Situations, people in life, and emotional feelings, are all bound to cause psychological stress or relaxation. When an outcome of any ordeal is stressful, human beings are found to devise methods of tackling them. Religion is relied upon, as a shield, to cope with many people’s stressors (Krause & Pargament, 2018). To innumerable individuals, religion acts to appease their souls which may have been wrecked through undergoing a stressful situation. More specifically, some people read the Bible intending to help them learn to accept their life problems (Krause & Pargament, 2018). The Bible, in that case, provides a sense of hope and relief which leads to relaxation. Essentially, there is at least a relationship between scripture reading and stress.
In the Bible, David experienced numerous distressing situations but always asked for God’s intervention. In 1 Samuel 30:1-31 (King James Bible Online, 1769/n.d.), Amalekites exploited the opportunity of David and his men’s absence in the south city of Ziklag to invade it. Drawn into captivity were the town’s women including two of David’s spouses, Ahinoam and Abigail. When David returned to the metropolis, he found a deserted torched city. Meanwhile, the people of Ziklag were upset and spoke of stoning David, because of their captured women, sons, and daughters. However, David strengthened himself on the Lord, and after acquiring priestly apparel from Abiathar the priest, he enquires from God whether to chase the Amalekites. In conclusion, the lesson learnt is that we should seek God in prayers when facing stressful situations.
References
King James Bible Online. (n.d). 1st Samuel Chapter 30. Web.
Krause, N., & Pargament, K. (2018). Studying the Bible, frustrating life happenings, and expectation: Evaluating a missed coping scheme. Religion and Health, 57(4), 1428-1439. Web.
Posttraumatic stress is a disorder caused by emotions and it is categorized as an anxiety disorder. Posttraumatic stress disorder develops after an individual has experienced a frightening, highly unsafe or life-threatening experience (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
Individuals with posttraumatic disorder experience the traumatic event again and again, and because of re-experiences, they tend to retrain from visiting places that might remind them of the event, people who might reignite memories of traumatic experiences or things associated with the traumatic event.
This disorder can affect individuals who experienced the traumatic event personally, witnessed the event or those who collect the pieces at the site the event occurred; this include legal officers and emergency workers (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
Sometimes the trauma event can affect those close to an individual who experienced the event, they include friends and relatives. Some of the traumatic events include a terrorist attack, when an individual is diagnosed with an illness that is life threatening, natural disaster, being kidnapped, being a war prisoner, military combat, serious accidents, and violent assaults such as robbery, sexual harassment, abuse and physical attack.
In the case of Mary, who is a police officer, she experienced a traumatic event when she was travelling in a police car; the police car was driven at a high speed at a roundabout and because of the failure of brakes, the car crashed into a wall. Following the crash, she suffered injuries and could not walk for five weeks.
For Mary, this was just one of the serious accidents she had experienced, although this was the most serious. She has experienced repeated car accidents, and this has exposed her to the development of complex posttraumatic stress disorder.
Individual with complex posttraumatic disorder present symptoms that include intrusive thoughts; these individuals might experience intrusive thoughts through flashbacks where they re-experience the traumatic events or sometimes feel the pain experienced during the event reoccurring (Smyth et al, 2002). Some patients manifest intrusive thoughts through dreaming about the traumatic events experienced, and this leads to sleep disturbance or insomnia.
These individuals mostly avoid smells, touch, taste and any other sensation, which reminds them of the experienced traumatic event; they tend to avoid people such as friends, workmates and family members, and places such as home and work place, which will revive the traumatic memories (Smyth et al, 2002).
When they do this, they lose interest in their favorite activities and feel totally detached from people close to them. They always fear of the future and always feel unsafe. When people suffering from complex posttraumatic stress disorder engage in avoidance behavior, they experience emotional numbness.
These people are also faced with challenges of hyper-arousal; they experience panic attacks more often and this can make them feel angry and irritated. Prolonged attacks and stress can lead to memory lose and low concentration levels (Newman et al, 1996). The sufferer sometimes feels jumpy, and he or she is easily startled, the sufferer can also be hyper-vigilant, couscous and alert because he or she thinks that the event will happen again.
In extreme cases, the sufferer feels depressed and hopeless, and because of this, the sufferer experiences suicidal feelings and thoughts. They also feel alone and alienated from the other people, physical pains and aching of the body. If the case is not handled during its early stages, it might lead to substance abuse or criminal activities.
Symptoms of complex posttraumatic stress disorder vary from one individual to another, and this depends on the traumatic event; whether it is an accident, a sexual arousal, military combat, among others (Newman et al, 1996). It also depends on the exposure of the sufferer to similar traumatic events and how intense the exposure was.
Considering the case of Mary, she was exposed to three serious car accidents, and after some months, she started experiencing fear of the similar accidents happening again. She avoided any situation where she was driven by another person; this is seen in her reaction when her husband speeds the car after realizing that they were late for a social engagement function. According to Mary, over-speeding would lead to an accident that is similar to the ones she had experienced in the past; she even brakes down in tears.
She has lost trust in people around her; she fears that they would cause an accident if they drove her, even if they promise to drive her slowly and carefully. She can only trust herself; therefore, she could drive herself without too much distress. She tries to avoid police cars as much as possible; this is because the traumatic accidents she had experienced happened when she was being driven in a police car. When she is told to move from her desk job to street policing, she feels that they are putting her back to the place where she experienced her traumatic accidents; this makes her to panic and feels stressed by the change her job location.
