...NDIZIHIWE Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder on Soldiers, Communities, Societies From War Participation MARCH 2012 TABLE OF CONTENT PROLOGUE PART I POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER Part II: IMPACT ON THE INDIVIDUAL Part III: IMPACT ON FAMILY Part IV: IMPACT ON THE COMMUNITY PART V: OVERCOMING POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER PART VI: DISCUSSION BIBLIOGRAPHY Post-Traumatic stress Disorders on Soldiers, Communities, Societies from War Participation Prologue A few years back when I was in Rwanda, it was no longer surprising to a attend a memorial ceremony and each time, all of a sudden, some women would start screaming:"They are coming for me!" as if they were being chased to death or men losing control and start shouting at another group of people:"You murderers!". We were used to this phenomenon but a newcomer would certainly creep out. For me, their reaction is perfectly understandable and tough I view it from my country's perspective and experience, post traumatic stress disorder is a global sociological and psychological issue that needs to be addressed. Conflicts inciting violence are still going on, some have ended but a large number of war survivors and victims are still haunted by the memories, they have experienced the worst situations humanly possible and if the issue is not addressed properly, trauma can be perpetual. Post traumatic...
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...Society has a tendency to underestimate the effect that post traumatic stress disorder when it comes to soldiers. Due to their experiences in war, it can leave a negative effect on their mental health. Post traumatic stress disorder can be triggered through intrusive symptoms, numbing symptoms, and arousal symptoms. Intrusive symptoms are the most common symptoms, and they can occur at any time of the day. They can be as simple as a sound or a smell, this can be triggering for soldiers due to the many sounds they hear in war recreated in common everyday noises. At times, soldiers “may remain so captured by the memory of past horror”, that returning back into present thoughts may be a struggle (ADD CITATION). For many soldiers, hearing a noise or smelling a familiar scent, could send them back into the moment, reliving an event they do not wish to relive. Stress from intrusive symptoms puts weight on a soldier's shoulders because they have to be prepared; based on their location, they have to be aware of the smells and noises that may surround them. Symptoms like these, have an effect on a soldier for the rest of their life, because they can never escape the sounds and scents of life....
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...small group of military researchers has suspected for decades: that modern warfare destroys the brain. (Worth). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a debilitating condition that occurs in people who have experienced or witnesses a natural disaster, serious accident, terrorist incident, sudden death of a loved one, war, violent personal assault such as rape, or other life-threatening events. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is diagnosed by its symptoms: flashbacks, isolation, hyper-arousal reactions including outbursts, avoiding situations that remind the event, not remember the event, loss of interest in activities a person used to enjoy, feeling irritable or angry,...
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...The first reason on why war is never good is because of the effect it has on the participants and their families. When soldiers arrive from war they are not mentally stable and face difficulties when trying to participate in regular activities. Not to mention, they also suffer from physical problems such as asthma, tuberculosis and other complicated health problems. The main causes to these health problems are the dangerous chemicals that soldiers are exposed to when fighting in many wars. In addition to this, soldiers also risk their lives and can get physically hurt during a war. Soldiers are not mentally stable and suffer from depression and other mental problems. Mostly common is the post-traumatic stress disorder. Post-traumatic stress...
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...The term post- traumatic stress disorder come around the 1970’s, so the term shell shock was created to express the psychological or physical injuries for the soldier and veterans. Most people believed post-traumatic stress disorder was only temporary; however, post-traumatic stress disorder does not just disappear overnight, and in most cases, shell shock can be permeant, especially in Septimus’ case. Septimus; pain and suffering leaded him to commit suicide, so he could escape his horror. The critic Bruce Dohrenwend exposed the psychological risks of the people, who was in the war. Some of the soldiers got post-traumatic stress disorder right after war, but studies show post-traumatic stress disorder can develop elven or twelve years after...
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...different people in this world who suffer from PTSD for many reasons. PTSD for soldiers is a lot worse than others because when they go overseas they do and see things that no one has ever seen or done before. PTSD is a life changing disorder because people wonder what PTSD is and some may think it’s a mental disorder but for some people it's their lives. PTSD comes in many forms and for many different reasons but for some people who are battling PTSD cannot control their feelings and emotions, but we should not think of them differently they are people too. PTSD is a health problem that some people experience after a life threating event or witness something traumatic. But overall PTSD is a debilitating disorder that has many effects on people's lives....
