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Ptsd

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Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Throughout the years our military has fought to protect our freedom. Soldiers risk their lives every day to protect ours. To this day we still have an active presence in countries all around the world and we are known as a nation “at war.” Those soldiers who fight for our freedom overseas are now facing a problem on their own homeland. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (also known as PTSD) is something that happens to our soldiers after experiencing a traumatic event such as combat. We should be providing our soldiers with every possible treatment and option out there if it will help them. Currently it is reported that about 1 in 8 soldiers returning from war have PTSD. There are no real cures for this …show more content…

It is where a loud noise can instantly trigger a memory and the patient has an immediate response. Last of all the criterion is the duration. To determine if the diagnosis should be PTSD, symptoms must occur for a specified amount of time. In the first formula set in 1980, the duration was six months, which has now been cut to one month in the revision (Friedman). These criterion help psychologists determine if someone has PTSD and what sort of treatment to pursue. According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, there has only been one real treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder [aside from everyday antidepressants]: cognitive behavioral therapy. It allows the patient to express feelings about what happened during the event, such as war, and to try and realize that they are no longer in that reality and try to understand the trauma and what it has done. This therapy only allows soldiers and other patients to talk about how they are feeling; it does not provide any physical or bodily alterations. A new treatment that is not yet readily accessible is medicinal marijuana for soldiers suffering from PTSD. Even though the drug is still illegal and classified as a Schedule I substance, Senate Bill 281 has been moved to the Senate floor by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill would allow people with PTSD to have medical marijuana (Wong). DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young says:

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