Mary experiences intrusive thoughts, which are manifested in her flashbacks of the accident; she could see potential accidents all over. This makes her break in tears as her husband her at a high speed, and when other people offer to drive her carefully and slowly.
Mary is always hyper-vigilant when driving or being driven; when her husband over-speeds, she feels that the speed is too much and can cause a serious accident. This makes her watch over her husband’s way of driving to prevent him from causing an accident.
It is not a guarantee that each individual who experiences traumatic events would develop posttraumatic stress disorder. This is because each person has a different way of reacting to traumatic events (Smyth et al, 2002). Also, people have different abilities and ways in which they manage their stress and fear.
After a traumatic experience, the support offered by people close to the person such as friends, professionals and family members determine the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (Newman et al, 1996).
In Mary’s case, she has already developed posttraumatic stress disorder; this is because she has registered symptoms of posttraumatic stress, which are evident several months after the traumatic events. Therefore, Mary requires to seek help from professionals; there are several treatments available for posttraumatic stress disorder patients.
Cognitive processing therapy is among these treatments, this is a type of treatment that involves counseling with an aim of giving the patient a new way of handling distressing thoughts, and at the same time understands the traumatic events (National Center for TSD, 2006). This type of therapy is also directed to change the way the patient look at herself considering Mary’s case, and the world around her; this is because one’s thoughts and perception have a direct on his or her actions and feelings.
If Mary chooses to use Cognitive Processing therapy, then she will have to go through the following steps. First she will learn about her PTSD symptoms diagnosed by the professional and how therapy can help her. Mary will be given the whole plan for the therapy together with the explanation of the skills involved and their importance.
Secondly, Mary will be made aware of her thoughts and feelings; this is meant to find out why the thoughts and feelings happen, i.e. why Mary re-experiences the thoughts and feelings on the serious accidents she had experienced. She will have a chance to learn how to pay attention to her thoughts and feelings about the traumatic accidents.
Mary will also be given a chance to think about her trauma in different ways and how it has changed her life; this is done through writing or talking to the therapist (Chapman et al, 2005). The third step is that Mary will now learn skills that will help her challenge her thoughts; she will be given worksheets and allowed to decide on how she wants to feel and think about her trauma.
The skills she will have learnt will also help her to deal with the day-to-day life. After using the skills and gone through the trauma, Mary will have to understand changes in her beliefs about her self-esteem, control, safety and trust and her relationships with other people (National Institute of Mental Health, 2006). It is by understanding her beliefs that she will find a balance between her beliefs before and after the trauma.
Another treatment, which can apply to Mary’s case is prolonged exposure therapy; in this type of therapy, Mary will repeatedly be exposed to situations, thoughts and feelings about serious car accidents involving police cars. The exposure is meant to reduce the distress causing the trauma by reducing the power the trauma has to cause distress.
Mary will have to go through four steps to complete this therapy; first, she will attend the briefing of the treatment and learn more about her symptoms; the briefing will help her understand the goals set for the treatment (Chapman et al, 2005). The next step is practicing the skill of restraining her breathe; this skill will help her relax.
During anxious and or scary situations, people tend to breathe fast and if Mary learns to control her breathing, then she can manage her distress in the short-term (Keane and Friedman, 2000). These exposures will also help Mary to deal with real-world situations; she will learn to approach safe situations, which she avoided: she avoided being driven, even when it was done slowly and careful.
This exposure will help her lessen her distress with time, and when the distress reduces, she will have more control over her life. Mary will also be allowed to talk about her trauma over and over in the presence of her therapist; this will help her to have full control over her feelings and thoughts.
Through the exposure, Mary will learn that she does not have to be afraid of memories of traumatic accidents. This type of therapy might be hard at times because she will have to think of stressful things about serious accidents involving police cars but with time she will feel better.
Apart from seeking professional help, Mary can choose to help herself through challenging her sense of helplessness. When Mary experiences trauma, she feels powerless and vulnerable; therefore, she has to pin down the feelings by reminding herself that she is strong and tough; this will help her overcome distress that comes with the trauma (Bell et al, 2008).
Mary also has an option of the Eye Movement Desensitization; this form of treatment will be performed by a therapist when Mary is thinking about the trauma. The therapist will waive his or her hand in front of Mary as she follows the movement of his or her hand with her eyes (National Center for PTSD, 2008). This will help Mary’s brain to process her memories about the accidents reducing negative thoughts about the accidents.
Sometimes in cases of anxiety and depression, she can choose to take medicine such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors or sedatives to help her to relax. There are people who choose to calm themselves down or want to forget traumatic events through taking of alcohol and drug abuse (Bell et al, 2008). This might help them forget for sometimes, but in the long-run it has severe effects; it might cause drug addiction or suicide.
Posttraumatic stress disorder can affect anyone who is subjected to traumatic activities; however, the development of this disorder depends on an individual. Posttraumatic stress disorder development can be prevented by the family members and friends of the sufferer through support and understanding (Callaghan, 2004). If an individual is shows signs PTSD, it is advised to seek medical help to avoid complications such as drug abuse, which might develop in the later stages.
