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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

The document provides information on treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It discusses psychological debriefing sessions immediately following a traumatic event to prevent PTSD. Symptoms of PTSD include avoidance, anxiety, nightmares, and being easily startled. Treatment options discussed include exposure therapy, where patients are gradually exposed to traumatic triggers to reduce anxiety over time, and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy to change irrational trauma-related thoughts. Worksheets are also provided to help patients monitor their coping strategies and set goals for exposure activities.

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60 views4 pages

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

The document provides information on treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It discusses psychological debriefing sessions immediately following a traumatic event to prevent PTSD. Symptoms of PTSD include avoidance, anxiety, nightmares, and being easily startled. Treatment options discussed include exposure therapy, where patients are gradually exposed to traumatic triggers to reduce anxiety over time, and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy to change irrational trauma-related thoughts. Worksheets are also provided to help patients monitor their coping strategies and set goals for exposure activities.

Uploaded by

Joe Joe
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER.

Step 1

Psychological debriefing.

Is a formal version of providing emotional and psychological support immediately following a traumatic
event; the goal is to prevent development of PTSD and other negative situations.

Psychological debriefing sessions last 1-3 hours in a single session immediately after a traumatic event.

Debriefing psychological methods and alternatives.

What a debriefing session may achieve.

 Allows victims to talk freely about their emotions/feelings


 Clear up misconceptions regarding incident
 Provide victims with information concerning anxiety disorders
 Identify victims who need additional psychological support.

Tasks:

Educate and inform on symptoms/nature of PTSD assure that they can be handled- DONE

Possible symptoms: Avoidance, headaches, fear, anxiety, isolation, irritability, anguish and depression.

Triggers: smells (gasoline, smoke, fire, metal, gases), sirens, picking up car keys, driver’s seat, act of
driving, being a passenger, driving on road where accident happened,

Actions to take while continuing PTSD treatment.

1. Stay connected: Spend time with supportive/caring people. Family, friends etc.You don’t have
to talk about what happened if you don’t want to. Sharing time with loved ones can help with
the healing
2. Mindfulness: yoga, deep breathing, muscle relaxation and meditation.
3. Break the cycle: When you feel anxious, take a break- brisk walk, jump into a hobby to refocus.
4. Take care of yourself: Enough rest, healthy diet, exercise, take time to relax. Avoid caffeine,
nicotine-worsens anxiety.
5. Consider a support group: Look for support groups related to PTSD or stress.
6. Learn about PTSD: Knowledge can help you understand your feelings/develop coping strategies.
7. Don’t self-medicate: Turning to alcohol/drugs to numb feelings isn’t healthy, even though it
may be a tempting way to cope. May interfere with treatment/prevent healing.
8. Follow your treatment plan: It may take a while to see the benefits of therapy but it can b
effective and most people do recover. Remind self that it takes time. Follow treatment plan and
routinely communicate with your mental health professional.
Things to note: Symptoms cluster around three areas.

i. Reliving the event via nightmares/vivid images with reactions such as


shaking/chills/palpitations.
ii. Avoidance: emotional withdrawal/detachment from friends or activities
iii. Being hyper aroused/easily startled/irritable/ difficulty sleeping or concentrating.

Worksheet 1. How am I coping?

Purpose: To think about how you are coping with stress and determine whether my coping mechanisms
are healthy or unhealthy.

Instructions:

 Think back to how you have dealt with stress this past week.
 Write down a few sentences about how you have been feeling and what you have done to cope
with those feelings.
 Then take a look at what you have written, and try to decide what is adaptive and what is
maladaptive coping- that is, what is healthy or unhealthy?

Example:

What happened, how I felt, and how I coped:

On Monday I felt really tired after my boss yelled at me at work. The way he was disrespecting me
reminded me of how my ex-husband used to treat me. It brought back all the memories of hitting and
screaming. I felt so awful—I smoked a few cigarettes on the way home. I ordered a pizza for dinner,
watched TV, and didn’t pick up the phone when my daughter called. On Thursday I was feeling a lot
more upbeat. I actually went out to lunch with my friend—which was really nice. It was good to laugh.

Healthy coping: getting support from my friend, humor and laughing.

Unhealthy coping: eating greasy food when I wasn’t that hungry; smoking; isolating myself
Exposure therapy.

Confronting with frightening stimuli and continued until anxiety is reduced.

Imaginal exposure: -exposure via mental imagery, memory constructed through client’s own narrative or
scene presented by therapist based on provided information.

A fear hierarchy is created. Client is exposed to least fearful situation to most fearful situation.

Anxiety management techniques to be taught: relaxation/psychoeducation.

Exposure therapy is strongest with PTSD.

Steps to start exposure therapy.

1. Start with the memory of the event:


 recall the event, recall the memory, fear.
 Give detailed description of the event in the present tense.
 Record, afterward have the client listen to recording as thy recollect on emotions.
 Discuss the emotions invoked and process them.
2. In vivo Exposure:
 Confront traumatic triggers outside therapy.
 Brainstorm potential triggers and environments that stimulate fear.
 Confront triggers as develop plan for use between sessions.
 Have a friend or instructor during driving to help you regain confidence.
 Slowly and slowly skills are developed.

Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy.

Individual is encouraged to expose self to thoughts, feelings and situations that are associated with the
trauma and those being avoided. Erroneous irrational thoughts about event are analyzed and
understood by the person. The erroneous thoughts are replaced with more reality ones.
Worksheet 2

Your goals should have a time frame and an activity as below.

MY WORKSHEET.

GOAL: My goal is to do some stretches and ten pushups for ten minutes each morning three times this
week.

Activity practice session 1.

Level of anxiety before activity.

{0=not anxious-10=extremely anxious} 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Body sensations before activity:

{feeling tired, butterflies in my stomach, heavy chest}

Level of anxiety after activity.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Body sensations after activity:

{I feel less tired, no butterflies in my stomach, lighter chest}

You can go to 7 times a week or any number of days. Start small and progress as you start to get used to
the exercises.

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