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ISD:
- Conflict is Composed of Opposing Forces
With the main idea, the two sides of conflict is the current treatment of PTSD, and the social isolation those with PTSD suffer from different perspectives. Throughout people who suffer with ptsd, there are multiple types of treatments, which many do and don’t agree with. Each treatment there is, there are always going to be different perspectives on how they can and will affect the patient. For example, in the Youtube video, “Are medications an effective PTSD treatment?”, it states “The Medications are delivered to the warriors as if they treat something, they don’t treat anything. All psychiatric medications either stimulate or sedate.” This was stated by Dr. Mary Vietin, who shows and tells that she is against medicine for PTSD in multiple ways. She then goes on to explain how they don’t help in any type of way. When those who don’t agree with the different treatments, it can cause the patients to think differently and feel the need to want better help. Also in the same exact video, Dr. Harold Kudler states, “ I learned in PTSD there are people who can’t do top therapy until you give them a medicine that gives them a longer fuse.” Dr. Kudler believes that what Dr. Vietin isn't the right way to approach someone with PTSD. With both thoughts from both doctors it can make a patient be more stressed. The different perspectives with the treatment causes many to rethink which treatment they should take. As in most patients if they were to go through one treatment, it could cause many outcomes, but the one that mostly happens with the medications is how they begin to go crazy and not get better, but it’s also like that with therapy. The current treatments of PTSD is still being figured out which is better, but for a fact is impacts the patient in a big way. The idea’s for treatments for PTSD at the moment, aren’t the best, but it’s all they have.
-May Be Natural or Man Made
Social isolation caused by the treatment for PTSD is more natural than man-made because if they are taking medications and they are having withdrawals such as feeling depressed, it is just their body reacting to the medication. However, what PTSD may originate from can be caused by past events that were natural or human made. For instance, in an article titled, “Post-traumatic stress disorder associated with natural and human-made disasters in the World Mental Health Surveys,” it states, “Natural and human-made disasters are increasingly common occurrences around the globe. Systematic research on development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following disasters has been undertaken for more than three decades, with most studies reporting only short-term consequences.” For instance, it would be considered “natural” if they gained PTSD from a natural disaster such as a tornado or volcanic eruption but, it would be “man-made” if they were in a vehicle accident, fought in a war, or were sexually assaulted.
Because the brain has experienced trauma, it causes the victim to be on edge 24/7. The memories stick with them like a piece of gum you stepped in- they come with you everywhere. For instance, say a woman was sexually assaulted by a man, she could be walking around anywhere and every man that she sees, she’s going to be terrified of because of what that one man did to her. The brain is constantly making you stay on your toes all the time. Because of this, many PTSD victims choose to avoid everything that even has the slightest potential to remind them of what they went through. According to an article written by Viatcheslav Wlassoff, it states, “Extensive neuroimaging studies on the brains of PTSD patients show that several regions differ structurally and functionally from those of healthy individuals. The amygdala, the hippocampus, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex play a role in triggering the typical symptoms of PTSD. These regions collectively impact the stress response mechanism in humans, so that the PTSD victim, even long after their experience, continues to perceive and respond to stress differently than someone who is not suffering the aftermath of trauma.” This meaning that those three main parts of the brain are the reason behind PTSD and the reason behind the victim being constantly reminded of their past trauma.
-Conflict May be Intentional or Unintentional
PTSD comes in many ways, and can and will be severe or mild within each patient, but there are so many unanswered questions at the moment to even know. The treatment will at times, cause social isolation which is unintentional, and is never meant to occur to the patient. Sometimes, the social isolation never resulted from the medication, but it was there before they decided to take it. Before the patients even realize they have PTSD, they will begin to isolate themselves, gradually. Then the treatment can make them worse, or better, which if the PTSD becomes worse, it’s definitely unintentional. When a patient takes a certain route for treatment and it doesn’t go well, there are multiple unanswered questions and many are wondering what had happened. In the article, “PTSD: overview of evidence based assessment and treatment,” it states, “ Experimental research additionally provides evidence that both biological and psychological interventions delivered relatively soon after trauma exposure have the potential to mitigate or even prevent (in the case of psychotherapy for Acute Stress Disorder) the development of PTSD.” The quote is basically stating that trying to help a patient in both, medication or therapy to fast to soon, can just makes things worse. There’s a possibility that, yes they are just trying to seek help, but right then and there isn’t the best and that’s what makes PTSD at times unintentional. But it’s always different when it comes to trying to seek help, the outcomes will be unexpected. In the same article as stated before, “Unfortunately, independent of the duration of the trial, the discontinuation of SSRIs is associated with the relapse of PTSD symptoms . In contrast, symptoms typically remain stable or continue to improve after completion of evidence-based psychotherapy for PTSD.” This quote explains that when people who suffer with ptsd get pharmacotherapy, there is a possibility that the person could relapse. The quotes give us an idea of how the treatments of ptsd vary and that some just don’t work as good as others, which is common, it happens. But if it goes wrong, it was an intentional situation that was never meant to happen.