Reference List
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fourth edition. Washington: American Psychiatric Association.
Bell, P. et al. (2008). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Northern Ireland. Acta Psych, 12(2), pp.160-166.
Callaghan, P. (2004). Exercise: a neglected intervention in mental health care? Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 11(2), pp. 476-483.
Chapman, D. et al. (2005). Is resilience in your future? WELCOA Special Report. New York: Wellness Councils of America.
Keane, T. and Friedman, M. (2000). Effective Treatments for PTSD: Practical Guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. New York: Guilford Press.
National Center for PTSD. (2008). U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. What is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Web.
National Center for PTSD. (2006). U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Treatment of PTSD. Web.
National Institute of Mental Health. (2006). Anxiety Disorders. Web.
Newman, E. et al. (1996). The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body and society. Journal of psychiatric, 23(5), pp.242-275.
Acute Stress response, also termed as psychological shock or mental shock, is psychosomatic state of affairs resulting to reactions to a frightening or hurtful situation. However, the term is frequently confused with another related condition called acute stress disorder. It should be noted that the two are different in a number of ways.
Walter Cannon explained acute stress reaction as a condition whereby animals respond to threats, with general discharge of sympathetic nervous system. Psychology scholars developed the theory in subsequent years and arrived at a conclusion that it is a general adaptation syndrome, which controls stress reactions among all vertebrates, as well as other organisms.
It therefore follows that the reaction of the body towards a stress is linked to specific physiological acts in the sympathetic nervous system. This could be either direct response or indirect response, which would be through the discharge of adrenaline or at least noradrenalin (Jeffrey, & Everly, 1996). This would be discharged from the medulla of the adrenal glands.
Stress reaction is a complex process because catecholamine hormones are in charge of facilitating instant physical responses by simply triggering augmented heart rate, as well as breathing.
When this happens, blood vessels are constricted hence facilitating spontaneous or intuitive behaviors that would be associated to combat or in some cases escape.
On the other hand, acute stress disorder is the outcome of a traumatic state of affairs that an individual experiences. It also occurs when an individual comes across an event that might lead him or her to experience severe, disconcerting or unpredicted fear, anxiety or pain.
Such pain might perhaps threaten an individual leading to serious injury, perception of a serious harm or even his or her own death or death of another person. From the definition, acute stress reaction is different from acute stress disorder.
In fact, acute stress reaction is a variant to post-traumatic stress disorder. In other words, it is the reaction of the body or the mind towards the deep feelings, which might be either perceived or real feelings. In this case, an individual feels helpless (Bryant, 2000).
This paper will attempt to differentiate between acute stress response and acute stress disorder. The paper will go a notch higher to discuss the symptoms, treatment strategies, including spiritual and professional treatment, and finally the impact of the symptoms to human behavior.
Differences between Acute Stress Disorder and Acute Stress Reaction
The conditions of stress differ more as regards to symptoms. For acute stress reaction, the victim feels an initial state of shock with a number of limitations in terms of consciousness and contraction of attention.
Moreover, an individual develops a unique condition that makes him or unable to comprehend the body stimuli, which might actually disorient an individual. When this happens, an individual tends to withdraw from the rest of societal members.
In this regard, an individual would develop weird behavior including confrontation and over activity, nervousness, defective decision-making, mystification, lack of involvement, and misery. In addition, signs of panic are also witnessed such as tachycardia, fret, flushing.
These symptoms are differentiated from those of acute stress disorder because they appear within few hours of the stressful event. However, the symptoms disappear within two to three days (Creamer, O’Donnell, & Pattison, 2004). Partial or complete loss of memory may precede these symptoms.
For acute stress disorder, instantaneous and clear connection, which might be temporal impact of an outstanding stressor, must exist. The symptoms occur after a few hours or it might even take a few days. In other words, the signs of the disorder do not take place immediately as is the case with acute stress reaction condition.
Some of the symptoms of acute stress disorder include deadening, impassiveness, detribalization, depersonalization or dissociative forgetfulness, continual re-experiencing of the incident by such ways as reflections, imaginings, and flashbacks. The victim keeps on evading any inspiration that reminds him or her of the stressful episode (Lambert, 2004).
The symptoms are easy to differentiate from those of acute stress reaction because during this time, victims must show other symptoms such as nervousness and considerable impairment in at least one critical area of functioning such as the nervous system.
Symptoms last for at least 2 days, and utmost 4 weeks, and takes place within 4 weeks of the horrifying incident.
Diagnostic Criteria for Acute Stress Reaction
When an individual is suspected to be suffering from stress after being exposed to a traumatic event, some of the symptoms are to be observed first before declaring that an individual suffers from Acute Stress Disorder.
One of the steps to be undertaken by an expert is to evaluate whether an individual actually underwent a stressful event that would lead to trauma. This would include assessing whether the event threatened the life of the victim or the life of another person but was witnessed by the victim.
It would also involve emotional injury whereby the reputation of the individual was maliciously destroyed. Another thing to observe is an individual’s response to the stressful event. For instance, did the victim respond with fear and horror or did the victim feel helpless.
The second thing to do is to check whether an individual experienced some of the symptoms as mentioned below. The victim could have experienced a subjective sense of numbing, aloofness or could have gone through emotional receptiveness. The patient could have experienced a reduction in consciousness as regards to his or her environment such as being in a state of shock.