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...POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN WAR VETERANS SC-PNG-0000009299 Alwin Aanand Thomson American Degree Program SEGi College Penang 1.0 INTRODUCTION Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity, overwhelming the individual's ability to cope. As an effect of psychological trauma, PTSD is less frequent and more enduring than the more commonly seen acute stress response. Diagnostic symptoms for PTSD include re-experiencing the original trauma(s) through flashbacks or nightmares, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and increased arousal—such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger, and hyper vigilance. Formal diagnostic criteria in DSM-IV-TR require that the symptoms last more than one month and cause significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (American Psychological Association). 2.0 DIAGNOSIS Criteria The diagnostic criteria for PTSD, stipulated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (Text Revision) (DSM-IV-TR), may be summarized as: A: Exposure to a traumatic event This must have involved both (a)...
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...Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 3/29/2015 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder A mental illness refers to a group of psychiatric disorders that are characterized by severe disturbances in thought, mood, and behavior. According to Zelman, PhD, Tompary, PharmD, Raymond, PhD, Holdaway, MA, and Mulvihill, PhD (2010) mental illness affects one of every four Americans. The history of post-traumatic stress disorder goes back as long as since there has been any trauma. During the early periods, it was war that caused post-traumatic stress disorder. Signs and symptoms may start within three months from a traumatic event but sometimes it can also take years to develop. Post-traumatic stress disorder can be diagnosed base on signs and symptoms as well as psychological evaluation. Treatment for post traumatic disorder is psychotherapy but also includes medication. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can affect individuals who have been exposed to an overwhelming traumatic incident such as the events of Hurricane Katrina, war, and or encounters of trauma such as rape, violence or child abuse. Throughout the history of post-traumatic stress disorder, it was not recognized as a disorder until 1980 in the Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (Zagata, 2010). In the earlier periods, post-traumatic stress disorder was limited to war experiences. During the American Civil War, many physicians in the military experienced emotionally behaviors to stress and fear of battle...
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...Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders 1 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders: Defining, Diagnosing, Correlation with Insomnia and Nightmares as well as The Treatment and Recovery Processes in War Veteran’s Tammy L. Egan Fulton-Montgomery Community College Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders 2 Abstract Post-traumatic stress disorder or most commonly known as PTSD, is a common problem for veterans returning from war all over the world. It can often be misdiagnosed as a traumatic brain injury or overlooked altogether because of the similarities in their symptoms. This paper will define what post-traumatic stress is as according to the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders, its correlation with insomnia and nightmares, traumatic brain injuries and rare heart conditions, and it summarizes various treatment options including virtual reality, the Recover process, cognitive processing therapy, clinical programs, the use of the drug propranolol, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Lastly, it will review problems with those treatments, involving flaws in the research studies, ethical issues and gender issues. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders 3 Defining, Diagnosing, Correlation with Insomnia and Nightmares as well as The Treatment and Recovery Processes in War Veteran’s Wars have been fought for centuries, and the soldiers fighting these wars often come home scarred, either physically, mentally, or both. Soldiers who exhibit...
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...Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Abstract Posttraumatic stress disorder is a common and disabling disorder that develops as a consequence of traumatic events and is characterized by distressing re-experiencing portions of the trauma, avoidance of reminders, emotional numbing and hyper-arousal. In spite of the deleterious impact of PTSD within the U.S. military, our current understanding of the human pathophysiology governing the divergent paths associated with extreme stress response the remains unabated. Given the widespread phenomenon of ‘trauma’, it begs the question of whether or not preexisting features accompany some suffers who have developed PTSD and why others may or may not face the same effect. Much research has been conducted in this arena and it seems that no one researcher has a definitive cause, much less a standardized treatment approach for PTSD sufferers. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops as a consequence of traumatic events such as interpersonal violence, disaster, severe accidents, or other life-threatening experiences. The most common characteristics of PTSD are the re-experiencing of symptoms linked to a specific event. Patients involuntary re-experience aspects of the traumatic event in a very vivid and distressing way. This includes: flashbacks, in which the person acts or feels as if the event were recurring, nightmares, intrusive images or other sensory impressions from the event. For example...
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...loss may be noticeable. On the opposite spectrum of that you may find a person who overeats to compensate their depression. d. Arrangements – A person suffering from severe depression may choose to make arrangements if they are considering suicide. These arrangements can include care for their family and pets in their absence. 2. Research a disorder associated with stress or mental health. - PTSD A military deployment can take a toll on any given person. The toll can be seen in many different forms such as emotional and mental disorders. These types of disorders can destroy an individual from the inside, out. Now multiply those symptoms by the number of deployments some soldiers have endured and the chance for mental disorders like post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) increase drastically. There have been many studies done to determine the correlation between the number of deployments and PTSD. One particular study was conducted with the help of the US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery under the Wounded, III, and Injured/Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Program to determine if the amount of dwell time a soldier has between deployments decreases PTSD. It has been shown by this study and several others that...