-Conflict May Allow for Synthesis and Change
Throughout the years, the two main trends of treatment for PTSD is therapy and medications. Those two have different ways of usage for the patient using them. The conflict itself doesn’t really change as much as many would think because the treatments usually have been the same for the past couple of years. Each patient who has PTSD deals with it in a different way, some like the idea of therapy, others don’t. The conflict is usually based on the patients opinion, then from there the conflict either gets progressive or just is a minimal issue to handle. The treatment over the years, have been the same but in a way different from what it is today.In the article written by Matthew Friedman published in the US department of veterans Affairs, the researchers found,” it talks all about how over the years the treatment of PTSd and how it became what it is today. Over the years, they changed the way of diagnosing PTSD itself. “The DSM-III diagnostic criteria for PTSD were revised in DSM-III-R (1987), DSM-IV (1994), and DSM-IV-TR (2000) (2-5),” this explains how it had changed. Each DSM is a mental illness, and throughout the passed 30 ish years it has been changing how to diagnose a person with PTSD. Over the years, it might change again, but who knows. All people know at the moment is that, over the years ptsd and social isolation has become more important. In another video called “the courage to reach support”, it stated “Im a pretty extroverted amical person, but I didn’t want to do anything with anybody. I just sat in my room and drank all the time.” This was stated by a person who had suffered with PTSD and didn’t want to get help. Throughout the years, PTSD has become way different than it was before, it only changes among the person suffering. PTSD is an ongoing trend that’s different for each person. And PTSD has become worse because lately there have been really bad incidents to cause it.
-Conflict is Progressive
PTSD, can be progressive over time, but it is all up to the person who suffers with it. With each case, it is different and will be different for the treatment as well. If, for example the PTSD is severe, the treatment can be severe to the person and can also lead to conflict. When someone gets the treatment they need, and it’s not the best is can be, it will be progressive to the person’s life and affect their social life, which in most cases causes social isolation. There are those, who don’t realize they have PTSD and leave it to themselves, which is bad because in the long run, it will affect everything they deal with in life. In an article, “ Prolonged exposure For PTSD,” it states, “ People with PTSD often try to avoid anything that reminds them of the trauma. This can help you feel better in the moment, but not in the long term. Avoiding these feelings and situations actually keeps you from recovering from PTSD.” People who avoid getting treatment, is making things worse, which then of course it’s, over time becomes progressive. Whenever they don’t get help, the PTSD is causing problems in their life. PTSd is the main reason why when people suffer with it, things fall apart, it’s progressive in its own powerful way. With prolonged exposure treatment, it would have to the the kind of treatment that patients need to ease in and throughout time get used to. Another article called, “ Symptoms and effects of PTSD,” it states a list of problems PTSD can cause if it’s untreated and there is no help to the patient's life. “ People suffering from PTSD who do not receive treatment are also at risk for developing other mental health disorders or medical problems,” stated by the article. Without treatment, that’s one of the ways the patient's life will go downhill, and their mental issue will progress into something that isn't needed within time. S the treatment itself, isn’t the progressive part of the conflict, it’s those who don’t treat it. Then those who don’t treat cause themselves to get worse in life and causes themselves to have social isolation, not the treatment.
-Language of the Discipline
-Convergence
Child abuse, sexual assault, severe motor vehicle accidents, war, natural disasters, and near-death experiences are all components that converge and form PTSD in a patient that has experienced either one of these events. Medications that most PTSD victims take, such as antidepressants, can sometimes result in social isolation with the patient . However, in an article written by Mayo Clinic titled, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” it lists a plethora of symptoms that converge to “create” PTSD. For instance it lists, “Recurrent, unwanted distressing memories of the traumatic event, reliving the traumatic event as if it were happening again(flashbacks), upsetting dreams or nightmares about the traumatic event, etc.” There are a multitude of causes and effects that affect how patients might feel, especially if they are the only ones that are experiencing these PTSD stressors.