Serialization could be another sign of acute stress disorder. The fourth symptom to be aware of is depersonalization. Finally, the patient could as well undergo dissociative amnesia, which is associated with lack of a significant aspect of trauma. It should be noted that the patient should experience at least three or more of the above symptoms to be declared sick (Johnson, 1997).
The third aspect associated with diagnosis is the aspect of re-experienced traumatic event. The event should recur in one of the following ways: repeated imagery, reflections, imaginings, false impressions, flashback incidents, or a sense of reliving the incident.
The fourth guideline pertains to marking the avoidance of stimuli in patients that would probably stimulate memories of the trauma such as reflections, feelings, chats, actions, places and the community. In case the patient portrays some of these then he or she would probably be suffering from acute stress disorder.
The fifth guideline is related to noting the symptoms of nervousness or increased stimulation. This would include sleeping, irritability, poor attentiveness, hyperactivity, embellished amazing response and motor restiveness. The sixth diagnostic guideline relates to observing the social actions of the patient.
The patient would develop some of the actions that are not friendly to his or her relatives, family members or even co-workers. The individual might fail to accomplish some of the basic tasks, even those that he or she used to execute before the occurrence of the event.
An individual would perhaps require assistance in simple activities. Another guideline is to observe the time that is, monitor the time that the individual would start behaving differently. It is supposed to take at least two days and utmost four weeks.
The last guideline is related to assessing the psychological status of the individual. Usually, the individual is supposed to be disturbed. The disturbances are not a result of drugs.
Treatment of Acute Stress Disorders
Before recommending treatment of acute stress disorders, the caregiver needs to undertake a number of assessments. For instance, he or she needs to consider the type of the event that caused the condition, as well as the available resources.
Recommendation for treatment would depend on the traumatic event for instance victims of sexual assault are given different treatment from those who underwent a natural disaster such as floods. Furthermore, the caregiver is to assess the damage caused by the traumatic event.
It is recommended that those victims going through large-scale catastrophes are to be evaluated to determine the triage of individuals at danger of psychiatric sequelae. Moreover, the available resources would help the caregiver determine the type of treatment. In case the victim is in danger, the caregiver is to address individual needs such as clinical care, rest nutrition and avoidance of injury related aspects.
Moreover, the caregiver is to take into consideration factors such as symptom rigorousness, comorbid physical or psychiatric analysis, desperate and murderous ideation, strategies, or objective level of functioning and accessible support methods.
The psychologist is to consider the patient’s individual security, the capacity to care for self sufficiently, capacity to provide consistent response to the psychiatrist, and enthusiasm to take part in treatment and capacity to belief in clinicians and the treatment procedure.
While undertaking or recommending treatment, the caregiver needs to observe some issues that might affect the treatment process. In this regard, the caregiver should carry out assessment and treatment with a lot of seriousness implying that treatment should be undertaken in a serene, safe environment.
This would probably necessitate development of trust on the side of the patient. In addition, some patients might be having some fears as regards to re-exposure to the traumatic event. The caregiver needs to acknowledge such fears and encourage the patient to take heart.
In some instances, treatment might turn out to be a threatening or even an overly intrusive process. Therefore, the caregiver should tackle the concerns of the patient and make sure that the treatment preferences are suitable to the patient.
Treatment Strategies
There are two forms of treatment for acute stress disorders. They include psychopharmacology and psychotherapy. The strategies are employed under different circumstances. Both will be discussed in detail.
Regarding psychopharmacology, experts claim that there is no ideal pharmacological intervention to acute stress disorder. However, a number of drugs have been suggested to cure the disorder.
Effects of acute stress disorder can be minimized through the intake of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The drug is recommended because of a few reasons. One of the reasons is that it ameliorate the three PTSD signs, including re-experiencing of the event, forestalling and hyperactive arousal.
The drug is known to treat psychiatric disorders that tend to be frequently comorbid in relation to PTSD, such as despair, fear disorder, social fear and obsessive-compulsive disarray.
Experts prefer the drug strategy because it has the capability of reducing clinical signs, including suicidal, impetuous and destructive actions. Such symptoms usually complicate the management process of PTSD.
Some practitioners prefer using anticonvulsant tablets such as divalproex, carbamazepine, topiramate and lamotrigine. The drug is preferred over SSRIs because it cures specifically the signs of re-experiencing, which threatens the mental health of the victim.
In case the SSRIs are found ineffective in eradicating comorbid psychotic disorders, health experts would resort to the use of second-generation antipsychotic medications such as olanzapine and quitipine.
The drug is effective in terms of controlling the symptoms. For rare complications such as the emergence of extraordinary symptoms, patients are given specialized treatment using adrenergic agonists and adrenergic blockers (Kessler, Sonnega, Bromet, Hughes, & Nelson, 1995).
The most common strategy employed by doctors and other medical personnel in the treatment of acute stress disorders is the psychotherapy treatment. The method is more effective as compared to other strategies because it aims at restoring the patient back to his or her normal status without consumption of substances.
One of the methods of psychotherapy treatment is the cognitive and behavior rehabilitation. The technique aims at eradicating appraisal processes by employing repeated exposure practice or by utilizing some techniques aiming at providing information to the victim without undertaking repeated exposure technique.
