Exposure Therapy

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The risk of being exposed to trauma is not something new to human beings. Humans have experienced traumatic events since the dawn of man. It is just the way of life. Saber-toothed tiger attacks have probably similar psychological effects in people that have witnessed such violence. Some of the first documented PTSD like symptoms go back all the way back to the Greco-Persian wars. During the 17th century, military physicians would use the terms like nostalgia and homesickness to describe soldiers that were coming back from war with PTSD symptoms and these soldiers were going through the same symptoms of PTSD that is seen today. (Friedmen) It wasn't until 1980 that PTSD was actually even added to the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical …show more content…

Research shows that the most effective type of counseling for PTSD is Cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is where a therapist will help the patient really change the way that the traumatic events that they have experienced and how to deal with them in a different way then they are doing normally. The therapist will show them that certain thoughts will provoke their traumatic events and cause even more stress to them. The patient will learn how to deal with it and be able to live with it in a better …show more content…

The idea behind this is that people learn to fear things like the thoughts and feelings that remind them of said traumatic event. Talking it out to a therapist will help the patient learn to not be afraid of their past memories. Talking it out like you would any other problem so that within time the memories don’t bother the patient anymore or as much. Sometimes the therapist might have the patient talk about memories that don’t make the patient stressed or overwhelmed, this helps the patient feel that they are in a more safe place and it makes it easier for them to talk about and talk out their traumatic experiences. This technique is called “desensitization” which allows the patient to deal with their bad memories a little bit at a time. Some therapist will have their patient think about all of their memories all at once in order to help deal with the feelings of being overwhelmed. This technique is called “flooding” For some patients however, they have to take medicine or would prefer medicine for dealing with their

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