The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Essay Sample)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Name
Institution
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Introduction
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition of stress that develops after one has been exposed to several traumatic events or witnessing a shocking event that threatens the life of a human being (McDermott, 2012). Traumatic events include an experience of witnessing a physical abuse, sexual violation or rape or even witnessing an emotional torture, home or workstation violence. Such examples include waking up during a surgery or a being a lone survivor in a grisly road accident or even witnessing social warfare between communities, other than these, experiences like terrorist attack, being kidnapped or taken hostage of a circumstance or witnessing human instigated death that affect close relative, family member or even friend may lead to someone becoming tormented and as a result become a victim of traumatic circumstance (Lahad & Doron, 2010).
Crisis situation of PTSD and its symptoms
Post-traumatic stress disorder causes a significant suffering that influences the social relationship of an individual to a greater percentage. It may also hamper occupational participation of an individual (Scott & Stradling, 2006). A person suffering from PTSD always finds it difficult to participate in the normal daily routines, domestic chores, educational activities and general work. Such individual’s social and leisure interests are affected a great deal (McDermott, 2012).
The ability of a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder often negatively affect their relationship with others and there are instances of self-injurious behaviors which makes it difficult to relate with other people, like self-mutilation, drug or substance abuse or the huge to commit suicide.
The diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder in children, less than five years old, is similar to that of the adults and adolescent stage except that the symptoms and behaviors they exhibit in each case may be different. For example, a young child may not show or reveal a significant misery when faced with disturbing memories (McDermott, 2012).
The role of counselor
Counselors are professional practitioners who are qualified to assist mental health individuals experiencing difficulties in the normal important daily roles and occupation to increase their participation in such chores, improve their health and their wellbeing (Lahad & Doron, 2010). Most counselors are qualified to help individuals of all ages as long as they are affected by a shock during their past life experience or are undergoing a traumatic stage. They handle all the phases of recovery and work hand in hand with their caregivers to recognize and overcome recovery based needs and the demands of daily activities of the affected individuals, like education and professional careers (Goulston, 2008).
The roles of these counselors are meaningful and very necessary to the individuals who are affected, they help them recover and being able to do daily activities of living, continue with their work or education and other roles in the contemporary society like parenting and taking care of the family (Goulston, 2008).
The counselors often undertake an elaborate and comprehensive assessment to identify the usual strengths and performance of individual affected during their reproductive life cycle, the possible factors that may have led to the causes of such conditions and the impact. They provide group therapy and individual therapy period depending on the need of their clients’ phase of recovery, the health conditions and always collaborate with other institutions and professionals (Scott & Stradling, 2006). Occupational therapists help people to live life as it should have been by promoting the health of individuals, making lifestyle better and changing the environment by preventing further injuries, illness or by making people live better with disability and get accepted by the society in which they live (Lahad & Doron, 2010). They analyze their clients’ physical look, psychological wellbeing emotional and social makeup and advise them to achieve their visions to the most appropriate level and rebuild their independence to the original state so that they can participate in the everyday activities (Lahad & Doron, 2010). They provide sessions of counseling to individual or group that help stabilize the trauma and its symptoms, advice on the warning signs and address the general issues in relation to the development of early childhood trauma and help the affected to learn strategies of living life well like stress management, sensory techniques, and the relaxation methods
(Scott & Stradling, 2006).
They work with the client caregivers and train them to take maximum care in the interdisciplinary challenging and adaptive life during home care, school life so that the patients do not have flashbacks and other hypersensitivity patterns (Scott & Stradling, 2006). By so doing, their client’s participation increases in meaningful activities like making use of their time, taking balanced diet and also to implement exposure techniques. Besides working with the caregivers, they also assist them in determining the requirements and resources for home modification for clients who are grounded and have limitation to occupational progress.
Treatment
Treatment of Post-traumatic stress disorder can make one recover and become in control of his/her life. The most common treatment is psychotherapy, which is the primary treatment, but may also include medication (Lahad & Doron, 2010). When these two treatment methods are combined, the symptoms are addressed adversely and help individual feel better about them and help them learn how to cope with future symptoms.
Both psychotherapy and medication also help address the development of other related effects like depression, drugs or substance abuse and anxiety. Any person suffering from PTSD must never handle these themselves (Scott & Stradling, 2006).
Psychotherapy which is also called talk therapy may be used to treat both children and adults. Types of talk therapy include; cognitive therapies which help one to recognize the ways of thinking like addressing the negative way of perceiving a normal situation. The other type is the exposure therapy where one is trained to face what they find terrifying. There is also the Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), this combines the exposure therapy with eye movement protocols that help you process traumatic memories and make you change your reaction to traumatic memories (Goulston, 2008).
Medication treatment help improves the symptoms of PTSD. These medication treatments include; Antidepressants which help the symptoms of depression and anxiety (Lahad & Doron, 2010). Anti-anxiety medications which are drugs that improve the feeling of anxiety and stress within a short period of time, this type of medication should not be taken long term. The other type of medication treatment is prazosin. It helps reduce the problem of insomnia; prozasin may also reduce nightmares in individuals with PTSD (