Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - Term Paper Example

? 5 May Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Introduction Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder. This emotional illness builds up as a consequence of an individual’s experience of a life-threatening, frightening or generally unsafe event. Victims of the PTSD experience the trauma when they come across people, things, or images that are related to the stressful event in some way. In an attempt to reduce the suffering, patients of the PTSD tend to avoid such people and things. PTSD is very common among the soldiers who have either experienced trauma or have caused harm to others as the requirement of their job. “Post-traumatic stress disorder, once a poorly understood and little-known mental health problem, is turning up on the public's radar a lot more as growing numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans seek treatment for the illness” (Elias). Patients of the PTSD are extremely sensitive to life experiences that are usual for others. Although people have been suffering from traumas for different reasons throughout the history, yet it was not recognized as PTSD until 1980. In the earlier times, it was referred to as differently. For example, the combat veterans in the American Civil War were thought to suffer from the “soldier’s heart”. People who displayed symptoms consistent with this condition during the First World War were called as “combat fatigue”. Soldiers who showed similar symptoms during the Second World War were thought to suffer from “gross stress reaction”. Likewise, troops suffering from PTSD in Vietnam were said to experience the “post-Vietnam syndrome”. Names that have frequently been used for PTSD include “shell shock” and “battle fatigue”. Prolonged exposure of an individual to a particular traumatic event or a series of traumatic events has long-lasting impacts on the individual’s psychology, and affects his/her social and emotional behavior. Sadness and anxiety are common effects of a traumatic experience. They wear off with time and an individual starts enjoying life as usual. However, there are certain times when an individual finds the trauma so overwhelming that he/she cannot come out of it. The individual keeps experiencing a continuous stream of painful memories and danger which does not fade. That is when he/she is said to suffer from the PTSD. Causes of PTSD People generally associate PTSD with soldiers that are emotionally scarred as a result of participating in battles. A vast majority of men suffering from PTSD have participated in a military combat, though the condition of PTSD can result from any experience in life that is too overwhelming, unpredictable, and uncontrollable for an individual to bear. PTSD can affect all people who have witnessed the traumatic experience one way or the other. PTSD affects people who have personally participated in the event, people who have been affected by the event, the law enforcement officers, and the emergency workers who reach the battlefield to collect pieces. Not only the people immediately involved in the traumatic event are exposed to the risk of developing the PTSD, but also others that are associated or related with them in some way may suffer from the PTSD. PTSD takes different durations to start in different cases. Accordingly, the duration for which it lasts also varies from one case to another. In certain cases, people develop PTSD in few hours or days after experiencing the traumatic event. In other cases, symptoms of the PTSD may take months or years to show up. Traumatic events which are the most common causes of the PTSD include but are not limited to experience of participation in a war or battle, natural disaster including flood pr drought, car or plane accidents, terrorist attacks, rape, sexual abuse, bullying, immediate death of a relative or friend, kidnapping, assault, bullying, incest, and neglect during childhood. Symptoms of PTSD The symptoms of PTSD may show up immediately following the traumatic event or may take some time to become evident. Sometimes, people do not develop PTSD immediately after the traumatic event until another event that reminds them of the pain and sufferings of the original traumatic event happens. This triggers the memories and flashes of the first trauma in the mind so that they become fresh, thus increasing the individual’s risk to suffer from PTSD. The condition of PTSD can even result from a noise or smell which is associated with the traumatic event. Sometimes, when the patients cannot free themselves of the effects of PTSD for a long time, they tend to return to the military to give themselves another chance. “Returning military are often young men and women who have experienced the most stressful situations where there lives were under constant threat for months at a time” (Mason). Although symptoms of the PTSD vary from one case to another, three general kinds of symptoms of PTSD are as follows: 1. The individual re-experiences the painful event, 2. The individual tries to avoid anything that reminds him/her of the trauma. 