Ways I Keep My Stress Under Control

Hey everyone! I decided to give you some quick and easy ways I like to keep my levels of stress low! Please comment if you have any other cool ideas for everyone to see!

~Kaylina Droke

Webcam video from March 14, 2014 5:34 PM

Answering the Question

The questions that I tried to answer is: How is a person diagnosed with PTSD? It seems to me that it is confused with a lot of other emotional or mental disorders. From my experience with stomach issues the diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome is one that is overdiagnosed to give a name to symptoms that the doctors should really just say..."we have no idea what is wrong with you" and in the same way I wonder if PTSD is the diagnosis (sadly) when doctors really don't know what to say or do to help a person. That said - is there a way to truly diagnosis a person and once done how is it most commonly treated?

There has been a lot of talk about PTSD getting unnoticed or misdiagnosed as some other mental health disorder. I am no expert but it seems that being treated for something else would be counterproductive in getting better or having the support that is essential. In May 2013, in the DSM-5 there was a revision for PTSD diagnostic criteria. “PTSD (as well as Acute Stress Disorder) moved from the class of anxiety disorders into a new class of “trauma and stressor-related disorders” (National Center for PTSD). The DSM-5 is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is used by clinical professionals that handle and treat mental health disorders.

From reading the information on the PTSD: National Center for PTSD website, the revision put PTSD in the category of trauma. Hopefully, this will help clear up some uncertainty of misdiagnosis. According to this information, “all of the conditions included in this classification require exposure to a traumatic or stressful event as a diagnostic criterion” (National Center for PTSD). Rather than before it was in the classification of anxiety. This puts more focus on trauma that has occurred sometime in life of a person with PTSD. The first aspect mentioned in the full diagnostic criteria of PTSD is Criteria A: stressor, under that it reads, “The person was exposed to: death, threatened death, actual or threatened serious injury, or actual or threatened sexual violence, as follows: (one required)

1.    Direct exposure.

2.   Witnessing, in person.

3.   Indirectly, by learning that a close relative or close friend was exposed to trauma. If the event involved actual or threatened death, it must have been violent or accidental.

4.   Repeated or extreme indirect exposure to aversive details of the event(s), usually in the course of professional duties (e.g., first responders, collecting body parts; professionals repeatedly exposed to details of child abuse). This does not include indirect non-professional exposure through electronic media, television, movies, or pictures (National Center for PTSD).

         Then it follows with other criteria such as: intrusion, avoidance, negative alterations in cognitions and mood, and alterations in arousal and reactivity. The criterion also looks at the duration of the symptoms along with a few other aspects. Through the assessment and diagnostic criteria, there is probably a lot more that is observed by a professional. Since there has been much confusion with the diagnosis of PTSD, the revision of the DSM-5 seems to point to the right direction of more focus on trauma. Where before it might have been looked at differently to diagnose. Hopefully, the recent revision can help solve the issue of the confusion that has happened to people that suffer from PTSD.

             There is a variety of ways that PTSD can be treated. On the PTSD: National Center for PTSD website, there are certain types of counseling mentioned to help with PTSD. “Research shows that Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most effective counseling for PTSD.” There are a few types of this counseling, cognitive therapy and exposure therapy. The information on cognitive therapy reads, “Your therapist helps you understand and change how you think about your trauma and its aftermath. Your goal is to understand how certain thoughts about your trauma cause you stress and make your symptoms worse.” Exposure therapy focuses on, “to have less fear about your memories. It is based on the idea that people learn to fear thoughts, feelings, and situations that remind them of a past traumatic event (National Center for PTSD).

It was interesting to read about a few different types of treatments that are used. There are also medications that can be taken. There can be involvement of group therapy, family therapy, or a therapy called psychodynamic psychotherapy. Depending on the severity of the disorder and other factors, treatment can last from about three months to years. If you want to learn more, you can use the link below from the PTSD: National Center for PTSD website!

-Amy

PTSD: National Center for PTSD. (n.d.). DSM-5 Criteria for PTSD -. Retrieved February 26, 2014, from http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/PTSD-overview/dsm5_criteria_ptsd.asp

This website also references:

American Psychiatric Association. (2013) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.