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Psychological trauma essays
Psychological trauma essays
Psychological trauma essays
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Around 9.8 million adult American women have experienced violent physical assaults, and 12.1 million women have reported being raped. More than one-third of these women develop posttraumatic stress disorder. (citation) Unfortunately, most people seeking treatment continue to show symptoms and don’t show clinically meaningful improvement. Trauma exposure is related to affect and impulse regulation and most people are unable to deal with their traumatic memories so they end up dropping out of treatment. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to help affect regulation by focusing attention on body awareness. This study tests the effectiveness of trauma-informed yoga and how it compares to receiving women’s health education. The hypothesis of this study was that women with PTSD would show a …show more content…
Women, ages 18 to 58 years old with chronic PTSD that were unresponsive to previous treatment, were recruited and trauma history was obtained by self-report. Once deemed eligible based on alignment with DSM-IV criteria and the Clinical-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) , the participants were randomly assigned to either the trauma-informed yoga class or women’s health education classes for one hour each week for ten weeks. The yoga intervention incorporated breathing, postures, and meditation created by certified yoga professionals with master and doctoral degrees in psychology. The women’s health education class focused on support, active participation, increasing knowledge about health, and increasing self-efficacy. The intervention did not discuss personal trauma but advised women about medical services, issues, and self-care activities. Assessments were made before the treatment, mid-treatment (week 5) and post-treatment (week 10) using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). The clinicians rating the participants were blind to the treatment condition and assessments were based on in-person reviews and self-report
PTSD is a battle for everyone who is diagnosed and for the people close to them. The only way to fight and win a battle is to understand what one is fighting. One must understand PTSD if he or she hopes to be cured of it. According to the help guide, “A positive way to cope with PTSD is to learn about trauma and PTSD”(Smith and Segal). When a person knows what is going on in his or her body, it could give them better control over their condition. One the many symptoms of PTSD is the feeling of helplessness, yet, knowing the symptoms might give someone a better sense of understanding. Being in the driver’s seat of the disorder, can help recognize and avoid triggers. Triggers could be a smell, an image, a sound, or anything that could cause an individual to have a flashback of the intimidating event. Furthermore, knowing symptoms of PTSD could, as well, help one in recovering from the syndrome. For instance, a person could be getting wor...
According to the authors of “Enhancing Care and Advocacy for Sexual Assault Survivors on Canadian Campuses”, “Sexual assault has immediate and long-term health consequences for victims including suicide, HIV infection, depression, and social isolation,” (Quinlan, Clarke, and Miller). Another common side effect these victims face is post-traumatic stress disorder. Someone experiencing PTSD may have random outburst of anger, have trouble concentrating on day to day tasks, or may even have flashbacks of their attack. These consequences make it hard for victims to get back into the normal routine of everyday life (“Effects of Sexual Assault”). In a case at Amherst College a young women named Angie Epifano faced many of these consequences after she was raped by an acquaintance in one of the college’s dormitories. While immediately choosing to ignore what had happened to her Epifano soon became an emotional wreck. Before the attack Epifano had believed herself to be an extremely strong and independent individual. In an article done on Epifano’s story she stated “Everything I had believed myself to be was gone in 30 minutes,” (Epifano). Sexual assault takes away a piece of someone. With their hopes and dreams clouded by the tragedy they have endured, victims face a lifetime of
The investigators sought out potential subjects through referrals from psychiatric hospitals, counseling centers, and psychotherapists. All potential subjects were screened with a scripted interview and if they met all the inclusion criteria they met with an investigator who administered the Clinical-Administered PTSD Scale(CAPS) to provide an accurate diagnosis. In the end the study ended up with 12 subject, 10 females and 2 males with a mean age of 41.4, that met the criteria for PTSD with treatment resistant symptoms, which were shown with a CAPS score of greater than or equal to 50.
Schiraldi, G. R. (2009). The post-traumatic stress disorder sourcebook: A guide to healing, recovery, and growth. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is defined by our book, Abnormal Psychology, as “an extreme response to a severe stressor, including increased anxiety, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and symptoms of increased arousal.” In the diagnosis of PTSD, a person must have experienced an serious trauma; including “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violation.” In the DSM-5, symptoms for PTSD are grouped in four categories. First being intrusively reexperiencing the traumatic event. The person may have recurring memories of the event and may be intensely upset by reminders of the event. Secondly, avoidance of stimuli associated with the event, either internally or externally. Third, signs of mood and cognitive change after the trauma. This includes blaming the self or others for the event and feeling detached from others. The last category is symptoms of increased arousal and reactivity. The person may experience self-destructive behavior and sleep disturbance. The person must have 1 symptom from the first category, 1 from the second, at least 2 from the third, and at least 2 from the fourth. The symptoms began or worsened after the trauma(s) and continued for at least one
An abused woman is always faced with a number of different choices from which she may consider, with regards to seeking help or ending the relationship with a variety of alternatives, the woman knows each decision involves a variety of risks. Time after time, the common question arises, “why doesn’t she just leave?” This question can be answered by analyzing the psychological effects domestic abuse has on women. Many women are unable to cope with the emotional and psychological stress of domestic abuse and resort to violence and extre...