-Contribution
Withdrawals from remedies that are meant to “treat” PTSD have contributed to social isolation within victims of traumatic events from their past. However, the event itself is the majority of the reason behind their social isolation. As stated before, the patient will tend to feel very lonely and like they are the only ones in the world that feel that way which often leads to them isolating themselves from their families and society. A lot of these victims try to avoid things that could even have the littlest chance of reminding them of what happened to them which could even mean that they stay indoors all the time. In an article written by Gibson RL and Hartshorne TS, it states, “Victims of sexual abuse were found to be more lonely and less likely to utilize their social support system than the controls. Contrary to expectations, those who were in treatment were more lonely and less likely to use social support than those not in treatment.” This meaning that even victims of sexual abuse that had social support systems didn’t use them and just isolated themselves rather than get help and those in treatment were said to be more lonely than those not in treatment.
-Student Led Research ~ Our Method
Our group chose to do an interview because we thought that, doing an interview with someone who has dealt with PTSD or knows someone with PTSD would just give us more information. When doing this interview, it will give a more in depth idea of what was going through the person’s head. With the one interview, their information of what they have, will give our group a bigger idea of the affects of PTSD. It’s important for us to interview someone because, they themselves, have had genuine experiences with PTSD or people who suffer from PTSD. Therefore, we decided to interview a veteran who has had many colleagues suffer from PTSD.
-Interviewing An Expert
The person we interviewed for our project was a family friend of Nathalia’s family. He wants his identity to remain anonymous, but he served for 4 years as a marine (1987-1991) and was a sergeant communications platoon. We interviewed him thinking that he had PTSD, but he didn’t. However, he did know that some of his fellow marines did. He informed us that the military isn’t all about “people with guns shooting at each other” and that it was more like a regular every day job and only a small part of it was the “bad stuff.” Only around 15% of the military actually saw the “war” part of it. This did come as a surprise to us because we thought that it was all up in arms all of the time. He was stationed to Japan, The Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Iraq, Kuwait, Panama, and Honduras. Every single one of those places, the main focus was to help the people there and the communities they live in because of how brutal poverty was. So bad that he even said that he knew someone that got PTSD from seeing how “real poverty is.” He says, “he wasn’t crazy, but he thought about it often” and that he had a few sessions with a psychiatrist and that “instead of dwelling about it, he turned that negative into a positive and started doing charity work.” He put the different degrees of PTSD on a scale from 1-10, 1 being minor and 10 being worst case. Someone with an 8-10 level of PTSD he said will need stronger medications, psychological help, and put in an institution probably never recovering from it or, worst case scenario, committing suicide. He says that he has seen things that would “turn your stomach and burn holes through your eyeballs,” and that he dealt with it in his own way, through religion. This was something we never really thought of, but it was his #1 form of “treatment” which leaves talking to other people who have experienced similar things as his #2 form of treatment.
With the main idea, the two sides of conflict is the current treatment of PTSD, and the social isolation those with PTSD suffer from different perspectives. Throughout people who suffer with ptsd, there are multiple types of treatments, which many do and don’t agree with. Each treatment there is, there are always going to be different perspectives on how they can and will affect the patient. For example, in the Youtube video, “Are medications an effective PTSD treatment?”, it states “The Medications are delivered to the warriors as if they treat something, they don’t treat anything. All psychiatric medications either stimulate or sedate.” This was stated by Dr. Mary Vietin, who shows and tells that she is against medicine for PTSD in multiple ways. She then goes on to explain how they don’t help in any type of way. When those who don’t agree with the different treatments, it can cause the patients to think differently and feel the need to want better help. Also in the same exact video, Dr. Harold Kudler states, “ I learned in PTSD there are people who can’t do top therapy until you give them a medicine that gives them a longer fuse.” Dr. Kudler believes that what Dr. Vietin isn't the right way to approach someone with PTSD. With both thoughts from both doctors it can make a patient be more stressed. The different perspectives with the treatment causes many to rethink which treatment they should take. As in most patients if they were to go through one treatment, it could cause many outcomes, but the one that mostly happens with the medications is how they begin to go crazy and not get better, but it’s also like that with therapy. The current treatments of PTSD is still being figured out which is better, but for a fact is impacts the patient in a big way. The idea’s for treatments for PTSD at the moment, aren’t the best, but it’s all they have.