In some parts of the world, caregivers recommend the use of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing technique (EMDR). In this technique, the caregiver aims at helping the victim to shift attention from the traumatizing event to something else that would make him or her more comfortable.
Even though some practitioners view the technique as ineffective, proper utilization of the method has proven to be efficient, just as other techniques of cognitive therapy. Another treatment strategy employs psychodynamic and psychotherapy method (Koocher, Erin, & Krista, 2001).
The strategy focuses on the importance of the trauma to the patient as regards to psychological conflicts. The method analyzes the effects of the trauma to the self-esteem of the patient.
Effects to Human Life
An acute stress disorder is known to affect an individual’s social interaction in society since it interferes with an individual’s behavior, societal development and the ecosystem.
In a disastrous situation for example, an individual is believed to act irrationally meaning people act out of panic and fear. Some individuals might be unable to think clearly, while others might make uninformed decisions.
A section of the victims is usually tempted to move in masses, which brings about humanitarian crises. However, studies show that flight panic occurs rarely (Mills, Edmondson, & Park, 2007).
Some patents tend to ignore the instructions of crisis workers after realizing that their properties have been destroyed. Such patients give rescue workers a difficult time since crisis workers are forced to engage in hazardous searches, which puts their lives in danger (Van der Kolk, McFarlane, & Weisaeth, 1996.).
Antisocial behavior should not be ruled out after the occurrence of a disaster. Antisocial behavior in this sense constitutes three major aspects, one being the aspect of looting. Some of the victims, especially those from the low social class would claim to assist in the rescue mission whereas their ultimate goal is to loot.
Some victims may perhaps engage in acts of violence to protect their interests (Mahoney, Chandra, Gambheera, De Silva, & Suveendran, 2006). The last aspect of antisocial behavior as regards to acute stress disorder is related to price gauging.
On development, acute stress disorders are known to retard economic, social and political development of an affected family. Studies show that patients suffering from acute stress disorder owing to natural disasters tend to neglect the social well-being of families.
In this case, disastrous events increase the poverty rates and deprive the community of its valued resources that are utilized in fulfilling daily needs. A study conducted in the US confirmed that a disaster reduces the growth of an affected region by 0.8 percent. Disasters have been accused of causing social inequalities in societies.
The earthquakes in China affected those who had already suffered from societal injustices in terms of ownership of property. The victims suffered from income fluctuations and had little access to monetary services such as loans and mortgages.
After the earthquake, the victims were even affected more (Dattilio, & Freeman, 1994). They had difficulties in acquiring some of the basic goods and their standards of living depreciated further. The rich were not affected so much in terms of capital because a majority of them had insured their properties.
Risk Factors
One of the risk factors includes severity of the exposure. Those victims who could have been involved directly to the disaster tend to suffer more as opposed to those who could have been affected indirectly. Such victims tend to take more time in terms of recovering from the disastrous event.
Another risk fact is the gender of the victim. Studies show that women and girls tend to be affected more as opposed to men and boys (Breslau, 1990). Furthermore, those with families are affected more, given the fact that they have to provide for their families in case they are breadwinners. Another specific risk factor to the Sichuan earthquake is the region.
China is considered a third world country meaning that it does not have proper measures for handling traumatizing events. One of the resilience factors is coping confidence. Many victims tend to behave as if the event is too much for them and they cannot recover easily. This affects the healing process.
Those victims full of confidence usually recover faster as compared to those who believe that the situation is bearable for them. Communities that do not embrace social support tend to suffer from recovery. Social support augments the individual’s well-being and restricts distress after any disastrous event (Slaby, 1998).
Conclusion
Acute stress disorders affect the living standards of individuals in various ways. For instance, it interferes with the normal functioning of the brain. Patients suffering from the disorder tend to make uninformed decisions that might put their lives in danger.
Before declaring that an individual suffers from acute stress disorder, a number of guidelines are to be observed. In other words, the symptoms associated with acute stress disorder are to be evaluated and monitored by the caregiver closely.
Treatment strategies depend on the severity of the situation and the nature of the stressful event. Therefore, the caregiver is to subscribe treatment based on the effects of the disorder and the nature of the traumatizing event.
In terms of the effects of the disease, it manifests in many ways. Some individuals might develop antisocial behavior while others might turn out to be unreliable members of society. Factors, such as the region, age, social status and educational level of the victim affect the coping strategies.
References
Breslau, N. (1990). Stressors: Continuous and discontinuous. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20(20), 1666-1673.
Creamer, M., O’Donnell, M.L., & Pattison, P. (2004). Acute stress disorder is of limited benefit in predicting post-traumatic stress disorder in people surviving traumatic injury. Behavior Research and Therapy, 42(2), 315-328
Dattilio, F., & Freeman, R. (1994). Cognitive-Behavioral Strategies in Crisis Intervention. New York: Guilford.
Jeffrey,M., & Everly, G. (1996). Critical Incident Stress Debriefing: An Operations Manual for the Prevention of Traumatic Stress among Emergency Services and Disaster Workers. Ellicott City, MD: Chevron.
Johnson, S. (1997). Therapist’s Guide to Clinical Intervention: The 1-2-3s of Treatment Planning. New York: Academic Press.
Kessler, R.C., Sonnega, A., Bromet, E.J., Hughes, M., & Nelson, C.B. (1995). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52(12), 1048-1060.
