Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ( 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. The evaluation and review books and articles seem to reveal a relation to these symptoms and military member, either active or non-active veterans. These symptoms do not manifest strictly into the full-extent of the disorder in all cases of military, however, things such as depression and other physical symptoms are discussed through the readings. The end result is that we discovered that through the readings PTSD will in fact lead to suicide if left untreated.

Psychotherapy can occur one-on-one or in a group. Psychotherapy treatment for PTSD usually lasts 6 to 12 weeks, but can last longer. Family and friends can be an important part of recovery. Talk therapies teach people helpful ways to react to the frightening events and find therapy that will work for them. Different types of therapy may use relaxation and anger-control skills, teach about trauma and its effects, and help people identify and deal with guilt, shame, and other feeling about the event. There are many types of psychotherapy that can help people with PTSD and some types target the symptoms of PTSD directly. Effective psychotherapies usually emphasize skills to manage the symptoms, teaching skills to identify the triggers of symptoms, and education about the symptoms. One of the most helpful forms of therapy for PTSD is called cognitive behavioral therapy also known as CBT and can include exposure therapy and cognitive restructuring. Exposure therapy helps people face and control their dear and gradually exposes them to the trauma they experienced in a safe way. It uses visiting the place where it happened, writing, and imagining. Cognitive restructuring helps the person make sense of their memories and sometimes people remember the event differently than how it was. The therapist helps people with PTSD look at what happened in a realistic way and makes it so that they don't

PTSD is not easily treated. Sometimes people can not only suffer mentally but have physical impairments from the event as well. This can make it hard for them to obtain the treatment they need. A combination of medications and psychotherapy is usually recommended and is the most effect form of treatment for PTSD. The earlier a person seeks treatment for this disorder the better the outcome will be. The medications are used to help people cope with their emotions while the psychotherapy will help

There are various types of therapy and medications that has proven to be successful in treating PTSD. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is most effective in treating PTSD. Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy, Cognitive Processing therapy, reprocessing and Eye movement desensitization therapy are also other means of therapy that is successful in treating PTSD. Types of drugs known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) which is typically used for depression has been successful in treating PTSD. The prognosis for PTSD depends on severity and length of how long a person has suffered with the mental illness. A majority of those who seek treatment do respond to psychotherapy but residual symptoms may remain and go into remission for different lengths of time.

Patients with PTSD may also be put under medication in order to relieve secondary symptoms such as anxiety and depression. The most commonly used antidepressants for PTSD are Zoloft and Prozac. It is worth noting that though these medications may help in alleviating feelings of sadness and worry, they do not address the actual causes of the condition. The other method of treatment is Eye

The first type of Treatment is called Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT. Research says that this is the best type of treatment and counseling for anyone diagnosed with PTSD. Cognitive behavioral therapy is used to help the veteran think differently about their thoughts or feelings from the past. The main goal by the therapist is to help the veteran find out what past events or flashbacks correlate with the veteran’s thoughts that make the symptoms of PTSD occur. Many times, the veterans will blame themselves for a decision they made but the therapist will walk them through on how it was not their fault. Cognitive Behavioral therapy can last for three to six months. Although to some people it may seem that CBT might be the best type of treatment, it does not always work. One reason why it might not work is because the therapist may like the experience and education. The therapist may be qualified but sometimes, the therapist may fail at connecting with patient. The connection that is missed by some therapists and patients can simply occur by the therapist not having all the knowledge about all the situations soldiers face when they go to war. Soldiers struggle with their therapy if they feel that the therapist who is helping them does not have the knowledge about the battlefield or the difficulties of war itself. The relationship of the therapist and veteran can also play a major role on the effectiveness of the therapy. Some soldiers may struggle with feeling comfortable with their therapist because they are sensitive and emotional. Sometimes veterans struggle with this therapy if they cannot develop a relationship with their therapist. Another factor that can affect the effectiveness of CBT is the timing. Sometimes three to six months is not enough to show long term effectiveness of the therapy. Another treatment option is exposure therapy.

The first treatment is psychotherapy where one is one on one talk with a psychiatrist and one can talk about one’s problems (nimh.nih.gov). Talk therapies also help people overcome PTSD by teaching about trauma and its effects, using relaxation and anger skills, and providing tips for better sleeping, eating, and exercise habits (nimh.nih.gov). Holden Caulfield uses this therapy when talking to the psychoanalyst at the end of the book. “A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if I'm going apply myself when I go back to school next September” (114). There is also exposure therapy. Exposure therapy helps people face and control their fears by exposing them to the trauma in a safe way (nimh.nih.gov). Another treatment for PTSD is Cognitive restructuring. Cognitive restructuring helps people make sense of the bad memories (nimh.nih.gov). The final treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder is stress inoculation training. Stress inoculation training tries to reduce PTSD symptoms by teaching a person how to reduce anxiety (nimh.nih.gov). There is no cure for post-traumatic stress disorder but there are also medications that help such as sertraline and paroxetine which act as

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)