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...Hospital in the Medical Evaluation Board Department. We evaluate soldier’s medical diagnoses and process cases for medical discharge. Over the years I have counseling numerous mental health patients that are returning from deployment. Our goal is to advise and refer soldiers and family members to the appropriate sources to include, Social Work Service. Cases with extreme mental disability are soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with major sleep disorders. The problem is regardless of the psychotherapy and medication the soldiers are given they continue to have extreme nightmares of death and fear. Soldier that are diagnose with PTSD normally gets two to four hours of sleep a night. Beginning with the first step in the research process is to identifying the problem. Our dilemma was soldier Behavioral Health Care beyond Army life. Data was gathered from our Mental Health Department and Traumatic Brain Injury database. After we identify the problem a Case Review Committee meeting was conducted with the hospital Behavioral Health Providers to discuss and analyze the gathered data. The outcome was to set up a Case Review Committee with department heads at the local VA hospital that cares for soldier mental health care after the Army. In Collaboration with doctors and the Veteran Military Coordinators at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare...
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...Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sean C. Hall Colorado Technical University In recent years, the United States Armed Forces has become increasingly alarmed at the growing problem of severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), resulting in the increased rate of suicides in their troops. While most agree that PTSD deserves attention, consensus dissolves around how to effectively respond to the problem. In 2008, the Us Army commissioned the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) on behalf of their soldiers; in an effort to better understand and maximize treatment for soldiers diagnosed with sever Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Vietnam veterans are particularly vulnerable to post-traumatic stress disorder. Thousands of the 600,000 Americans who served in that war still suffer feelings of alienation, sleeping problems, relieving of painful experiences, and difficulty concentrating. Most veterans do not suffer from the disorder; of those who do, many did not experience symptoms until months or even years after their return home. Those who suffer from the disorder seem more likely to have other stressful events in their lives, which in turn make the disorder seem worse. The wounds of war do not go away with time, or just by leaving them alone. They need to be addressed, and this is something that you cannot do alone. If you were wounded physically during combat, you would allow a medic to attend to the wound. This is no different. Your psychological wounds must be attended...
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...Analyze combat and operational stress reactions (COSRs) Combat Stress Controlling combat stress is often the deciding factor between victory and defeat in all forms of human conflict. Stressors are a fact of combat, and you and your Soldiers will face them. Controlled combat stress can call forth stress reactions of loyalty, selflessness, and heroism. Conversely, uncontrolled combat stress causes erratic or harmful behavior that disrupts or interferes with the accomplishment of a unit’s mission. Any uncontrolled combat stress can impair mission performance and may bring disgrace, disaster, and defeat. The art of war aims to impose so much stress on enemy soldiers that they lose their will to fight. Both sides try to do this and at times accept severe stress themselves in order to inflict greater stress on the enemy. To win, you must control combat stress. The word “control” is better than the word “manage” to emphasize the active steps that leaders, supporting personnel, and individual Soldiers must take to keep stress within an acceptable range. This does not mean that control and management are mutually exclusive terms. Management is, by definition, the exercise of control. Within common usage, however, and especially within Army usage, management has the connotation of being a somewhat detached, number–driven, higher echelon process rather than a direct, inspirational, leadership process. Stress is the body’s and mind’s process for dealing with uncertain change...
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...Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And our duty as Americans By: David Beach Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is something that you and your friends may not know much about. The truth is unless you have direct experience with soldiers who have participated in combat, or a situation of great tragedy, you may not have even heard of PTSD. Unfortunately PTSD is something that is overlooked by more than just the general population. The problem lies in the government and those responsible for the care of PTSD victims, specifically soldiers, because the funding and care needed simply isn’t there. PTSD is a fairly recent mental disease. Diagnosed and accepted officially in 1980s, it’s known that PTSD has been around for centuries. PTSD is an emotional illness that develops when a person is exposed to a highly dangerous, very terrifying, possibly life-threatening event. Obviously this disease tends to affect soldiers much more than the general population. Before recognized as a disease PTSD was looked down upon and soldiers were shunned for showing symptoms. This brought about a negative stereotype to PTSD that is still seen today. As Americans, shouldn’t we know better than that? Seriously, are we shunning the defenders of our country that are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice everyday they wake up? The American people can do better than that, and we owe it to our soldiers to eliminate this public negative stereotype. It will not be acceptable to see a similar Post-Vietnam...
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