-May Be Natural or Man Made
Social isolation caused by the treatment for PTSD is more natural than man-made because if they are taking medications and they are having withdrawals such as feeling depressed, it is just their body reacting to the medication. However, what PTSD may originate from can be caused by past events that were natural or human made. For instance, in an article titled, “Post-traumatic stress disorder associated with natural and human-made disasters in the World Mental Health Surveys,” it states, “Natural and human-made disasters are increasingly common occurrences around the globe. Systematic research on development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following disasters has been undertaken for more than three decades, with most studies reporting only short-term consequences.” For instance, it would be considered “natural” if they gained PTSD from a natural disaster such as a tornado or volcanic eruption but, it would be “man-made” if they were in a vehicle accident, fought in a war, or were sexually assaulted.
Because the brain has experienced trauma, it causes the victim to be on edge 24/7. The memories stick with them like a piece of gum you stepped in- they come with you everywhere. For instance, say a woman was sexually assaulted by a man, she could be walking around anywhere and every man that she sees, she’s going to be terrified of because of what that one man did to her. The brain is constantly making you stay on your toes all the time. Because of this, many PTSD victims choose to avoid everything that even has the slightest potential to remind them of what they went through. According to an article written by Viatcheslav Wlassoff, it states, “Extensive neuroimaging studies on the brains of PTSD patients show that several regions differ structurally and functionally from those of healthy individuals. The amygdala, the hippocampus, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex play a role in triggering the typical symptoms of PTSD. These regions collectively impact the stress response mechanism in humans, so that the PTSD victim, even long after their experience, continues to perceive and respond to stress differently than someone who is not suffering the aftermath of trauma.” This meaning that those three main parts of the brain are the reason behind PTSD and the reason behind the victim being constantly reminded of their past trauma.
-Conflict May be Intentional or Unintentional
PTSD comes in many ways, and can and will be severe or mild within each patient, but there are so many unanswered questions at the moment to even know. The treatment will at times, cause social isolation which is unintentional, and is never meant to occur to the patient. Sometimes, the social isolation never resulted from the medication, but it was there before they decided to take it. Before the patients even realize they have PTSD, they will begin to isolate themselves, gradually. Then the treatment can make them worse, or better, which if the PTSD becomes worse, it’s definitely unintentional. When a patient takes a certain route for treatment and it doesn’t go well, there are multiple unanswered questions and many are wondering what had happened. In the article, “PTSD: overview of evidence based assessment and treatment,” it states, “ Experimental research additionally provides evidence that both biological and psychological interventions delivered relatively soon after trauma exposure have the potential to mitigate or even prevent (in the case of psychotherapy for Acute Stress Disorder) the development of PTSD.” The quote is basically stating that trying to help a patient in both, medication or therapy to fast to soon, can just makes things worse. There’s a possibility that, yes they are just trying to seek help, but right then and there isn’t the best and that’s what makes PTSD at times unintentional. But it’s always different when it comes to trying to seek help, the outcomes will be unexpected. In the same article as stated before, “Unfortunately, independent of the duration of the trial, the discontinuation of SSRIs is associated with the relapse of PTSD symptoms . In contrast, symptoms typically remain stable or continue to improve after completion of evidence-based psychotherapy for PTSD.” This quote explains that when people who suffer with ptsd get pharmacotherapy, there is a possibility that the person could relapse. The quotes give us an idea of how the treatments of ptsd vary and that some just don’t work as good as others, which is common, it happens. But if it goes wrong, it was an intentional situation that was never meant to happen.
-Conflict May Allow for Synthesis and Change
Throughout the years, the two main trends of treatment for PTSD is therapy and medications. Those two have different ways of usage for the patient using them. The conflict itself doesn’t really change as much as many would think because the treatments usually have been the same for the past couple of years. Each patient who has PTSD deals with it in a different way, some like the idea of therapy, others don’t. The conflict is usually based on the patients opinion, then from there the conflict either gets progressive or just is a minimal issue to handle. The treatment over the years, have been the same but in a way different from what it is today.In the article written by Matthew Friedman published in the US department of veterans Affairs, the researchers found,” it talks all about how over the years the treatment of PTSd and how it became what it is today. Over the years, they changed the way of diagnosing PTSD itself. “The DSM-III diagnostic criteria for PTSD were revised in DSM-III-R (1987), DSM-IV (1994), and DSM-IV-TR (2000) (2-5),” this explains how it had changed. Each DSM is a mental illness, and throughout the passed 30 ish years it has been changing how to diagnose a person with PTSD. Over the years, it might change again, but who knows. All people know at the moment is that, over the years ptsd and social isolation has become more important. In another video called “the courage to reach support”, it stated “Im a pretty extroverted amical person, but I didn’t want to do anything with anybody. I just sat in my room and drank all the time.” This was stated by a person who had suffered with PTSD and didn’t want to get help. Throughout the years, PTSD has become way different than it was before, it only changes among the person suffering. PTSD is an ongoing trend that’s different for each person. And PTSD has become worse because lately there have been really bad incidents to cause it.