Koocher, G., Erin K., & Krista, E. (2001). Medical Crisis Counseling in a Health Maintenance Organization: Preventive Intervention. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 32(1), 52–58.
Lambert, M.J. (2004). Bergin and Garfield’s Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavioral Change. New York: Wiley.
Mahoney, J., Chandra, V., Gambheera, H., De Silva, T., & Suveendran, T. (2006). Responding to the mental health and psychosocial needs of the people of Sri Lanka in disasters. International Review of Psychiatry, 18(6), 593–597.
Mills, M. A., Edmondson, D., & Park, C. L. (2007). Trauma and stress response among Hurricane Katrina evacuees. American Journal of Public Health, 97, S116–S123.
Slaby, A. (1998). Risk Management with Suicidal Patients. New York: Guilford,.
Van der Kolk, C., McFarlane, A., & L. Weisaeth, H. (1996.). Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body, and society. New York: Guilford Press.
When we talk about abuse, we basically mean mistreating and manipulating someone causing physical, sexual or psychological harm to their emotions and self esteem. Trauma, on the other hand, is a result of being involved in a distressing traumatic ordeal that affects your emotions and leaves lasting memories of the encounter.
Post-traumatic stress disorder may be as a result of past experiences such as rape, domestic violence or molestation. This anxiety disorder that arises from trauma may leave behind long-lasting psychological effects that may keep on haunting the victims (Harris, 1996). Such individuals need counseling and motivation to help them combat the fear within them and boost their self esteem.
Women tend to be more vulnerable to abuse, assault, battering, kidnapping, rape and even physical, emotional and psychological torture regardless of their social status in the community, race, tribe, nationality or their level of education. They all experience domestic violence, abuse and post-traumatic disorders.
In most cases, these incidences of women abuse occur within the confine of a family set up or relationship where one partner tends to mistreat, mishandle, abuse and assaults the other partner and in most cases the women fall victim of such misconducts from their male counter parts. Such abuse and undermining of one’s feelings and emotions often leads to detrimental effects on the victims.
Most abused women tend to harbor anger and hatred against those that mistreat them and this leads to a failed marriage institution as women are the corner stone of any stable marriage. It also leads to low productivity as their psyche to hard work and fend for their families drastically fades away. Post-traumatic disorder that emanates from trauma and routine torture, leads to a negative psychological effect on the victims.
Since women tend to be the weaker sex with a lot of emotions, they tend to be affected to a great extend by such mistreatment and abuse. Some end up having very low self esteem, depressed, stressed up and some even contemplate of committing suicide. Women who happen to be abused sexually or raped in their earlier stages tend to have severe trauma and psychological disorders that may even affect their relationship with their male counterparts and more so their marriages later on in life.
Statistics have shown that one of the three women has been abused either sexually, physically, emotionally or psychologically. A survey conducted in Canada by the General Social Survey (GSS) group deduced that about 25 percent of the women in Canada have been abused by their partners. The survey also showed that the incidences of women molestation tend to be more severe than the abuse directed to their men counterparts. (Pottie, 2000).
In conclusion, we have to find lasting solutions to these barbaric behaviors that have lead to destruction of many women’s lives, their families, kin and relationships as a result of trauma and abuse mostly from their spouses. There has to be a mutual understanding between spouses and each one has to play his or her role in the family and give their very best to enable the marriage to stand.
In cases of serious misunderstandings, the services of a marriage counselor may come in handy. For women who are abused and harbor psychological trauma, it is advisable to seek treatment and guidance from a trained personnel, therapist or a doctor. It also helps have a confidant whom you can freely share your private life with.
References
Harris, J. (1996). Dangerous Domains: Violence Against Women in Canada. Toronto: Sage Publications.
Pottie, V. (2000), Spousal Violence: Statistical profile of Family Violence in Canada. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
The aim of this paper is to study the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), its causes and treatment. The study relies on findings of empirical research to validate decisions and support arguments. The research has shown that the use of Cognitive Behavior Techniques is the most effective approach to cure PTSD.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder occurs following exposure to a potentially traumatic life event and is characterized by three major cluster of symptom; re-experiencing, avoidance & numbing, and arousal (AmericanPsychiatricAssociation, 1994).
In this case a person constantly relieves the event through any of the following exposure to a situation that is similar to the event, vivid memories of the event, perceptions, and sometimes through dreams. Research has shown that majority of Americans are exposed to traumatic events at least once in their lives, but only a eventually few develop PTSD (Kessler, Sonnega, Bonet, Hughes, and Nelson, 1995).
Despite this, the prevalence of the disorder is high; at least 1 woman in 9 and 1 man in 20 suffer from PTSD in their lifetime (Kessler et al.; 1995; 2005). The disorder can result in interpersonal difficulties such as sociability, intimacy, anger, violence and substance abuse. There are four key theories in psychotherapy: behavioral theories, cognitive theories, developmental theories and personality theories which this paper will be discussing.
Treatment and Disorders
Behavioral theories
Applied behavior analysis and behavior therapy are based on the work of BF Skinner (1953) and the application of Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning in treating anxiety by Joseph Wolfe (Wolpe and Plaud, 1997). Wolpe developed a technique for treating extreme fears by exposing patients to the stimuli that provoked it gradually until the response to fear was eliminated or reduced; this is what he referred as systematization.