All of the treatments that Tom has participated in are considered evidence-based therapies (Friedman, 2015). Of the therapies listed above Tom believes that all have assisted him in his recovery but believes the most beneficial is constructive group therapy with people who have a common bond (NRA, 2012). Additionally, Tom has tried a few nontraditional therapies like acupuncture. While looking at the amount of exposure to life threatening events I would have tried harder to intervene earlier. Something as simple as utilizing a variation of the critical incident stress debriefing process could have made a difference in the severity and onset of PTSD. Moreover, I would recommend that Tom participate in couple’s therapy and ultimately encourage his wife to participate in the partner-assisted therapy techniques earlier (Friedman,

One of the key activities of the society is the use of psychosocial treatment. The majority of the treatments that have been applied within the society involve the cognitive behavioral therapy. This category of treatment includes stress inoculation training, exposure therapies, and cognitive therapies. Most treatments combine the various categories. The purpose of the exposure therapies is to minimize the symptoms and other related problems such as guilt, anger, and depression. Exposure therapies help patients to contain their feelings, situations, and memories related to trauma. The interventions related to exposure include memorable exposure which entails frequent revisiting of the traumatic memory (IOM, 2012). Other forms of treatment for PTSD are Eye movement Desensitization and reprocessing which involves the patient thinking or talking about their memories, while focusing on other stimuli, such as sounds, and hand movements. This type of treatment is disagreed on for it seems like this treatment is unnecessary. Medication for PTSD are categorized as Selective Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) which are a type of antidepressant. Various form of the drugs are Celexa, Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft (PTSD: National center for PTSD n.d.). They make the user less sad and worried. It also appears to be a very effective. Vivo exposure involves the

At first, the point is to play out a complete appraisal of the patient and his or her condition. The following stage comprises of testing the patient's useless convictions, making choices helpfully and, at long last, building up expectation. The specialist will investigate the patient's qualities for adapting to the exigent circumstance and understanding the real capability of an emergency. By doing this, the specialist will have the capacity to give a sentiment security and produce in the patient the drive to take control of his or her life, finishing the progressions expected to proceed onward. The convention is separated into five phases: advancement of the remedial relationship and foundation of affinity; starting evaluation of the seriousness of the circumstance; supporting the patient to assess and enact his or her qualities and assets; helpful work amongst patient and advisor to build up an arrangement of active activity: Testing novel practices and thoughts. On various psychotherapeutic ways to deal with injury, introduction treatment (ET) has accomplished positive outcomes for treatment of both PTSD and ASD. ET comprises of presenting the patient to his or her traumatic recollections and additionally to circumstances being maintained a strategic distance from in a protected and controlled way. The goal is to decrease levels of tension and

The proposed research question asks whether a combined prolonged exposure (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) approach is useful in treating veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The population of interest for this study is veterans with PTSD. The ideal study would include four groups: one to receive PE, one to receive CPT, one to receive both PE and CPT, and one that does not receive an intervention. The groups would consist of an equal 50/50 male to female ratio (half of the participants would be male, half would be female) to control for gender. The participants would be randomly selected, by a computerized program, based on information gathered about veterans with PTSD by the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs offices in each of the 23 regions of the Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN). Once selected, the veterans will be randomly placed into one of the four aforementioned groups, and given the Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI), a scale used to measure a person’s trauma related to their thoughts and beliefs to determine if they have PTSD or PTSD symptoms. After the participants baseline PTSD symptoms are measured, each group will receive their assigned intervention once a week for 15 weeks. After the intervention is complete the participant’s PTSD symptoms will again be measured using the PTCI scale at the one week and three month mark after treatment is completed. The control group will also be offered the combined PE and CPT

Psychotherapy and medication are the two forms of treatment for PTSD, but often they are used together. While these methods are not exclusive to PTSD, they are also used for anxiety and depression as well as other mental illnesses. Psychotherapy is often referred to as talk therapy which is where one discusses their problems while learning to cope. Cognitive therapy helps one recognize that negative thoughts about normal situations will not help in overcoming their disorder. Exposure therapy helps one face what is causing the trauma, but is conducted over a period of time while in a safe environment. This therapy is usually used with cognitive therapy when someone has PTSD, however they work with other forms of mental illness disorders as well. (“Post-traumatic stress,”

In the article written by Graca, Palmer, & Occhietti, the primary objective of research is to determine the efficacy of a combination of psychotherapeutic techniques such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), cognitive processing therapy (CPT), and/or trauma group exposure (TGE) therapy to treat PTSD. By organizing the best combination of psychotherapeutic techniques, practitioners are able to formulate a therapy technique best suited for veterans with PTSD. This article will especially be helpful in my research focused on the effective treatment for veterans with PTSD. Because there are so many different types of therapy techniques for PTSD patients, perhaps combining techniques will yield better results than utilizing

When helping an individual afflicted with PTSD, I would help connect them to proper support groups, as I know from experience that a good support group can help a client feel less isolated and alone. I would examine current coping skills and help my client to form the proper skills s/he will need to overcome this affliction. I would apply aspects of CBT, specifically cognitive restructuring, exposure therapy, stress inoculation training and virtual reality treatment (Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 2015). I could also explore logotherapy (Kanel, 2014). Only as a last resort would I suggest that my client seek out a psychiatrist for medication. This is because I have firsthand experience with PTSD and medication. Meds can help to mask the symptoms of PTSD, but they tend to pose a completely new set of issues. And once off the medication, the original issues, that I thought I had overcome, came back in full