3. The individual experiences emotional arousal and anxiety. Patients of PTSD experience upsetting memories related to the traumatic event. They tend to feel that the event is reoccurring. They see, smell, and taste accordingly. The patients see nightmares. They revisit the traumatic event in their dreams. When they are reminded of the trauma, they become very depressed. There are also involuntary physical reactions to the event’s reminders. The reactions include but are not limited to pounding heart, muscle tension, rapid breathing, sweating, and nausea. Other physical effects of PTSD include reduction in the size of hippocampus which is a region inside the brain whose role is to protect and enhance human memory. “This is significant in understanding the effects of trauma in general and the impact of PTSD, specifically since the hippocampus is the part of the brain that is thought to have an important role in developing new memories about life events” (“Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” 2). In an attempt to avoid the feeling of depression and anxiety that overcomes the patient as he/she is reminded of the traumatic experience, the individual tries to avoid such places, activities, feelings, and thoughts which revive the experience’s memories in the individual’s mind. The individual is not able to remember significant aspects related to the trauma. The individual loses interest in life as well as all sorts of activities. The individual feels emotionally numb and disconnected from others. There is an overpowering sensation of limited future in that the individual does not expect that he/she can live a normal life in which he/she may get married and take his career to the next level. The symptoms of PTSD related to emotional arousal and anxiety in the patient include lack of sleep, sudden and unexpected anger outbursts, reduced ability to concentrate, and high level of neuroticism. There are certain myths about PTSD, one of them being that the effects of PTSD are only psychological. It is indeed, a biologically-based disorder that has a proper body response system. PTSD also triggers an individual’s chances of acquiring chronic diseases that apparently have no connection with anxiety and depression. “Vietnam veterans with PTSD but no heart disease in their mid-30s were twice as likely as veterans without PTSD to die of heart disease by their 50s, shows a new study by psychologist Joseph Boscarino of the Geisinger Health System in Danville” (Elias). This is equal to the risk of dying from a heart disease for a smoker who smokes up to three packs of cigarettes daily for a period of 20 years. PTSD also causes the patients to experience sexual problems. A significant percentage i.e. from 63 per cent to 80 per cent of the combat veterans suffering from PTSD experience sexual issues. The risk of erectile dysfunction is much more in the combat troops suffering from PTSD than other men. The causes of erectile dysfunction in these combat troops may be either emotional or biological or both. Some patients tend not to sleep with their spouses in the same rooms because of the nightmares they frequently experience. Treatment Options for the Patients of PTSD While there are several treatment options available for the patients of PTSD, it cannot be altogether prevented. Soldiers are intensely trained to face extremely threatening and traumatic experiences, and yet after years of training, many of them experience PTSD at some point in time in their life. Some of the most common treatment options include cognitive behavioral therapy, medication, family therapy, and a technique called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). In the cognitive behavioral therapy, the therapist slowly and gradually exposes the patient to the feelings, thoughts, and situations which remind him/her of the traumatic experience. The cognitive behavioral therapy also includes reviving those thoughts which are irrational and distorted in the patient’s mind so that the grey areas can be colored up to build a more balanced image of the trauma. Sometimes, patient of PTSD needs a family therapy since the effects of PTSD are not limited to the patient alone but also extend to the family members of the patient. The family therapy provides the family members with an opportunity to actually know what their loved one is going through. It improves the communication among the family members and reduces the confusions in relationships caused by the suffering from PTSD of one of the family members. Clinicians commonly prescribe medicine to the patients of PTSD to reduce the effects of secondary symptoms of anxiety and depression. Medicines commonly prescribed as antidepressants include Zoloft and Prozac. These antidepressants are effective for alleviation of the feelings of grief and sadness, yet they are not effective for the eradication of the causes of PTSD. These days, psychiatrists and researchers are prescribing a party drug for the treatment of veterans experiencing the PTSD. The drug’s name is methylenedioxymethamphetamine. According to the scientists, methylenedioxymethamphetamine creates an effect of inhibiting the fear response to trauma. “It's basically like years of therapy in two or three hours. You can't understand it until you've experienced it. It's an extremely positive thing. I feel so lucky that I got to take part in the project” (Ranger cited in Rutherford). The treatment of PTSD with methylenedioxymethamphetamine is different from that with other kinds of drugs. “It's not going to be a normal prescription drug like the antidepressants. It's only going to be administered under therapist supervision. Patients would be required to spend the night in the facility. It's not like cannabis. Our approach is catharsis, enhancing the psychotherapeutic interchange. We want patients to integrate their trauma into their normal lives” (Doblin cited in Rutherford). Works Cited: Elias, Marilyn. “Post-traumatic stress is a war within for military and civilians.” USA Today. 27 Oct. 2008. Web. 5 May 2012. . Mason, L John. “PTSD: Emergency Responders and Military Personnel - Caring for Our Heroes.” 18 Feb. 2009. Web. 5 May 2012. . “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.” 2012. Web. 5 May 2012. . Rutherford, Mark. “Ecstasy treatment draws rave reviews.” 7 Mar. 2009. Web. 5 May 2012. . Read More