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Natalie Hairr
Mrs. Roach
Rehab Careers
1 September 2016
PTSD Essay
PTSD stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder which is an anxiety
disorder due to a traumatic event someone has experienced. PTSD can also
be caused by any very stressful situations (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder).
PTSD is important to healthcare because the coverage, importance, and
awareness of PTSD is so minimal and that needs to change and the people
who suffer from this condition need to receive the help they seek and
deserve. Anyone who has symptoms of PTSD or is diagnosed with the
condition has a right to getting the treatment they desperately need, no
matter the severity of their circumstances. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a
severe health problem and it is time to be fully addressed.
The signs and symptoms of a patient with PTSD might include:
flashbacks of the event caused by sounds, scents, sights, or feelings,
memories that can affect how they live their everyday life, development of
sleep disorders, avoiding the topic, not able to remember the event, loss of
emotions, reactions to sudden noises, memory problems, moodiness,
problems concentrating and focusing, and self-abuse (Posttraumatic Stress
Disorder). These symptoms can affect their everyday life in so many ways,
they could always live in fear unless they seek out and receive help. This

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disorder can cause an imbalance in the physical health of a person due to
some of the symptoms that can can be caused by PTSD, such as, the sleep
problems can cause their immune system to weaken and therefore they are
more susceptible to getting illnesses and other risk factors caused by lack of
sleep, and they could be having a flashback and cause harm to themselves
or someone around them. Some treatments or medical plans that could bring
out someones PTSD or even cause them to form PTSD are being in the
environment where loud noises could occur at any moment, touching a
patient a certain way or a certain noise or smell could trigger a flashback.
Someone could form PTSD by enduring some kind of traumatic experience at
a doctor or hospital that can be triggered by going back to the doctor and
reliving the moment, like, waking up during surgery, being involved in some
kind of malpractice that injured them or made them have a stressful
experience, or losing a loved one suddenly can all cause someone to not
want to relive what they have gone through.
As a healthcare provider you should treat your patients with this
specific disorder with extra and unique care. A few ways that the doctor or
anyone trying to treat them could do things differently are always respecting
the patients privacy to a whole new extent, like always announcing when
youre entering the room and explaining in great detail what is going to be
happening so they have no surprises. You must always ask the patient for
permission with everything you do especially touching them. Whenever you
are dealing with someone with PTSD make sure your mood is calm and

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relaxing to them because if they sense that you are tense or nervous they
will get nervous. Make sure you communicate clearly and make know the
extent of the persons PTSD and what it is usually triggered by and learn
what you need to avoid while treating these patients. Patients with PTSD
should not be treated the same way that all other patients are treated, they
deserve and require a special attention and treatment.
They have come up with treatments that help some people who have
developed PTSD but not all of them help everyone. It is usually treated with
therapy and/or medication. The medications they use to treat this disorder ,
most commonly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which is used to treat
depression. Another course of treatment is therapy, there are so many
different types of therapy that someone who experiences PTSD can have
access to, such as, cognitive behavioral therapy, with this the therapist and
patient work together to pinpoint the problem area and thoughts and how to
replace those thoughts with less disturbing thoughts that will not cause
distress. There is also a type of therapy called exposure therapy, it is when
the patient talks about the traumatic event over and over to their therapist
in hopes that they will learn to not be afraid of that event anymore. The last
type of therapy that is most frequently used is EMDR, Eye Movement
Desensitization and Reprocessing, it could help change how the patient
reacts to their memories. The treatments that are out there for PTSD do not
help all patients and the patients that it cant help there is nothing more to
do for them, that is unacceptable, there should be all kinds of people doing

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research and trying everything they can to help 100% of all patients who
suffer from PTSD. All people who suffer from PTSD should have all access to
any medical care that could benefit them or help their outcome. No one
deserves to live in fear of the past.

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Work Cited
"Posttraumatic Stress Disorder." Sick! Detroit: UXL, 2007. Student Resources in Context. Web. 2 Sept.
2016.
"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale,
2015.Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 Sept. 2016.