A soldier may go through his or her life fighting two wars. A rape victim may live out their ordeal in two different ways. Children of abuse may have survived the abuse but can go on to fear life as an adult rather than embrace it. Like the soldier of war and rape victim, other violent crimes or natural disasters can cause some people to live two very distinctly different events in which one is the traumatic event itself, and the other are the psychological problems that will occur afterwards.
The afterwards part of this can last anywhere from months to a lifetime. The soldier must come home one day to be a parent and family person. The rape victim must continue to live their life as the mother of children or the daughter of her parent’s. Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder is very possible for such victims of the horrors of life. OPTS has been recently embraced more in its treatment and research. For the sake of such victims of traumatic events, focus on this issue must continue to blossom.
Soldiers have to face real life traumas Just to face a largely misunderstood trauma known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (OPTS). In October 2001, America launched new military action in Afghanistan which would be known as Operation Enduring Freedom. Within the scope of America’s War on Terrorism soldiers soon found themselves in another war officially called Operation Iraqi Freedom. As these and other similar conflicts became the household names and terms within the last decade, so have the visualization of battlefield injuries and enormous physical and psychological impact on the military personal.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly known as OPTS has embraced itself as a major medical and psychological alleviation among American soldiers. OPTS does not limit itself to any one demographic or country but is a universal complex disorder that has made headlines throughout various countries and has become high in conversation here in America. Books, Journals, and college term papers, have been recently published in the quest to bring this subject to a fore front of the public due because of its severity and increasingly commonality among combat veterans.
As Pad’s complexity on many levels has become a learning process in which its healing process requires constant additional awareness by all those involved for example injured personal, medical and psychological community, family, friends and group therapy. According to Chisel- Brown, a gaunter AT a Valetta veteran Ana ten welt AT an Iraqi war veteran, AT ten many obstacles veterans face while trying to obtain care, one main fact is that health care professionals fail to recognize the illness (2009).
By the time the veteran’s illness is validated, a more serious or chronic form of OPTS has emerged (Cite). This paper will help continue to bring Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to the recognizable terms ND to discuss and highlight some of the significant professional literature published on this issue. Historical significance of OPTS Mike Miller, an Iraqi war veteran describes his ordeal of finally coming forward after years of denial and shame as in a tornado. The fear on trivial things soon escalated into fear of fear.
The tornado did not start as a tornado, but instead as a dust storm. At the time Mike went to seek help, his tornado was in full spin and seemed to be getting faster and faster by the moment. The anxiety included baseless fears of going to Jail and dying in a gun battle. His dreams were dark and full of sweat and it seemed the end was Just around the corner. All of this while working a full time Job and trying to be a normal husband and father to his three children and all while trying to seek help.
As death was Just seconds away in his mind with no reason to for such a false reality, part of the tornado finally seemed like if an overpowering gust of wind blew him into his primary care physician’s office, then continued to push him into a psychologist office and thee weeks later even a stronger gust swept him into a psychiatrist office. Mike accrued many other symptoms of OPTS but the vivid image of a real gray tornado is how he describes his ordeal. OPTS is a complex issue. It should not be any surprise that this may also be because of the conflict within the medical community itself.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (ADSM) before its classification published in the ADSM IV in 1994, a special advisory sub-committee was form and OPTS was classification as a new stress response category. The diagnosis in this manual stated that acute stress disorder was a start like stage of OPTS. If the diagnosis is longer than a month the diagnosis then becomes OPTS. This was a change from the original classification in 1952 in which the Dad’s first acknowledgement of this issue termed this stress response syndrome as “gross stress reaction” published by the American Psychiatric Association (PAP).
This mention of what we would come to know as OPTS, there is an old argument that this is nothing but a relating term known throughout the asses as ‘shell shock. From then to now, one thing is apparent throughout the psychiatric community OPTS has gained monumental respect as a major disorder and this particular disorder is continuing to evolve. In 2000 the American Psychiatric Association’s most current edition of the ADSM IV TRY came out with listed criteria for OPTS.
The diagnostic criteria, includes a history of exposure to at least one traumatic event meeting some forms of the following; Intrusive recollections, avoiding/numbing and hyper-arousal symptoms. What are referred to as Criterion A, B, C, D, E, and F are listed in the manual. Criterion A states that a person must be exposed to a traumatic event in which the person has experienced, witnessed or been involved with experiencing threatened of death or serious injury. The person must also have continual Tear, namelessness, or nor center nave a sloe not on tense criteria and will be mentioned later in this paper.