According to Skinner, the expected positive or negative outcome of behavior, based on past experience will influence an individual’s behavior. Based on Skinner’s theory of behavior technique operant conditioning an individual is inclined to choose a behavior because of an expected positive outcome over the one with negative result expectations.
Behavioral therapy was popular in the 1970’s in treating PTSD; in the 80’s and 90’s behavioral therapists began focusing on the cognitive processes of patients in addition to behavioral therapy. At the time cognitive behavior therapy was used to change unhealthy behavior by replacing negative or self defeating thought patterns with positive one(Thomas, Clen and Arnold, 2010).
The use of other psychological interventions such as medication has been used alongside behavioral techniques and usually depends on the patient and the severity of the problem that is under treatment.
Cognitive theories
Cognitive theory refers to ranges of activities that occurs mentally and which are related. There are several approaches to cognitive behavior therapy.
These include Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Rational Living Therapy, Cognitive Therapy and Dialectic Behavior Therapy (Corsini and Wedding 2011). Thus, it teaches an individual that they can control the way they feel and act through positive thought processes.
Compared to other therapies, cognitive behavior therapy is faster due to its highly instructive nature and because of its practical approach. Patients are able to put to practice what they learn at their own time, increasing the effectiveness and speed of the healing process. As such, therapists facilitate the process of healing by giving patients relevant skills to coach themselves on their own.
Cognitive behavior therapy is an interactive and collaborative process in which the therapist teaches, listens and encourages, while the clients roles is to express his problems, challenges, improvements, then learns and follow the therapists guidelines (Corsini and Wedding 2011). It is therefore imperative that the patient and therapist maintain good open relationship for treatment to succeed.
Both behavioral traditions and cognitive traditions borrow heavily from each other’s theory and practice (Dowd, 2002) and the process of therapy for both is normally the same regardless of the specific theoretical background, as they involves finding out the variable that causes a clients problem and then systematically modifying and assessing these variables through treatment.
Cognitive and behavioral practitioners normally use a variety of similar behavioral or cognitive interventions depending on the specific client needs and diagnosis (Thomas, Clen, and Arnold 2010).
Past research findings have proven the efficacy and effectiveness of many cognitive, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions for treating psychological problems such as PTSD.
Developmental Theories
Developmental theories are concerned with human growth, development and learning. Their interest is in finding out what motivates human thoughts and behavior in order to understand individuals and the society better. Developmental psychology also referred as human development studies was originally concerned with growth and development of children but later expanded to study of people during their later stages of life.
The focus of development psychology include investigation of issues such as whether children are born with some form of knowledge or whether they acquire intelligence and knowledge as they grow up.
There are various developmental theories such as Piaget’s theory of human intelligence which explains how human acquire knowledge gradually, construct it and apply it. Sigmund Freud’s theory explains how mental growth proceeds alongside sexual identity growth in adolescents. The theory of psychosocial development which was postulated by Erick Erikson outlines universal stages that a person must undergo.
Humanist theories
Humanist theory asserts that human are inherently created to be good natured; as such it’s focuses on understanding the deviant behavior and mental issues in people. Humanist theory applies a different concept in understanding psychology and has it major emphasis on understanding the human aspect of people.
Most psychologists believe that behavior can only be understood objectively, but the humanists disagree because they think than an individual is incapable of understanding their own behavior. Rogers for instance argues that the meaning of behavior is personal and subjective.
Breggin stated that “the empathic, humanistic psychology model may be the most powerful one of all for healing human distress” (1997). He maintained that “all psychiatric diagnoses… are better understood from a humanistic psychology paradigm than a psychiatric or pathological model” (Breggin, 1997).
Humanist theories have benefitted from the contribution of existential- phenomenological orientation to psychotherapy. Existentialism is a branch of philosophy that began with Kierkegaurd in the early 1800’s; he revolted against the thinking of his time, whose focus was on abstract reasoning and discerning the essence of things.
He developed a philosophy that emphasized on the problems of human existence such as inevitability of death, lack of freedom, alienation, meaningless and anxiety.
The two theoretical paradigms, psychological humanism and existential-phenomenological approaches, are the fundamental pillars of the humanistic movement in psychology (Halling and DearbonNill, 1995). The advantage of Existential psychotherapy is its ability to be integrated to other approaches of psychotherapy (Corsini and Wedding 2011).
Personality theories
These theories believe that in order to understand human qualities such as leadership, motivation and empathy, you must first understand human personality. Personality theories try to explain how and why people behave the way they do.
These theories try to explain how and why people behave the way they do by focusing on their thoughts structure. Carl Jung’s psychological theory on consciousness and unconsciousness is one of the most popular theories.
He defined psyche as a combination of spirit, soul and idea: he viewed psychic reality as the sum of the conscious and unconscious processes and that these processes had a strong influence on the body affecting the instincts, and determining a person’s view of outer reality.
Jung believed that the conscious and the unconscious interacted in a complex way to create images, ideas and thought, which informed action which in turn shaped personality and character. Freud analyzed the role of early childhood experiences in the formation of personality (Davis, 2008; Ellenberger, 1981).
