Sentiment Analysis for PTSD Signals - Report Example

Analyzing a Concept Analyzing a Concept PTSD This is a concept used in psychology to refer to the wide range of mental disorders that affect individuals at different levels. For successful understanding of this concept, it is important for a person to understand the underlying attributed of PTSD. This implies that the concept cuts across all levels and ages in human existence. As such, in the analysis of this concept, there are a number of stages that must be taken to provide a full understanding of the idea. The analysis will therefore bring out the meaning or implication of PTSD, the kind of people who are susceptible to this illness, the symptoms associated with the disorder, reactions from different people who are affected by the disorder, the manner in which a psychotherapist can detect the disorder, the way affected people can get help as well as the efforts underway in the reduction of chances of people getting the disorder (Wilson & Thomas, 2004). To begin with, PTSD is an anxiety disorder that individuals get after undergoing a traumatizing event or experience in life. It is important to note that every person can be unease whenever they are in danger. The outcome of this kind of fear is transformations in the body in the event of fighting or preventing the danger from happening (Friedman et al, 2010). However, the changes that occur to the body as a result of PTSD are disastrous and may be permanent depending on the help an individual receives as well as the period taken between the onset of the disorder and finding a remedy to the problem. It is hence critical that such experiences that traumatize people are detected early enough to avoid an impending danger of permanent body change in an individual. On the question of who is susceptible to getting the disorder, it should be noted that no one is impervious to the illness. According to Kagan, Rossini & Sapounas (2012), every individual at any age can get the trauma basing on the level of exposure to traumatizing events in their lives. Good examples of individuals most likely to get PTSD include war veterans, victims and survivors of physical as well as sexual assault, drug use and abuse, disasters like tsunamis or floods among a wide range of bad events that may be found in human life. For an individual to get traumatized, symptoms must be just as fatal as the event which let to the disorder. As a result, there are so far a number of symptoms identified through research as the major indicators of PTSD. These can be grouped into: Re-experiencing symptoms; flashbacks (reliving the traumatic event now and then that may include physical symptoms like increased heart beat or sweating), nightmares, and frightening thoughts emanating from the experience (Kagan, Rossini & Sapounas, 2012). Based on these symptoms, the individual’s normal body function may be altered and this is seen from how they handle the world around them. This implies that they may have a change in their speech, reaction to objects around them as well as incidences that remind them of traumatizing past events. Avoidance symptoms; these include staying away from places or experiences or even activities that remind them of the trauma, numbness, a feeling of guilt or depression, losing interest in activities that were enjoyable in the past before the experience occurred, and having difficulties in remembering what happened in the past. In this case, an individual who had a car accident may choose to avoid any further driving of the car. The third level of symptoms is referred to as hyperarousal symptoms (Wilson & Thomas, 2004). They include being easily startled, tense feelings, or difficulties in getting sleep. These symptoms are normally constant as opposed to being caused by remembering of the traumatizing events. As a result, an individual feels stressed and angry. Daily activities of the victim are totally altered including lack of appetite following the PTSD. It is pretty natural for people to react following a distressing event. However, at different ages victims can react different as a result of lack of enough power to contain trauma. This focuses on the way adults and children react as a result of PTSD. Friedman et al (2010) assert that young people especially children and teenagers experience an extreme reaction following PTSD. The only disparity is that symptoms may be slightly different from what an adult could go through. For instance, a child may have increased bedwetting even if they had known how to avoid this through using the toilet before the event occurred to them. They may as well forget or lose some sense especially in speech. However, adults are more accommodative to most symptoms and can get through the disorder easily. Symptoms are crucial in the detection and diagnosis of PTSD. This however requires a professional in the field like a psychiatrist or psychologist. It is therefore important that people who live with victims of traumatizing events are keen on the symptoms so that they can seek assistance whenever such events are detected. According to experts, for an individual to be diagnosed as having PTSD, they must have at least indicate one re-experiencing symptom, three avoidance symptoms and at least two hyperarousal symptom for not less than a month (Wilson & Thomas, 2004). These symptoms have to alter the victim’s daily life like schooling, working, associating or even attending to important tasks that they used to attend to before the traumatizing event occurred to them. Individual who have been diagnosed with PTSD in most cases must face the clinician to get help on how to reduce or live well with the trauma. This implies that treatment of PTSD is psychological and therefore requires a psychotherapist. The action taken at this level is helping patients through talk so that they understand the implications of their situations and try to avoid them. On the other level of treatment, a person may use medication or even when the state is chronic both psychotherapy and medication are applicable. It should however be noted that people differ in the manner in which they react to events. This as well affects the way they get treated in the event of PTSD. Help that can be applicable to one patient may not necessarily apply to another. This is why an experienced mental health practitioner is required to take care of a person suffering from PTSD. In the event psychotherapy has been decided upon as a remedy for PTSD on an individual, talk is done either at personal level or group level. This may require that family members as well as friends provide that moral support to the patient since they need time and money to get through such a problem. Time is crucial especially because psychotherapy for PTSD lasts for around six to twelve weeks before positive results are achieved. The most important activity during psychotherapy is to help the victim avoid exposure to traumatizing events or those that remind them of their experience (Wilson & Thomas, 2004). In addition, cognitive restructuring is the centre of discussion in such sessions. This implies that the affected people are made to get sense out of the bad memories that haunt them. On the other hand, the person may be required to undergo stress inoculation training in which case the therapy attempts to reduce symptoms through teaching the victim on how to reduce anxiety. The implication with treatment is that successful results are only attained depending on the individual’s personal disclosure and eventual acceptance of what happened in the past. Getting help through medication as well achieves in cutting down the symptoms that accompany PTSD. Antidepressants have been long identified to help people fight this disorder. Some of the antidepressants so far in use include sertraline and paroxetine. The key role played by these antidepressants is help individuals get enough sleep, reduce drowsiness as well as get energy to face daily activities like work and schooling. Following the past incidences of increased PTSD, researchers and scientists are working hard to improve on the methods or detecting and treating PTSD. This has begun with the study of how memory functions occur in human beings. This has proven imperative based on creating extremely powerful fear-inclined memories being a key player in PTSD. Powerful research techniques have been put in place for the purposes of improving the state of managing PTSD. This includes brain imaging as well as the study of genes (Kagan, Rossini & Sapounas, 2012). This will help in the establishment of why so people are more vulnerable to PTSD than others. References: Kagan, V., Rossini, E. & Sapounas, D. (2012). Sentiment Analysis for PTSD Signals. New York: Springer-Verlag New York Inc. Wilson, J. & Thomas, R. (2004). Empathy in the treatment of trauma and PTSD. New York: Routledge. Friedman, M. et al. (2010). Handbook of PTSD: Science and Practice. California: Guilford Press. Read More