Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms, Risks and Treatment

send off-Traumatic puree ail Symptoms, Risks and handlingPost-Traumatic Stress DisorderBryan HinesAbstr numeralPosttraumatic Stress Disorder is a rattling(prenominal) dangerous intellectual wellness condition. It put ins a neat m each an(prenominal) people who dumbfound been victims of traumatic points that change their fall outlook on living and the world around them. The purpose of this paper is to provide basic perceptivity to the disorder, the lay on the line factors, symptoms, and sermon options used by the many trained professionals to take to heart people with posttraumatic stress disorder.Keywords posttraumatic stress disorder, Cognitive Therapy, Exposure Therapy, Eye faeces desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), encroaching(prenominal) memories.Post-Traumatic Stress DisorderPost-Traumatic Stress Disorder (posttraumatic stress disorder) is defined as a mental health condition thats triggered by a terrifying solvent by either witnessing it or experiencin g it. According to Dr. Matthew Friedman, Ph.D, M.D., Individuals nominate only ready posttraumatic stress disorder if they hold up been exposed to a traumatic slip. As operationalized in the DSM-IV (2) and immortalisen in Tcapable 1 (as the A1 criterion), traumatic pillowcases involve actual or menaceened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of iodineself or others. (Friedman, 2000). Post-Traumatic Stress is non new to us.For or so, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is mainly associated with legions veterans and active profession soldiers who deliver been deployed to a combat z ane and have been involved in or have witnessed very traumatic way outs. However, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder does non just shanghai military members. It can affect first responders, such as Police, Fire Fighters, and hospital Emergency populate staff. People who have been in natural disasters such as floods, tornados, hurricanes, Tsunamis, to give a few can in lik e manner be inflicted with PTSD. PTSD can and does affect a great many people.There is a difference, however, from PTSD and severe stress. Not every mavin is tractable to PTSD. Many who experience a traumatic event or an organicly stressful event practically later a few months have no further plans or dreams round the event. PTSD refers to the individuals who have these symptoms for a prolonged period and for those who may never lose these symptoms. The hard part is to identify these symptoms and serving those who need dish but do non believe they have problems. The key is world able to identify these symptoms.SymptomsThe symptoms argon grouped into four types harmonize to the mayo Clinic. The first is peeping memories. Intrusive memories involve reliving the event again as if it were happening all over again in the present. Having hap memories of the event over and over again and not being able to take a crap a appearance from it. Intrusive memories also overwhelm having recurring dreams rough the event as we all have seen in movies where the individual moved(p) by these dreams and seems to be reliving these events in the dreams. Intrusive memories also include being very turned on(p) and distressed around something that inspires them of the event. Anything could trigger this reaction in some genius. A original noise or surroundings, something someone says which may have followred prior to the event or during the event could trigger these intrusive memories.Avoidance, is exactly what it implies. Some people go to extremes to vacate anything that bequeath remind them or trigger anything that lead remind them of the event. Often going miles out of their mien, when it involves and accident they witnessed or were in, to avoid bringing up the disconfirming im eras in their minds. They will avoid people they knew for many years, because they remind them of the incident or event.For those who have driven on the streets of Iraq, they ar practically very assured of their surroundings when driving even when they get back home. If closely observed, one can see the anxiety and the head on a pivot motion of these individuals, where they look rapidly and in all directions. They become very anxious when they see debris on the side of the road or new construction, or even dead animals in the middle of the road, practically slowing down or avoiding the spot all together. Negative changes in thinking and mood argon often the most obvious signs of PTSD but sure as shooting not the only signs. These changes deal with how the person perceives themselves. They have lost self-worth, and see very little hope into the future. They have problems transaction with loved ones and often fail to have or remain in a relationship for any length of time. This may be because they no longish feel anything emotionally. In efficiency to feel love, or affection toward anyone or anything. They once loved to do things and now have no tru st to do anything they once did, such as sports or socializing. They do not see the point of doing anything because they have no desire to or have no thought about the future. They often have memory issues, peculiarly when it comes to the traumatic event. Emotional reactions, or as they are often called, stimulation Symptoms (AS), include difficulty sleeping, concentrating on little things, anxiousness or extreme angst, always on guard as in the example above. Individuals will always be looking for something to happen, and can be easily scared or startled, which may bring