Sooner or later, we all through a traumatic event that makes life more difficult for us to handle. Trauma can be a sustained series of events (such as an abusive relationship) or a single event. Sadly, even a single traumatic event may compel someone to turn to drugs and alcohol. In fact, it can even cause to addiction to these substances, throwing a person 's life even further off track.
Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years, throughout many cultures to help with the balance of physical and mental well-being. Throughout the years yoga has also been incorporated with many healings, whether with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or many other things that cause us mental and physical pain. However, recently yoga has been intertwined with cancer patients who have just been diagnosed, are currently going through the treatments, and for the miraculous people who have survived this destructive disease.
Resick, P. A., & Schnicke, M. K. (2007). Cognitive therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 15(4), 321–329.
There are many different causes of PTSD such as sexual abuse, sudden death of a loved one, and war. Trauma affects people in different ways, some can develop it from watching a fellow soldier being killed, and some can develop it from losing their jobs or a divorce. Being diagnosed with PTSD is a difficult process because there are many other psychological disorders whose symptoms can overlap and are very similar. An important fact to remember is that PTSD doesn’t just affect the person suffering; it can also have secondhand effects on their spouses, children, parents, friends, co-workers, and other loved ones. Although there is no direct cure, there are many treatment and alternative treatment options to assist them in moving forward after a trauma.
There are hundreds of different kinds of psychiatric disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (DSM-IV). One of them is called Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Based on the research, post-traumatic disorder usually occurs following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape (Harvard Women’s Health Watch, 2005). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the risk factors, pathophysiology, clinical manifestation, diagnostic criteria and tests, treatment, prognosis and future research and approaches to treat this psychiatric illness of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Sexual assault is a traumatic event that can cause extreme psychological effects on the victim. These effects can be short-term, and they can manifest themselves into long-term effects, depending on the individual and how the sexual assault occurred. Victims of sexual assault can be either male or female, with both sexes having fairly similar psychological effects. In addition to these psychological effects, some individuals develop Rape Trauma Syndrome or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which can be more easily classified as short-term versus long-term responses. Every individual is different and may differ in their reactions to this event; there is no normal or common way to react (Kaminker, 1998, pg. 23).
Sexual assault is an offense that plagues many U.S. citizens. Although some studies show that rape is on the decline, other studies report that the phenomena actually occuring is that less rape victims are reporting the crime. In fact, approximately 68% of sexual assaults go unreported to the police according to the U.S. Department of Justice in a National Crime Victimization Survey from 2008-2012. It is common knowledge that rape victims are usually severely traumatized after the event, which leaves them susceptible to various emotions such as shame, anxiety, numbness, fear, denial, and guilt. Because of this, many rape victims decide to repress their experience and let it go unheard. However, not only does this prevent them from healing emotionally,
Trauma is the “left over” of what challenging experiences leave in our bodies. Mindfulness practice can help one connect with positive emotional and social experiences, stimulating parts of the brain linked to reflective awareness. The brain holds the key to the roots and treatment of trauma. By becoming mindful of emotions, one becomes aware of the integration of sensation, memories, and how experience is organized in a context, allowing the exploration of present experiences to be the
Cognitive Processing Theory and Emotional Processing Theory support the notion that following a traumatic event, distortions can occur to survivors’ basic assumptions about the world and themselves, which lead to changes in thinking and behaviour (Sharma-Patel, Brown & Chaplin, 2012). To treat the symptoms of post-traumatic stress, one must treat the underlying narrative surrounding the trauma (Sharma-Patel et al. 2012). Both theories posit that distorted assumptions must be challenged and corrected to enable the survivor to experience themselves as ‘competent and courageous’ (Sharma-Patel, et al. 2012). Emotion-Focused Therapy for Trauma (EFTT) is an evidence-based, short-term individual therapy that has proven highly effective in treating clients with trauma through its emphasis on both narrative and emotion processes (Paivio & Angus, 2017). Pennebaker (1997) argues that writing about a traumatic event allows the individual to organize the traumatic memory and most importantly, allows for cognitive change (i.e., accommodation) over the course of writing. Ramanathan (2015) suggests that in PTSD, it is possible that a part of one’s working memory has gone into ‘automatic mode’, so that mindful writing in