-Conflict is Progressive
PTSD, can be progressive over time, but it is all up to the person who suffers with it. With each case, it is different and will be different for the treatment as well. If, for example the PTSD is severe, the treatment can be severe to the person and can also lead to conflict. When someone gets the treatment they need, and it’s not the best is can be, it will be progressive to the person’s life and affect their social life, which in most cases causes social isolation. There are those, who don’t realize they have PTSD and leave it to themselves, which is bad because in the long run, it will affect everything they deal with in life. In an article, “ Prolonged exposure For PTSD,” it states, “ People with PTSD often try to avoid anything that reminds them of the trauma. This can help you feel better in the moment, but not in the long term. Avoiding these feelings and situations actually keeps you from recovering from PTSD.” People who avoid getting treatment, is making things worse, which then of course it’s, over time becomes progressive. Whenever they don’t get help, the PTSD is causing problems in their life. PTSd is the main reason why when people suffer with it, things fall apart, it’s progressive in its own powerful way. With prolonged exposure treatment, it would have to the the kind of treatment that patients need to ease in and throughout time get used to. Another article called, “ Symptoms and effects of PTSD,” it states a list of problems PTSD can cause if it’s untreated and there is no help to the patient's life. “ People suffering from PTSD who do not receive treatment are also at risk for developing other mental health disorders or medical problems,” stated by the article. Without treatment, that’s one of the ways the patient's life will go downhill, and their mental issue will progress into something that isn't needed within time. S the treatment itself, isn’t the progressive part of the conflict, it’s those who don’t treat it. Then those who don’t treat cause themselves to get worse in life and causes themselves to have social isolation, not the treatment.
-Language of the Discipline
- PTSD(post-traumatic stress disorder): PTSD is a form of anxiety and depression that people who have survived a traumatic event such as war, sexual assault, or severe motor vehicle accidents have. They can have a various amount of symptoms. For instance, a veteran can hear a firework explode and that can automatically trigger memories from war.
- Social Isolation: Social isolation is a state of mind where you don’t want to have any contact with other individuals or society.
- Treatment: Treatment for PTSD can vary from antidepressants, therapy, and even a new form of therapy called art therapy where veterans express themselves and their feelings through painting, drawing, etc. As for therapy, there are three types. Prolonged Exposure(PE) is where you face your negative feelings, talking about your trauma, and doing the things that you have been avoiding since the trauma. The second is Cognitive Processing Therapy(CPT). This is when you express your negative thoughts about the event differently than how you initially expressed it and doing short writing assignments. Finally, there is Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing(EMDR). This helps you process and make sense of the trauma while you focus on the event while also focusing on a back-and-forth movement or sound like a finger moving side-to-side. (PTSD: National Center for PTSD)
- Global: In the past few years, the PTSD rates have gone up to about 13% around the world. In that percentage, those who have suffered with PTSD in some type of way do not share the same experiences. The war zones of different places are the biggest cause as to why so many people are suffering with PTSD. The different types of PTSD affects the patient in a similar way, but then again doesn’t, because each patient suffers with the symptoms differently. Over time, this can affect people by their mental health, relationships with others around them, and not caring about themselves the most.
- Community: PTSD can be harmful for our community because we have lots of veterans who come from fighting oversees, we have school shootings, mass shootings, crime, natural disasters, and violent experiences that cause trauma to people. These events are out of our control, but the way we process and help people heal in our community can make us safer and stronger.
-Convergence
Child abuse, sexual assault, severe motor vehicle accidents, war, natural disasters, and near-death experiences are all components that converge and form PTSD in a patient that has experienced either one of these events. Medications that most PTSD victims take, such as antidepressants, can sometimes result in social isolation with the patient . However, in an article written by Mayo Clinic titled, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” it lists a plethora of symptoms that converge to “create” PTSD. For instance it lists, “Recurrent, unwanted distressing memories of the traumatic event, reliving the traumatic event as if it were happening again(flashbacks), upsetting dreams or nightmares about the traumatic event, etc.” There are a multitude of causes and effects that affect how patients might feel, especially if they are the only ones that are experiencing these PTSD stressors.