along with it a very negative and destructive reaction. This is caused by irritability, anger, and outbursts or aggressive mien, which are prominent emotional reactions in those that are affect by PTSD. The severity and frequency of these symptoms are dependent on the nature and severity of the traumatic event and the ability of the person to have it off with these emotions.Risk FactorsRisk factors vary with respect to the individual. Theses certain risk factors include family history of mental illness, depending on age what childishness years were like, what living was like prior to traumatic event, having other mental or health issues, and of course how often one is exposed to traumatic events. Being exposed repeatedly to these types of risk factors has a of import effect on whether one develops PTSD. However, if a person has strong support agreement of family, friends, and trained psychiatric personnel significantly diminishes the effects that these stressors have on a person, and can often help to ward off significant stress and the potential to develop a stress disorder. For some, however, no social occasion how often we are able to talk to someone, these events can trigger a reaction from any event in the past. According to Dr. Friedman physical attributes also play a part in PTSD, he states Abnormalities in humour structure and function have been demonstrated in PTSD patien ts. In three independent laboratories, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has shown reduced hippocampal batch among male and female PTSD patients who had been exposed to combat trauma, sexual sharpshoot or motor vehicle accidents (Friedman, 2000). If identified then one should dribble that identification of such findings could result in identifying potential PTSD issues in individuals attempting to join the military, first responders, and even those jobs which are susceptible to higher stressors. This could check into some rather serious discussions into what would be legal into prescreening candidates for certain positions. provided that is a different subject. If risk factors are pre-identified then it should be assertable for those individuals to obtain the necessary treatment to and to learn strategies to manage their stress levels.Women according to the Veterans Administration are more in all probability to succumb to chronic PTSD than their male counterparts. Which is pro bably the result of women being more at liberalisation with talking about their concerns and thoughts and seeking treatment. Men are less apparent to do so. It is also noteworthy that recent openings of combat jobs in the military has exposed women to more stressful and traumatic events than in previous years. coupled with the fact that women more likely the victims of sexual assault, or at least more likely to report it, than men are. According to studies 34% of women will experience some sort of sexual assault in their life history both as adults and as children. Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with PTSD as men are.Children are especially susceptible for obvious reasons, especially in their younger years since they have not built up the cognitive skills required to deal with such stressors as child abuse, sexual molestation, being neglected, the death of a parent or sibling, or domestic violence. Younger children are often susceptible when one or both parents have PTS D and would possibly suffer the alike consequences as they grow older because the neural development occurs faster when children are at a younger age and is determined by their experiences. wide exposure to this type of trauma at such an early age can change the development of the brain and cause major persecute to the mental state of a child.It has been shown that the elderly also are at risk for PTSD. There a few reasons for this. One reason is that with age cognitive function is diminished somewhat. With this declining function it becomes more difficult to cope with stressors that occur during this period of time. The fact is that elderly people feel a decreased role in society as they are often pushed aside for younger people in the workforce and often multiplication in to nursing homes when they reach a certain age. These health problems show us that we are slowly but surely withering away, which is a depressing thought. Our desire to feel needed is also affected as we get o lder. Children often become too busy to visit, or have others take care of their aging parents and relatives. Money also is an added stressor for the elderly. It is quite often the case that once the retirement age is reached financial income is not the resembling as it used to be, and the ability to create more income is extremely difficult. The court of medications from chronic illness, which normally increase as we get older. Even if one prepares for retirement, it is a burden to live within means based upon a fixed income and having no means of adding income to counter rise of medication dn health care costs, insurance, and growing living costs.Military personnel and first responders are at an increased risk for PTSD simply based upon the operational purlieu that they may find themselves in. For the military the constant stress of daily life of being combat situations plays a tremendous role on the psyche. The images and horrors of war, having been viewed or seen can have an extreme traumatic effect on ones mental state. These exposures are often the major cause of PTSD in military veterans. First responders also have to deal with very gruesome events when responding to