Post-Trauma Stress Disorder - Essay Example

The Running Head: Stress     Your name:   Course name:             Professors’ name: Date: Post-Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD) Post-Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a disorder caused by experiences with terrifying or susceptible events such as war, rape, natural disasters, car or plane crash, kidnapping, brutal attack, sexual or physical violence. The main symptoms of PTSD include; depression and helplessness have endurance guilty, seclusion, fury, hostile, anxiety reactions and invasive feelings. Even though PTSD does affect war veterans, it can have an effect on anyone. Approximately 70 percent of Americans are exposed to a distressing event in their lifetime and therefore many people are susceptible to this kind of a disorder (Brewin & Valentine 2000). PTSD is behaviors or behavioral patterns exhibited by an individual that are not in line with normal development. Identification and comprehension of mental illness has changed in the course of time and across various cultures. Psychological disorders are perceived as disorders in the brain’s circuits caused by an individual’s genetics and experiences. Diagnoses of psychological disorders are made by psychiatrists or clinical psychologists based on various tests and most often by observation and questionnaires designed to give a result that will make a valid diagnosis (Brewin & Valentine 2000). Psychological disorders are not caused by one single thing but mostly a combination of several factors. Early theories of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder were largely based on individuals who lived in place were environment is positive and was exposed to a series of events within a period of time, for example sexual assault, disaster and military service. So a series of traumatic events signified a dramatic disruption of pre trauma on the victim’s life. Studies have been carried out and this model does not fit well most PSTD victims, for example victims who have experienced ongoing trauma seem to be dramatically worse than those victims who have experienced discrete traumatic events in the context of otherwise normal development of the victim of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Some researchers have suggested that a separate term be used on the level of person suffering from PTSD, thus, victims will be better described such as complex PTSD or extreme stress (Brewin & Valentine 2000). When some of these processes are not functioning normally people tend to develop serious mental disorders. Some of the mental disorders can be treated using drugs and a person has to live with the drugs the rest of their lives otherwise the disorder will just come back. Other conditions however can be cured with therapy and medication. Psychological disorders are however very sensitive and anything in the environment can trigger the disorder back into action. This is why psychological patients are usually separated from the outside world. Secondary preventive measures that have been used in the past to reduce the likelihood of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among the victims who have been exposed to traumatic stress could be utilized, so that an early intervention models that target processes associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) risk. Fighting PTSD calls for an early treatment because symptoms may be bad, hence dealing with them at premature stage helps to reduce the effects in future. By finding a professional therapist Recovery process of PTSD victims is necessary, not all the assaults victims will develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), if the trauma the victim undergoes after the incident is dealt with quickly, the severity of the victim’s reactions for the assault may be eased, and the risk of developing PTSD is reduced. Therapy will help the victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) reopen channels of feeling that may have been repressed, thus they will be able to manage the impact of invasive (flashbacks) activities that the victim may have experienced in the past (Brewin & Valentine 2000). Primary preventive measures of PTSD would involve reducing series of traumatic events, the most frequent types of these traumatic events have been widely found to be exposure to combat, assaults, accidents, criminal violence, drug abuse and disasters; although some traumatic stressors are beyond human beings control, for example earthquakes. Action at the individual, family, community and the country levels could reduce the exposure to many forms of traumatic stress that affects various persons in the community. It will even have an impact of even uncontrollable traumatic stressors such as earthquakes or floods on the general population. Various policies can be formulated including building and transportation safety, crime preventions, domestic violence prevention and international diplomacy. For those victims that have experience civil conflict, massacre, political repression or other chronic violence. In such settings of collective trauma, it is better to look beyond an individual when considering the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and strategies for intervention and preventions. For example, in political repression experience in a country, PTSD will not only affect an individual but also the society at large. In some cases, this process is called stressors; symptoms of stress can be mental or physical and it varies to in different individuals. The physical signs are dry mouth, heartbeat, trouble breathing and stiff muscles that may cause pain and shaking. Hence, post-trauma stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder caused by experiences with terrifying or susceptible events such as war, rape, natural disasters, car or plane crash, kidnapping, brutal attack, sexual or physical violence. The main symptoms of PTSD include; depression and helplessness have endurance guilty, seclusion, fury, hostile, anxiety reactions and invasive feelings. Even though PTSD does affect war veterans, it can have an effect on anyone. Approximately 70 percent of Americans are exposed to a distressing event in their lifetime and therefore many people are susceptible to this kind of a disorder. In conclusion, PTSD victims require psychological counseling and treatment for a person to get better. People feel embarrassed when others find out