Criterion B states the traumatic event must be recurrent in specifics ways referenced in the manual. Criterion C states there must be persistent avoidance associated with the trauma and must be indicated by three other specific sub-criterion’s in this category. Criterion D states there must be hyper -arousal of at least two of the following, Difficulty sleeping, irritability or outburst of anger, difficulty concentrating, hyper-vigilance, or exaggerated startle response in which these symptoms were not present before the traumatic event.
Criterion E states that the symptoms describe in B, C, and D must last more than one month (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Criterion F lists the issue of Functional Significance which is described as the disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational of functioning. An acute diagnosis can be prescribed if symptoms last less than three months. A chronic diagnosis must show the symptoms to last three months or more.
A specification must be made if the on-set of symptoms occur at least six months after the stresses American Psychiatric Association, ADSM ‘V, and Washington D. C. ) Although war is the most responsible culprit in bringing this issue to the front page of American homes, it must be noted that war alone is not the only way in which this disorder can be found. Rape, visualization of criminal acts to included geographical locations (bad neighborhoods), and child abuse are only a few serious other traumatic events worth mentioning which can have future effects of OPTS.
Shave Solomon which she describes the Israeli soldier as having a lifetime of OPTS issues since the country has an enormous war historical past. She describes these soldiers as having somatic complaints and dysfunctions in social relations. In her research, she also notes that OPTS may be biological and can be transmitted from one generation to another. She cites that some Holocaust survivors may have crossed these boundaries and have injected war stress into their children. Her research theorizes that OPTS is not only a soldier’s story.
According to Shave Solomon (2007), OPTS and various forms of anxiety have been found in alarming rate among individuals working in emergency services as well as other high stress Jobs. OPTS is not without its critics and not every country gives it the same credibility as the United States does. According to Scott (2006) OPTS is nothing more than a made up diagnosis that was created in the post-Vietnam War era. “Post-traumatic stress disorder is in my view virtually useless as a medical diagnosis.
Its use does more harm than good; it carries no useful treatment implications” (Scott, 2006, up. 188, 189). A concession of at least the complexity issue of OPTS by many experts but not to the extent of a fallacy as their colleagues from Great Briton testifies to. In the American Journal of Psychotherapy published a few years before, John Wilson quotes “The array of assessment instruments related to various psychological and post trauma disorders has become overwhelming if not confusing” (Serbian, 1999, Volume 1-572-30162).
To add to the complexity of this psychological factor is that OPTS is commonly correlated with other psychiatric disorders. Common combine psychiatric disorders include major depressive disorder (MAD), generalized anxiety disorder, drug and alcohol abuse and dependence, and obsessive compulsive disorder. (Gill, Leery, Henderson, & Santos, 009). It is important to mention that this research also included the following statistics; AT Americans Tanat nave Eden Involved In a traumatic event AAA not Tort OPTS, and another fact worth noting that woman develops OPTS at twice the rate of men.
Close up look at OPTS OPTS is defined as an anxiety disorder in which fear and related symptoms continue to be experienced long after a traumatic event (Comer, 2010). Hence the term “posts traumatic” (Comer, 2010, p. GIG 1). The book describes a vivid horror of what OPTS might be like to war veterans. Half of the veterans interviewed described he atrocities of war to include seeing their best friends die or wounded. Many also described civilians killed or injured. Rape victims experience enormous distress within one week of the incident. The stress level continues to rise during the following weeks.
As in combat related stress, rape victims also experience continued higher than average levels of anxiety, suspiciousness, depression, self- esteem problems, self-blame, flashbacks, sleep problems and sexual dysfunction (Earns et al. , 2008). Although more women than men are prone to OPTS, more common in men Han women is the ability to come forward and seek help. Many men feel like they are supposed to be stronger than their symptoms are telling they are. They are afraid to admit they need help. They are afraid that this could be looked at as a sign of weakness and men are not supposed to be weak.
Unfortunately as mentioned before, by the time they do seek help they have let valuable time pass. Not to mention the bureaucratic nightmare they must now deal with in picking up the phone, making an appointment to go see their primary healthcare professional and getting a referral to et specialized help, making further appointments, reading and signing documents, etc. Remember in the midst of all of this one should not forget that at the time of this person seeking help, he or she is most likely to be at the height of their sickness that is critically affecting their personal and professional life at the moment.
Once committed to seeking help, not all of them will be welcomed with open arms to a caring primary health care professional who is willing to diagnose them to see a specialist. In too many cases, the medical professional on the other side of the desk ails to see that this person’s calm demeanor is only a mask to the mixture of depression, anxiety and a range of up and down emotions all in one bag. Other events that caused OPTS The American Journal of Psychiatry, in 2005 reported that elevated rates of OPTS symptoms have been found in direct linkage to terrorist attacks on the United States.
