to make any monumental acts to promote the well being of soldiers that are mentally affected by their time in the army.

Brett Duval, a veteran bomb dog handler contracted to the United States Army, returned home after serving two tours in Iraq with the diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Duval, 2016). After witnessing her son’s difficulty adjusting back to civilian life, Shari Duval began extensive research on animal-assisted therapy for the maintenance and treatment of disorders such as PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). In 2011, Duval created K9s For Warriors (K9s), a non-profit organization dedicated to providing trained service dogs to active duty service members and veterans to assist in regaining comfort and independence in the civilian sector. Their overarching mission is to “...provide service canines to warriors suffering from Post-traumatic stress disability, traumatic brain injury and/or military sexual trauma as a result of military service post 9/11. [With the ultimate goal] to empower them to return to civilian life with dignity and independence.” (K9s for Warriors Handbook, 2016). Duval established this agency with the desire to grow the conservative therapies provided to service members now to non-traditional alternatives and to combat the significant consequences of untreated psychological trauma plaguing the military today.

Post-traumatic stress disorder also known as PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder is developed from a scary, dangerous or shocking events. For example, a soldier exposed to a near death experience or a scary event overseas could cause that person to be diagnose with PTSD. Also another example, could be someone in Miami experiencing a category 5 hurricane and have everything taken away from them. Research on OEF/OIF Veterans suggests that 10% to 18% of OEF/OIF troops are likely to have PTSD after they return. In addition to PTSD service members are also at a higher risk of developing other mental health issues. Post-traumatic stress disorder is very real and life threating in some cases.

People who experience PTSD experience “a whole-body tragedy, an integral human event of enormous proportions with massive repercussions.” (Banitt). PTSD is a common mental disorder that over 7.8 percent of Americans will experience (NDVA). Traumatic stress, such as war, sexual abuse or assault, gang violence, etc. can cause PTSD. There are a few known ways that can help treat and prevent this disorder, but more research can help develop these methods, or new methods.

Post traumatic stress disorder is a psychological disorder in which the survivors of a traumatic incident or experience. Examples of this could include but are not limited to death, rape, survivors of a terrorist attack, or soldiers at war. Survivors of these incidents have a series of various symptoms (Wangelin, & Tuerk, 2014). These symptoms include, but are not limited to, irritating flashbacks, nightmares, angry outbursts, and trouble sleeping (Wangelin,, 2014). These symptoms seem to be prevalent in soldiers coming back from war and may negatively effect their personal and social lives. They are affected easily because of the trauma faced in their day to day lives. According to Wangelin (2014), between 8 and 20 percent of soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced some form of PTSD . This number comes out to between 192,000 and 480,000 soldiers. This paper will explain Post Traumatic stress disorder, its causes, and the effects it has on the soldiers life and their families. Also, gender differences and treatment will be taken into consideration.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a disorder that is the result of a traumatic event. According to the national PTSD center in the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs, about 50% of women experience at least one trauma in their lives, traumas like Rape or child abuse are more common in women than in men. About 60% of men experience a trauma in their lives, traumas more related to physical assault, combat, disaster or witnessing a death. Post-Traumatic stress disorder can happen to anyone. In the United States about 8% of the population will have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at some point in their lives. A disorder similar to Post-Traumatic Stress disorder is Acute Stress Disorder the only difference is that a diagnosis for Acute Stress Disorder has to be given in the month following the traumatic event, for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to be diagnosed the symptoms have to be recurrent for at least a month after the traumatic event. Good examples are some cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder like Maria and Joe a rape victim and a veteran both diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress disorder their symptoms and treatment. Also a case study for suicides involving veterans from the Vietnam war and Somalia peace keeping conflict, 4 veterans diagnosed with PTSD that committed suicide analyzing their major life events and the psychological factors that could have contributed to the suicide.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), triggered by exposure to a traumatic event, is a mental health condition characterized by recurrent nightmares or flashbacks, avoiding reminders/recounting the event, distorted mental processes or emotional numbing, and a persistently high state of arousal and reactivity (Institute of Medicine , 2014). While this mental disorder does appear in society as a whole, its prevalence in the U.S. military is cause for concern. Cited as the “most commonly identified psychological clinical disorder stemming from the war” (PTSD May Be Greatest Injury of War Today, 2008), in 2012, 5.2% of all service members were diagnosed with PTSD, while 8.0% of all previously deployed service members received the diagnosis (Institute of Medicine , 2014). Experiencing trauma caused by combat exposure is a relatively normal occurrence within today’s military. Nonetheless, not all soldiers will be diagnosed with or experience the side effects of PTSD. Physicians are unsure why some individuals develop PTSD over others; however, it is believed that a mix of interrelated elements can increase the probability that exposure to a traumatic event will result in the disorder, such as inherited mental health risks and personality factors, previous life experiences and an individual’s unique chemical response(s) to stress (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). Due to its prevalence in the military community, human service professionals (HSPs) should expect to come in contact with

In 1980, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD,) was officially categorized as a mental disorder even though after three decades it is still seen as controversial. The controversy is mainly founded around the relationship between post-traumatic stress (PTS) and politics. The author believes that a group level analysis will assist in understanding the contradictory positions in the debate of whether or not PTSD is "a true disorder." The literature regarding this topic can be divided, albeit roughly, into two principal positions. One position, also the most popular, assumes that PTSD is a timeless disorder that existed before its official identification with the mental health community. PTS with the social context of social groups gives a "positive shift" away from illusory "vacuums" (Tajfel, 1974.); within this context PTS in not solely related to an interaction between an individual and a specific event. Some social memberships are more likely to experience potentially traumatic events while others have factors such as politics, military, and social buffers that play a mediating role in the impact of traumatic stress. There is also evidence that shows a correlation between group-level factors, and available social support can protect against PTS. PTSD has recently shifted to the sociopolitical landscape of war rather than being universally understood to have the capabilities to affect individuals not directly exposed to wartime environments.

As briefly mentioned earlier, throughout this paper, various aspects of PTSD will be explored and this includes: the role of stress sensitization; the differences in postdeployment symptoms and the impact of combat exposure on the mental health of female and male veterans; the effect of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), PTSD, and MTBI and PTSD along with depression; and the quality of life after serving from war to underscore the severity of this circumstance.

Suicide is a major leading cause of death and a widespread concern which occurs at alarming rates in the specific population of the military. One of the main risk factors in of suicide in this population is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There is a great deal of research which analyzes this relationship. There are many elements that serve as contributing factors to the correlation between suicide and PTSD. PTSD-related suicide among soldiers is due to a number of intervening aspects including combat exposure, moral injury, self-forgiveness, social support, and traumatic brain injury.

There are at least four ethical areas I would like to ponder: Whether to maintain someone in the battlefield or return them home; whether to retain a service member on duty in the military, vs. recommending a medical board (medical discharge); confidentiality, and/or what command needs to know; and disability and compensation issues, if diagnosed with PTSD (Ritchie, 2012).