-Contribution
Withdrawals from remedies that are meant to “treat” PTSD have contributed to social isolation within victims of traumatic events from their past. However, the event itself is the majority of the reason behind their social isolation. As stated before, the patient will tend to feel very lonely and like they are the only ones in the world that feel that way which often leads to them isolating themselves from their families and society. A lot of these victims try to avoid things that could even have the littlest chance of reminding them of what happened to them which could even mean that they stay indoors all the time. In an article written by Gibson RL and Hartshorne TS, it states, “Victims of sexual abuse were found to be more lonely and less likely to utilize their social support system than the controls. Contrary to expectations, those who were in treatment were more lonely and less likely to use social support than those not in treatment.” This meaning that even victims of sexual abuse that had social support systems didn’t use them and just isolated themselves rather than get help and those in treatment were said to be more lonely than those not in treatment.
-Student Led Research ~ Our Method
Our group chose to do an interview because we thought that, doing an interview with someone who has dealt with PTSD or knows someone with PTSD would just give us more information. When doing this interview, it will give a more in depth idea of what was going through the person’s head. With the one interview, their information of what they have, will give our group a bigger idea of the affects of PTSD. It’s important for us to interview someone because, they themselves, have had genuine experiences with PTSD or people who suffer from PTSD. Therefore, we decided to interview a veteran who has had many colleagues suffer from PTSD.
-Interviewing An Expert
The person we interviewed for our project was a family friend of Nathalia’s family. He wants his identity to remain anonymous, but he served for 4 years as a marine (1987-1991) and was a sergeant communications platoon. We interviewed him thinking that he had PTSD, but he didn’t. However, he did know that some of his fellow marines did. He informed us that the military isn’t all about “people with guns shooting at each other” and that it was more like a regular every day job and only a small part of it was the “bad stuff.” Only around 15% of the military actually saw the “war” part of it. This did come as a surprise to us because we thought that it was all up in arms all of the time. He was stationed to Japan, The Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Iraq, Kuwait, Panama, and Honduras. Every single one of those places, the main focus was to help the people there and the communities they live in because of how brutal poverty was. So bad that he even said that he knew someone that got PTSD from seeing how “real poverty is.” He says, “he wasn’t crazy, but he thought about it often” and that he had a few sessions with a psychiatrist and that “instead of dwelling about it, he turned that negative into a positive and started doing charity work.” He put the different degrees of PTSD on a scale from 1-10, 1 being minor and 10 being worst case. Someone with an 8-10 level of PTSD he said will need stronger medications, psychological help, and put in an institution probably never recovering from it or, worst case scenario, committing suicide. He says that he has seen things that would “turn your stomach and burn holes through your eyeballs,” and that he dealt with it in his own way, through religion. This was something we never really thought of, but it was his #1 form of “treatment” which leaves talking to other people who have experienced similar things as his #2 form of treatment.
Gate Symposium Reflections (1-4)
#1- All of our articles were basically about how people with PTSD cope with it, whether it be by using medications like antidepressants/anxiety pills or going to therapy and getting help through cognitive therapy or other types. For instance, a couple of the articles Desiree and I found actually talked about what one experiences after they go through a traumatic event such as after war, assault, or severe motor vehicle accidents(MVA). They said that the most common symptoms of PTSD are flashbacks, aggression, sensitivity to certain things, nightmares, recurrent memories, insomnia, etc. What I didn’t know about PTSD that I found out with our research was that if someone, who let’s say just got back from fighting in the army, hears something as simple as a firework explode, it can trigger memories from the war and remind them of everything that happened and it would feel like the whole thing was happening all over again. Me and Desiree did change our topic a few times but we decided to just stick with this.
#2- All of our research was pretty much about all the same thing; the medications that the veterans use and/or therapy they used all well. But, what we did find out that was very interesting was that some veterans actually use art as a form to cope with their PTSD and it can help some veterans, not all, overcome it. We also learned of other types of therapy that can be used for PTSD patients. There is Prolonged Exposure(PE), this is where the patient faces everything that they have been avoiding since the event so that can build up sort of an immunity to it, Cognitive Processing Therapy(CPT) where they would express what they feel differently than how they first started, and finally Eye-Movement Disensitization and Reprocessing(EMDR) where the patient focuses on the memories from their past while focusing on a back and forth movement or sound. As for the SLR portion of our project, we initially were going to interview someone that Desiree’s mom knows, but it didn’t work out so we decided to do a survey. Then I found out that my mom knew someone who is a veteran and we decided to interview him and it worked out really well. We prepared a list of 10 questions we were going to ask him such as which of the 5 branches of military he served in, how long he served and how long has it been since he served, and what his position was. We were going to interview him because we thought he had PTSD, but he didn’t. Fortunately, he knew people that did have PTSD so he was able to talk to me about how he has seen them cope with it and how they might feel. The interview was quite short because half of the questions only applied to if he did have PTSD. So, it ended quickly but he sent me a letter the following day regarding the interview and he talked alot about his form of “healing” which was through talking to people that went through the same things and by practicing his religion as well. The letter was actually very informative and helped us sort of look at the military and PTSD victims through a different perspective. Probably the most difficult part about the project is agreeing on certain things, but we eventually compromise and find a grey area where both of us are happy. Other than that, we have been working very well together.