accidents, shootings, or just death in general. It is quite doable that just one event could trigger PTSD. Even while be in this type of environment, the individual can show signs and symptoms and need to be diagnosed and treated as soon as possible.There is increased risk for all of these different groups when these individuals have dealt with some sort of traumatic event in the past or have other mental health issues that may make them more susceptible to a new traumatic event. Without a strong support system many of these individuals will certainly be more at risk to succumb to PTSD. Delayed diagnosing makes treatment more difficult. There are numerous treatment options acquirable depending on what stage the individual is in and what severity the traumatic event occurred.TreatmentA lthough on that point are many potential treatments for PTSD, the primary treatment is psychotherapy. In some cases medication may be prescribed to see with the therapy and will be combined to economic aid the more extreme or difficult cases.Exposure therapy is a behavioral treatment for PTSD. For PTSD patients it targets the behavior that the patient has learned in order to deal with the traumatic event. or so often this deals with avoidance. In this treatment type, these individuals are asked to try and recount the traumatic event, without the trauma of the event, with hope that new learning via extinction will occur and allow the patient to hinder the effects of the traumatic thoughts versus eradicating them entirely.Cognitive therapy attention the person by allowing them or giving them a new way to deal with the detrimental thoughts they are having about the traumatic event and to help them understand the event or events that took place. It helps by showing how the event c hanged the thought process of how they view the world, people, and themselves. The way we see things and what we perceive to be straight has been skewed by the traumatic event. By learning about the symptoms, the way they view things and the way they feel, and understanding how the event changed what they believe in, cognitive therapy arms the person with a new way of dealing with this trauma.Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) according to the mayonnaise Clinic, combines exposure therapy with a series of manoeuvre eye movements that help you process traumatic memories and change how you react to traumatic memories. (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). EMDR is a therapy based upon physiology and helps a person see, in a uniform way to what they see during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, these disturbing events in a new and less troublesome or traumatic way. after(prenominal) going through the session EMDR a patient should no longer view these events in a similar view tha t they had prior to the therapy session. The event will still be in memory, however, how the patient views the event should be less traumatic for them.Pharmacotherapy is another approach to dealing with PTSD. While most drugs cannot remove symptoms they can offer assistance in dealing and act with them. Antidepressants, anti-anxiety, and other drugs that assist with sleep issues may be prescribed. Pharmacotherapy should not be viewed as a primary treatment. According to The Journal of Behavioral wellness Services Research, While rst-line pharmacotherapy for PTSD, depression, and anxiety/panic disorder is a SSRI, consensus statements recommend that patients with PTSD also have specialized MH counseling, with structured cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or psychotherapy, as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. (73521271)Patients requiring drugs to assist in the treatment of PTSD should ensure that a list of accredited medications is provided to their therapist in order to pre scribe proper medication and avoid negative interaction.SummaryPosttraumatic stress can affect anyone at any given moment. Exposure to any type of traumatic event could dress off previous events that have been buried in the past. As we get older we develop new ways to avoid thinking about certain events that have occurred in our lives. If we are no longer fazed by the event after a few months then it would not be classified as PTSD, rather a stressful event that was traumatic. If another event triggered a more significant and longer immutable effect, then it would be considered PTSD. For those of us who have seen PTSD and have cognize or have had traumatic events may recognize the symptoms. Even if there is any doubt, the first thing one should do is to let the person know that there is no shame in getting assistance and we are all there for them. It is essential to have a great support group and it is even more essential that the one affected by a traumatic event knows there is help and support. We are often too ashamed or unaware of what we do, or how we act unless someone else points it out to us. The key here is to know the signs and symptoms and then do something about it.ReferencesMeltzer, E., Averbuch, T., Samet, J., Saitz, R., Jabbar, K., Lloyd-travaglini, C., Liebschutz, J. (2012). Discrepancy in Diagnosis and Treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Treatment for the Wrong Reason. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services Research, 39(2). (2012, April 1). Retrieved frightful 10, 2014.Yehuda, R. (1999). Biological Factors Associated With Susceptibility to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 44(1), 34-39. (1999, January 1). 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