Essay Preview: Ptsd
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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious and often chronic psychiatric disorder that develops in a significant minority of trauma survivors. The disorder is characterized by repeated intrusion into the consciousness of painful traumatic memories, accompanied by persistently increased arousal. The numbing of emotional responsiveness and active avoidance of reminders are central features, particularly in more chronic forms of the disorder. PTSD is associated with significant distress, as well as social and occupational impairment. (163
I joined the U.S. army in Jan 2001 I join my unit at 101st airborne ,after I got to my unit Sept 11 2001 happened and my unit my unit and unit was the only two units first to be sent out to Afghanistan. In Afghanistan I had taken lives there but every person in our company came back alive. After a I came back I was asked to join the Scouts and join the snipers. Shortly after I made the team the war in Iraq was starting so we were shipped and sent to Iraq. In Iraq after the war was considered over it was a different ball game then Afghanistan we asked to be peacekeepers and we didnt know if the civilian were peaceful innocent civilians or if the werent. When it was all said and down it had been a little over a year by this time I had take several more lives lost two of best friend and had actually see them die while we were trying to stay alive ourselves.
When we had come back we had month leave and I went home for the first time. Being home was surreal I always was on my guard constantly looking to see wear my weapon was, I was as lively as friends and family I said I once was. I also had a never slept at night constantly pacing around checking out the window. When would rise I would eventually fall asleep with and wake up three to four hours later. When I was in a crowd like church or at a party I was more aware paranoid and suspicious of people even though I was with people I had know for years. I was more comfortable being by myself.
Then after I was back in my unit I had eight months left on my contract of being home the dreams started happening. These dreams were happening during what little sleep I was forcing myself to get. In these dreams I would relive the stuff that I was involved in over again. In other scenarios my buddies that died I would be in his body reliving the entire thing over again. These dreams only would happened once a week then more and more frequently to the point that whenever I caught what little sleep that I would receive It was spent reliving my past in over and over again but in more horrendous way.
There are few treatments for PTSD the treatments for PTSD for war veterans are:
1. Psychoeducation-is the education of a person in subject areas that serve the goals of treatment and rehabilitation. Psychoeducation involves teaching people about their problem, how to treat it, and how to recognize signs of relapse so that they can get necessary treatment before their difficulty worsens or occurs again. Family psychoeducation includes teaching coping strategies and problemsolving skills to families, friends, and/or caregivers to help them deal more effectively with the individual.
2.Stabilization and Engagement-Good clinical practice would dictate that the therapists first concern should be stabilization prior to the commencement of interventions directed specifically at PTSD. If the veteran, for example, is actively suicidal or homicidal, is in the midst of a major psychosocial crisis, or requires practical assistance with concerns such as personal safety or accommodation, those issues should be addressed as a matter of priority before embarking on treatment.
3. Stress-inoculation training (SIT) – This is often a useful first step in treatment. Strategies would often target each domain of the presenting symptom profile, including physiological components (e.g., relaxation, controlled breathing, aerobic exercise), cognitive components (e.g., self statements, distraction, thought stopping), and behavioral components (e.g., daily-activity scheduling, social reintegration).
4. Prolonged Exposure-the traumatic memories is often considered essential for long-term recovery from trauma. Widely used in the management of anxiety disorders for many years, PE constitutes a central component of successful treatments for PTSD, and a large body of empirical research supports the efficacy of this approach in both civilian and veteran populations. “working