#3- Everything we know about our conflict topic right now is pretty much the same as the last time. I found that I work really well when it comes to group activities especially just having a partner because each of us do half and half. If me and Desiree ever disagree on something, I’m usually pretty good at finding a solution. So, what we have on our trifold is pretty simple yet you kind of have to look at it a little to understand what’s going on which is exactly what we were going for. We have a silhouette of a person that is gradually faded away over time. This symbolizes how one with PTSD begins to get more and more isolated away from society. On the right side/flap there is a pill bottle of antidepressants called Prozac which is pretty self-explanatory because it’s one of the forms of “treatment” for PTSD patients. On the other side/flap is a therapy appointment reminder slip which is also another form of “treatment.” Also, on the same side with the appointment slip, there is little calendars scattered around our ISD papers that symbolize the “overtime” portion of our driving question. The side with the antidepressants also has a “doctor’s note” that just defines what PTSD means in case someone doesn’t know. As for the driving question, I sketched out a brain on a board in which we cut out and painted all over with an assortment of dark colors. This is actually my favorite part about our board because we actually used some colors that symbolized different “events” that PTSD can originate from. For example, we used red to portray war and chaos. What was interesting that we found out was that there is actually a month dedicated to people with PTSD, PTSD Awareness Month and it’s symbolizing color is teal which is also the color for sexual assault/abuse awareness and anxiety disorder as well as the color blue for child abuse awareness which all kind of ties in to PTSD. That is why all of the ISD papers on our board have a teal border. For our supplemental/creative piece we are cutting out a bunch of people from cardboard. There is going to be one person in the middle but that is isolated by 4 brick walls. There is going to be examples of traumatic events that make the brick wall and people standing outside of the walls obviously. Like I said, our collaboration is going really well.
#4- Our driving question is: Do current treatments for PTSD contribute to a patient’s social isolation over time? We didn’t really have ot fix things when we looked over it although when Ms. Park was looking over our ISD and Relevant Resolution, we had to fix quite a few things. Even when we had it all printed out, pasted on the board, all finished, we did find some typos and stuff that didn’t sound right. But regardless, everything else was pretty good. I learned that even though it wasn’t a topic that me and Desiree really wanted to do, as we learned more and more about PTSD and people that cope with it, it started to get really interesting and we learned so much about it that we didn’t even expect to learn. PTSD is something that really isn’t talked about at all, which is very unfortunate considering the fact that it can happen to anyone-anything can happen at ANY time which can potentially cause the person to have PTSD. I felt very confident surprisingly even though I did stutter alot when I was talking. Some people came that only spoke Spanish and I tried my best to make sense of our project for them. Collaborating with my partner was very smooth- we had disagreements like any other group did, but we eventually agreed on whatver it was we were arguing about. I actually really liked the way that our board came out to be quite honest, I thought it was creative and the art piece as well- Desiree did such a great job on it. Therefore I’m not sure if we would’ve done anything differently. One peice of adive I would give to incoming students is 1. DO NOT procrastinate, the little due dates are there to help you get stuff done little by little, 2. Pick people that you know will help you do the work, preferably just you and a partner that way it’s easier to divide the work amongst the two, and 3. Do your project on something that hasn’t been done or a conflict that isn’t talked about alot, but needs to be. For instance, PTSD isn’t talked about at all so it was a topic that we learned SO much about, some of the stuff we learned we didn’t even think about until we did research. Actually, we didn’t even know that PTSD was so common and that it can come so easily because anything can happen at any time.