A very interesting fact that the ADSM-IV shows is that OPTS may be especially severe or longer lasting when the stresses is of human design (Shale, 2005). This is in contrast to other forms of natural events that can also cause stress, such as earthquakes, raciness, avalanches, airplane crashes, toxic and nuclear facility accidents and the way in which people are capable of reacting to them. In reaction to traumatic events, the methods of treatment continue to evolve.. Treatment Before treatment can begin, a diagnosis must be given.
Once again, this is complex such as stated in the April 2003 issue of American Journal of Psychiatry (Brewing, 2003) during research many gains have been made to predicting who and who will not develop OPTS, but there is much more to be learned. Debriefing is one of the main treatment plans currently used. It is aimed at counseling people who may nave suffered a traumatic event out nave not yet developed ten PIPS or any Klan AT stress symptoms. It is done in a professional setting and may include group’s therapy sessions. It will include hour long talks in sessions of three to four hours at a time on the events that have happened.
In 1991 the American Red Cross and the American Psychological Association developed the Disaster Response Network (DRY). Current Standard Operating Procedures for most military combat units is to receive counseling before and after their deployment into combat zones. More than one session is scheduled for these units upon their return from combat. OPTS causes abnormal activity of some bodily chemicals to work behind the scenes. Medication is another alternative to healing the stress process. Morphogenesis and corticosteroids have been known to cause acute OPTS.
Soon afterwards this can cause breakdown in other bodily functions such as the immune system if not detected and treated within time. Hence other forms of physical or mental therapy are tried to balance such chemicals out into a normal process. Relaxation training is another treatment Lana. This form of treatment usually accompanies medication. People are simply taught to learn to relax. This treatment has been helpful of healing headaches, pain and other injuries and the undesirable effects of cancer treatments. Biofeedback is yet another treatment source.
This includes a process in which people are hooked up to MEG and are allowed to see their readings. They can see when the there is a high level of stress in certain parts of their body. One example is that they can be told to relax their arms and see the results of their new relaxed arms on the screen of the MEG monitor apparent by a change in the color of the arms on the screen. This has been proven highly affective. Meditation is the practice of relaxing one’s body and mind in a comfortable and quiet place where all outside distractions are not an issue has also proven to help somewhat.
Hypnosis is used as a form of psychotherapy. Combination approaches to include any two of different therapy types have been proven highly affective. Medicine has proven to be highly effective in combating OPTS but also has its critics. Most behavioral therapist, believe that proper healing can result without medication. This is in contrast to a psychiatrist who prefers to prescribe medication in the Justification that OPTS, anxiety, depression because of an abnormal balance in chemicals, therefore why not balance them out to normal levels.
To put it simply, a psychiatrist believes that this sickness can be treated with medication Just like any other sickness that may require medication for example diabetes, sore throat, etc. However there are many people look at the drug companies as nothing more than a money making business honing in on the fears of people. Although medication can aid to quick relieve of many or all symptoms, other issues ay arise as to too many side effects or effects on the liver, etc.
There are many therapists that will compromise that medication can be a necessary short term quick fix while behavioral or other forms of therapy can work hand-in-hand with the medicine. They will then prefer the patient be slowly weaned off the medication and the other forms of therapy will continue. One big problem in all of this may be the issue of insurance. Unless somebody pays out of their own pocket which is highly rare, insurance companies will cover so many sessions in one year. Conclusion unnaturally many people are skeptical AT PIPS as a Leases model.
As monumental in this paper, many believe it is nothing more than a conspiracy brought together by anti-war psychiatric personal and their push to get it into the ADSM ‘V. Despite this activity there has never been more research and interest on this issue than there is currently. Ashamed to seek help is only one tip of the iceberg for a soldier. Many are afraid to come forward and seek help due to the threat of ridicule from their superiors. This can cause more of a hazard as 50 percent of those who have deployed more than once are likely to come down with OPTS than those who have peopled only one-time.
Another fight within the fight is that of medication vs.. Other forms of therapy. There are those who swear medication is the only answer currently available while most psychologists will argue that fact. Nobody is disputing the fact that OPTS may be illness, but they do take their sides on medication vs.. Non medication. For Iraqi war veteran, Mike Miller, medication seems to be the only that even came close to working according to him. He is not an advocate for medication but is stating what has worked for him. OPTS may not be avoided in some people but he effort to treat them needs to continue to be a priority.
