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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Page 1 of 13

Taylor Link

Professor Kristina Stutler

COLL300 – Research Paper

December 13, 2016

Abstract

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is considered a condition that is in response to an event the caused trauma, it can be significant or insignificant, but it has prolonged feelings of terror, fear and helplessness. PTSD, and its affects, has a detrimental impact of the lives of the individuals affected with it, as well as their loved one who are trying to support them.  Within this paper, there will be a discussion what PTSD is, including identifying the symptoms being displayed, helping with the diagnosis, and assisting in the treatment plans and assessment of those treatment plans. There will be a review of current practices of the Veterans Administration experts and therapists who have treated returning Soldiers with PTSD. There will be a presentation of arguments in support of the evidence that future clinical research in PTSD resides within the systematic evaluation in the treatment intervention to ensure the most effective treatment is used for each Soldier.

Keywords: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, healthcare, mental health, mental disorders, trauma, veterans

PTSD and Soldiers

Everyone has daily stressors in their lives, it is something that is inevitable and cannot be avoided.  For our military, they may experience a different, more unique, type of stressors that the majority of non-military people will never experience due to their deployment into a combat situation.  The term post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been given to type of stress encountered by Soldiers.  When these Soldiers return from a tour within a combat zone, many times they are not able to reconnect with society in the same fashion as they did prior.  More than not they have some issues with adapting to an environment that does not involve violence on a continuous basis.  These returning Soldiers are not always offered the proper treatment for the inexcusable behaviors displayed on American soil.  Soldiers are not holistically, receiving the care needed to help them return to normal life after a combat tour.   Through psychological analysis studies, care groups, and self-seeking advancements they can overcome PTSD.

Wars have been around since the beginning of time.  Society has been shaped by conflict and fighting for hundreds of years, this fighting is in almost every place on earth, so people have been on both sides of this issue forever.  As we have seen within the past 15 years, for many, war and fighting are a way of life and how they survive.  For the United States, as a whole, war and fighting are not common everyday practice so these past few years of war have taken their toll.  This toll in not just in lives lost, but Soldiers and families not being able to put the pieces back together due to the stresses and strains of constant deployments.

PTSD usually falls into three areas, the first is where the individuals re-experiences the traumatic event either as nightmares, flashbacks, or intrusive and distressing thoughts or as an intense emotional distress or physiological reactivity when something triggers the situation.  The second area is where the individual has symptoms of avoidance of thoughts or feelings that are related to the traumatic event, avoidance of any reminders of the traumatic event, either through amnesia or numbing, avoidance of others, and does not have an interest in past activities.  The last area is where the individual experiences difficulty with sleeping either being able to fall or stay asleep, concentrating, outburst of anger and exaggerated responses to startling noises.

Returning Soldiers go through a thorough health screening upon returning from a deployment.  But the course of PTSD is very different for each person.  On a whole, symptoms usual start right after experiencing the traumatic event, but many have been able to suppress their reaction until much later. Some of the varying symptoms range from acute to chronic, lasting many months to years afterwards.  In addition, symptoms change over time, to where the Soldier can appear to be experiencing no impacts and then one day it hits them like a ton of bricks.  

Upon returning from a deployment, many times family members, co-workers and supervisors see a within returning Soldiers.  Some of these changes are not that severe and will minimize and eventually go away once a reconnection with family, friends and work have occurred.  When your Soldier is no longer showing those living traits that they did prior to deploying, it can become very difficult to feel excited about their return. But then for some Soldiers, and even family members, these changes within themselves do not disappear, they can even become worse and cause disruption within the family unit and at work.  When those symptoms disappear and the old fun-loving self-returns than one know that they are readjusting.  On the other hand, if those symptoms continue or get worse, PTSD is most likely what they are experiencing.  

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