that they have had a mental disorder in the past or are currently going for counseling. Messing with a person’s mind is very tricky and you can either make or break that person for life (Brewin & Valentine 2000). Psychosomatic illness Psychosomatic illness is a disorder whereby the physical symptoms are caused by psychological factors such as: fear, anxiety, depression and sadness, which are expressed in physical form, or a disorder that will involve both the person mind and body. In other words, this illness in a person suffering from it may be emotional or mental in origin but having physical symptoms. This illness is not imaginary one, it usually have both emotions and thought patterns and usually play a central role, and most of the time this illness will develop when a person disease-fighting ability is weak due to that person suffering from stress. For example, after going through stressful event, like the loss of a loved one, a person may develop high blood pressure shortly afterwards, while to another person in the same situation he/she may develop peptic ulcer or a series of asthma attacks. A third person, equally grief stricken might not fall sick at all (Kivimäki 2002). Psychosomatic illness are not faked illness, individuals suffering from these illnesses often require treatment for underlying psychological root. Unfortunately many individual in the country suffering from these illnesses resist psychological counseling as one way of treatment, believing this discounts illnesses. Although these illness at most cases will respond to drugs and other medical help, symptoms in an individual suffering from psychosomatic illness will recur unless the underlying cause is treated. If not, this illness will crop up every time and individual goes through a particularly stressful time. In this case, symptoms of psychosomatic illnesses will subside on their own when and individual stress levels fall. Psychosomatic illnesses are caused by a number of factors, such as: loss of a job, or cyclic pressures at work, an individual undergoing emotional stress might make an existing illness to be worse, this is because psychological stress in an individual will reduce the effectiveness of the immune system, lower energy level of that individual and at same time exacerbate a weakening condition. In some cases psychosomatic illness can happen in reverse. For example, an individual who is suffering from a chronic sickness- cancer or tuberculoses, the person will be dealing with intense pain and this will lead the victim to be susceptible to depression. Pain in an individual for a long time has been known to cause psychological illness, this is because the body of an individual will have trouble trying to deal with the pain and the mind responds (Kivimäki 2002). Depression is another cause of psychosomatic illness, this is because depression in an individual will induce symptoms even if that individual doesn’t look depressed- in psychology, they call it hidden depression (Kivimäki 2002). There are two levels in which psychosomatic illness can be treated: global and specific. On the global side, situations that induce somatization must be managed, for example, stress, good communication; self assurance will help an individual to prevent accumulation of disorders. Therapy for psychosomatic illnesses can range from medication to counseling, but some individuals will deal with psychosomatic disorders for the rest of their lives while other people can overcome this disorder on their own will or with the help of counseling with a trusted psychiatrist. If an individual is suffering from psychosomatic illness, his first task he/she should do is to contact a professional doctor to discuss his/her options, which will be determined by the severity of the physical manifestation of the psychosomatic illness. An individual suffering from this illness may want to consider taking medications to alleviate whatever emotional feeling and individual is experiencing; if an individual is able to stop the emotional and mental aspects, the physical problems of that individual will disappear as well. in some cases psychiatric professionals will consider some disease such as anorexia to be psychosomatic. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is another example such as those suffer in 9/11 terrorist attack, because these victims, their traumatic experiences are too difficult for the individual mind to handle alone what happened on that day. An individual suffering from psychosomatic disorders should not be handled alone, in other words, only an individual will be able to be in a position to tell when he/she needs medical attention if he/she is suffering from psychosomatic disorders, but at same time an individual should not allow situation like PTSD or any other form of psychosomatic disorders rule his/her life; they should be able to take control of their life by involving professional in tackling their problem (Kivimäki 2002). In conclusion, Work related stress should be avoided at all cost, job demand control support model is recognized as a reliable tool that can be used to assess stress in employees; this tool should be employed in the work place. Job insecurity and unemployment are some of risk factors which are associated with increase psychological disease conditions. To manage stress in an individual should remain focus even when tackling a problem. People should go for regular health examination because prevention is better than cure. Combination of anxiety reduction program and cognitive techniques should be adopted; anxieties in an individual should be eliminated by behavior elements which drive it. Lastly, love, attention and warmth should be given to individual suffering from psychosomatic illness. This is because in this busy world, people often do not get enough attentions, love from their loved ones; the mind of an individual is made in such a way will use illness as a way to get attention and love. As soon as an individual fall sick, family member should give extra attention and care to such persons (Kivimäki 2002). Reference List Brewin, C.R., Andrews, B., & Valentine, J.D. (2000). Meta-analysis of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder in trauma-exposed adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 748-766. Kivimäki M. (2002). Work stress and risk of cardiovascular mortality: prospective cohort study of industrial employees. BMJ. 2002. pp. 325–857. Read More