#2- All of our research was pretty much about all the same thing; the medications that the veterans use and/or therapy they used all well. But, what we did find out that was very interesting was that some veterans actually use art as a form to cope with their PTSD and it can help some veterans, not all, overcome it. We also learned of other types of therapy that can be used for PTSD patients. There is Prolonged Exposure(PE), this is where the patient faces everything that they have been avoiding since the event so that can build up sort of an immunity to it, Cognitive Processing Therapy(CPT) where they would express what they feel differently than how they first started, and finally Eye-Movement Disensitization and Reprocessing(EMDR) where the patient focuses on the memories from their past while focusing on a back and forth movement or sound. As for the SLR portion of our project, we initially were going to interview someone that Desiree’s mom knows, but it didn’t work out so we decided to do a survey. Then I found out that my mom knew someone who is a veteran and we decided to interview him and it worked out really well. We prepared a list of 10 questions we were going to ask him such as which of the 5 branches of military he served in, how long he served and how long has it been since he served, and what his position was. We were going to interview him because we thought he had PTSD, but he didn’t. Fortunately, he knew people that did have PTSD so he was able to talk to me about how he has seen them cope with it and how they might feel. The interview was quite short because half of the questions only applied to if he did have PTSD. So, it ended quickly but he sent me a letter the following day regarding the interview and he talked alot about his form of “healing” which was through talking to people that went through the same things and by practicing his religion as well. The letter was actually very informative and helped us sort of look at the military and PTSD victims through a different perspective. Probably the most difficult part about the project is agreeing on certain things, but we eventually compromise and find a grey area where both of us are happy. Other than that, we have been working very well together.
#3- Everything we know about our conflict topic right now is pretty much the same as the last time. I found that I work really well when it comes to group activities especially just having a partner because each of us do half and half. If me and Desiree ever disagree on something, I’m usually pretty good at finding a solution. So, what we have on our trifold is pretty simple yet you kind of have to look at it a little to understand what’s going on which is exactly what we were going for. We have a silhouette of a person that is gradually faded away over time. This symbolizes how one with PTSD begins to get more and more isolated away from society. On the right side/flap there is a pill bottle of antidepressants called Prozac which is pretty self-explanatory because it’s one of the forms of “treatment” for PTSD patients. On the other side/flap is a therapy appointment reminder slip which is also another form of “treatment.” Also, on the same side with the appointment slip, there is little calendars scattered around our ISD papers that symbolize the “overtime” portion of our driving question. The side with the antidepressants also has a “doctor’s note” that just defines what PTSD means in case someone doesn’t know. As for the driving question, I sketched out a brain on a board in which we cut out and painted all over with an assortment of dark colors. This is actually my favorite part about our board because we actually used some colors that symbolized different “events” that PTSD can originate from. For example, we used red to portray war and chaos. What was interesting that we found out was that there is actually a month dedicated to people with PTSD, PTSD Awareness Month and it’s symbolizing color is teal which is also the color for sexual assault/abuse awareness and anxiety disorder as well as the color blue for child abuse awareness which all kind of ties in to PTSD. That is why all of the ISD papers on our board have a teal border. For our supplemental/creative piece we are cutting out a bunch of people from cardboard. There is going to be one person in the middle but that is isolated by 4 brick walls. There is going to be examples of traumatic events that make the brick wall and people standing outside of the walls obviously. Like I said, our collaboration is going really well.
#4- Our driving question is: Do current treatments for PTSD contribute to a patient’s social isolation over time? We didn’t really have ot fix things when we looked over it although when Ms. Park was looking over our ISD and Relevant Resolution, we had to fix quite a few things. Even when we had it all printed out, pasted on the board, all finished, we did find some typos and stuff that didn’t sound right. But regardless, everything else was pretty good. I learned that even though it wasn’t a topic that me and Desiree really wanted to do, as we learned more and more about PTSD and people that cope with it, it started to get really interesting and we learned so much about it that we didn’t even expect to learn. PTSD is something that really isn’t talked about at all, which is very unfortunate considering the fact that it can happen to anyone-anything can happen at ANY time which can potentially cause the person to have PTSD. I felt very confident surprisingly even though I did stutter alot when I was talking. Some people came that only spoke Spanish and I tried my best to make sense of our project for them. Collaborating with my partner was very smooth- we had disagreements like any other group did, but we eventually agreed on whatver it was we were arguing about. I actually really liked the way that our board came out to be quite honest, I thought it was creative and the art piece as well- Desiree did such a great job on it. Therefore I’m not sure if we would’ve done anything differently. One peice of adive I would give to incoming students is 1. DO NOT procrastinate, the little due dates are there to help you get stuff done little by little, 2. Pick people that you know will help you do the work, preferably just you and a partner that way it’s easier to divide the work amongst the two, and 3. Do your project on something that hasn’t been done or a conflict that isn’t talked about alot, but needs to be. For instance, PTSD isn’t talked about at all so it was a topic that we learned SO much about, some of the stuff we learned we didn’t even think about until we did research. Actually, we didn’t even know that PTSD was so common and that it can come so easily because anything can happen at any time.
