Post Traumatic Stress Therapy

“My mind is on fire as I fear that any second, another enemy round will rip into my body and finish me off” (Johnson 2). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) effects the lives of many soldiers after returning home from war. PTSD is a psychiatric condition described in the DSM-IV as, a condition that requires a specific event to have occurred as a criterion for the diagnosis. The criteria for this disorder, according to the book Combat Trauma, can include flashbacks, times where you feel as if you are reliving the traumatic event, shame or guilt, upsetting dreams about the traumatic event, trying to avoid thinking or talking about the traumatic event, feeling emotionally numb or not feeling at all, anger or irritability, poor or destructive relationships, self-destructive behavior, trouble sleeping, memory problems, hallucinations, not enjoying activities you one enjoyed and feeling as if you no longer know who is living your day-to-day life.

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).

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

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

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.

“Part of the torture is that the burden of guilt feels unending because you cannot undo the past” (Matsakis 119). In the book, Survivors Guilt by Aphrodite Matsakis, Ph. D, where Matsakis depicts what and why living with PTSD is unbearable. Matsakis explains that guilt is the root of PTSD. There is a never ending list of things to be guilty about after leaving a war, mainly; wishing you could get the health back of the injured, get back the lives that were taken and closure with soldiers you thought could have been saved. If the thoughts of these things could have closure and be let go, the survivor’s guilt would be surrendered. The quote, “Guilt demands punishment” (119), explains in such simple terms of why the root of PTSD is guilt. If the guilt is released, then the negative thoughts, feelings of hatred, anger and “what ifs” would all disappear.

To effectively treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD in combat Veterans and service members, therapists use different techniques, which are preceded by addressing any underlying pain associated with the disorder. In their research, Chard et al. (2011) reported significant modifications to the CPT protocol for use with patients in a TBI-PTSD residential treatment facility, including increasing the number of sessions per week, combining group and individual therapy, and augmenting the treatment with cognitive rehabilitation. However, their research was marred with the use of few participants which provides doubts regarding the outcome of the proposed treatment procedures. Moreover, the researchers do not state with certainty as to the

PTSD affects everyone differently, so developing a treatment plan that works best may take time. The most common types of treatment include psychotherapy and medication. Psychotherapy for PTSD usually lasts from six to twelve weeks before symptoms resolve depending on the individual. There are various forms of psychotherapy, but the most common form used to treat PTSD is cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is used to help identify the triggers of symptoms and how to manage the symptoms. Cognitive behavioral therapy includes both exposure therapy and cognitive restructuring. Exposure therapy helps people face and learn to control their fear. For this type of therapy, people are gradually exposed to the trauma they experienced in a safe clinical setting by using imagining, by writing, and by physically visiting the place where the trauma occurred. Cognitive restructuring, on the other hand, helps people make sense of the bad memories related to the trauma and helps people look at what happened in a realistic way. The type of medication used for treating PTSD includes antidepressants. Antidepressants are prescribed to help control PTSD symptoms such as worry, anger, or sadness (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”, 2016). Symptom reappearance and intensification can occur in response to reminders of the original trauma, ongoing stressors, or new traumatic events. For older individuals, factors such as declining health, worsening cognitive function, and social isolations may worsen PTSD symptoms (American Psychiatric Association,

Various models have been developed to explain the memory and concentration problems manifested by patients affected by post traumatic stress disorder. These models relate the cognitive problems with these patients with the changes in the brain structures that function in learning and memory. The first model is described as fear structure, whereby the brain of the affected individuals become programmed to process information associated with the threatening experience and subsequent physiological, physical and behavioral responses. Another information processing model is based on cognitive theory, with an assumption that the disorder progresses only if a person perceives the traumatic incident in a manner that makes the incident to become threatening after it has taken place. The perception of the trauma as being present results into intrusions and reliving symptoms, anxiety, and over alertness. Subsequently, the affected individual tries to decrease perceptions of the threat through behavioral and cognitive modifications, although these changes further perpetuate the symptoms (Rosen, 2004).

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 project is based on the idea that TF-CBT is more beneficial and has a greater outcome for short-term to long-term benefits than regular therapy sessions and interventions alone. Is a psychosocial treatment model designed to treat posttraumatic stress along with other related emotional and behavioral difficulties in children and adolescents, the concept was originally developed to begin to address the psychological trauma associated with child sexual abuse, but it has since been adapted for use with children who have a wide array of traumatic experiences, including community violence, traumatic loss, and the often multiple psychological traumas experienced by children in foster care placement. (Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy,

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

Throughout all of the poetry, movies, and novels we have watched thus far in the course we have encountered a variety of types of shell shock, or as we call it today Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. We have had a chance to read poems written by Siegfried Sassoon Wilfred Owen who both spent time at Craiglockhart, a well-known mental hospital in Scotland, for suffering from symptoms of shell shock. We also had a chance to see for what shell shock was like during World War I when we watched a small series about it and got to see that it consisted of odd ways of walking, stammering, mutism, blindness, and so on. Through reading novels such as Regeneration, Return of the Soldier, and Mrs. Dalloway we get a chance to see the different types of shell shock and treatments. Furthermore, we get a chance to see how society sees these shell shocked soldiers. At the time shell shock was something new that had come about due to World War I and the treatments were less than ideal and the stigma attached was very real. By using these novels and other sources I will explore shell shock in its entirety by how it’s portrayed in the novels compared to the real thing from symptoms, treatments, to the view society had on it.

Research has demonstrated that a form of psychotherapy known as “cognitive-behavioral therapy” (CBT) can be highly effective in treating anxiety disorders.¨ CBT is used by psychologists to help people find and know to manage the things that cause their anxiety. This therapy calls for abilities to stop the unwanted anxiety and behaviors that come with anxiety. In some therapy sessions for psychologists, they use techniques like deep breathing, relaxation and meditation to help the patient learn to do that on their own and use that when anxiety is present. In therapy patients also learn about anxiety, their story of anxiety and how it applies to having anxiety, as well as how to change the thoughts and worries that contribute to anxiety. When the patient learns all of this from therapy, and applies it to real life after the therapy is over, it helps the patient become more aware and face their anxiety

Two treatment models that are used for survivors of PTSD are Cognitive processing therapy (CPT) and spirituality. The effectiveness of these two treatment models are supported by several resources. Resick (2001) notes that “CPT is a manualized, 12-session, specific form of CBT for PTSD that has a primary focus on cognitive interventions.” The first session of CPT is