Selection of Therapy
Past research findings support the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy and EMDY as the only treatments for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Davidson and Parker 2001; Rauch and Cahill 2003). Behavior therapists focus on using techniques such as hypnosis, learning how to relax mentally, systematization and flooding to cure phobias and manage stress (Rauch and Cahill 2003).
Anxiety management has been noted as a key psychotherapeutic treatment for patients of PTSD (Foa et al, 1999; National Institute for Clinical Excellence, 2005). Calming of extreme emotions associated with trauma has been the centre piece of almost all successful trauma treatment (Davidson, Landerman, Farfil and Clary, 2002; Foa, Keane and Friedman, 2000; Friedman, Davidson, Mellman and Southwick, 2000).
In treating PTSD using cognitive behavior technique, a therapist often depends on determining the origin or cause of the disorder and whether it is simple or complex in nature. Simple trauma is a singular event whereas complex is prolonged and repeated experience.
According to research effective treatment for PSTD such as exposure, cognitive behavior technique focus on the symptom that is related to a particular trauma and is usually adequate to address the symptoms of simple PTSD (Bradly, Greene, Rus, Dutra and Westen, 2005; Roth and Fonagy, 2005).
The role of optimism and hope in coping with the challenges of life and in curing stress and trauma has been confirmed by recent studies. Studies such as Fredrickson (2001) and Fredrickson, et al (2003) suggests that positive emotions such as joy normally leads to effective coping by broadening the list of options that a person may have to rely on when resolving their problems.
This leads to less stress and patients should be encouraged to engage in activities that stimulate positive emotions (Biglan and Craker, 1982; Zeiss, Lewinsohn and Munoz, 1979), and to reduce or eliminate totally watching, listening and reading information that produces negative emotions
References
AmericanPsychiatricAssociation. (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder 4th Ed. Washington D.C: Author.
Corsini, R.J., & Wedding, D. (2011). Current Psychotherapies. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Dowd, E.T., Clen, S. & Arnold, K.D. (2010). Professional Psychology. Research and Practice, (4)1:89-95.
Hobfill, S. Watson, P. Bell, C. Bryant, R. Brymer, M. Friedman, M. Friedman, M. Gerson, B. Jong, J. & Layne, C. (2007). Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes. Winter; 70(4): 283-315.
The study of human behavior has been in existence for many centuries but has only gained prominence in recent times. This can mostly be attributed to popularization by the media especially in the West. Psychologists and behavioral profilers have been gathering valuable data pertaining to the reasons behind any behavior exhibited by different people.
They have managed to do this by using psychological theories formulated to facilitate further understanding of how the brain works in forming behaviors. As such, psychology can be described as a field of study that studies behavior. In this study, an analysis of five articles shall be provided. An explanation of why the topics of these articles are related to psychology shall also be offered.
Article one
The article “Sleep May Be Nature’s Time Management Tool” by Benedict Carey sets out to provide a discussion as to the role that sleep plays in the lives of human beings and animals.
The author states that no one really knows why sleep exists therefore setting the context for the article in which she advances the numerous theories that are advanced as to the role that sleep plays. The central theme advanced by the article is that the ultimate role of sleep may indeed be time management.
Structure wise, this article is well formatted as the author begins by giving a brief overview on sleep and the ambiguity with which its role is viewed by members of the society thus laying a proper foundation for the main discussion of the paper.
The author then proposes the role of sleep and subsequently proceeds to discuss and support the claims that she makes by quoting authoritative figures in sleep research e.g. Dr. Diegel who is a head chief neurobiologist.
In this article the author takes care to provide concrete evidence for the claims that she makes. For example, when advancing her main argument about sleep being nature’s own time management too, the author reinforces her assertions by presenting the theories of authorities in psychiatry and psychology who also are of the opinion that sleep optimizes animals’ use of time.
However, I feel that the author provided only the bare minimum information on the other theories on the role of sleep thus presenting the reader with only to one side of the coin. In my opinion, the paper would have been more informative if it had briefly discussed the other theories so as to enable the reader to critically evaluate their validity for himself
Article two
In today’s world, television is almost invariably a part of our lives and trying to keep away from this prominent force is for many people an uphill task. The article “Why We Tuned Out” by Karen Springen as appearing in the NewsWeek on November 11, 2002 attempts to illustrate that shielding one’s children from television is not only possible but comes along with numerous benefits.
The main point advanced by Springen is that shielding children from television results in the children being more physically and mentally active. The author also contends that the children do not risk turning into misfits as a result of abstinence from television programs. I agree with these assertions by the author that television watching is detrimental to the development of children and limiting the same will result in creative and physically active children.
In her article, Springen credits the lack of television watching for her daughters’ inquisitive and energetic nature. She goes on to illustrate that according to research, “kids who watch more than 10 hours of TV each week are more likely to be overweight, aggressive and slow to learn in school.”
From these research findings, Springen justifies her imposition of a no television rule to her daughters so as to prevent them from assimilating these negative behaviors which are attributed to exposure to television. Despite these convictions, the author goes on to note that a complete restriction on television watching may result in her children missing out on good educational programming.
However, the author proceeds to note that most children who watch television do not engage in the “educational programming” but rather favor cartoons, adventure stories and other programming which has little educational value if any. As such, Springen affirms that missing out on television all together is better than gambling on the very limited likelihood that children will watch something educational on TV.
The second issue that Springen tackles is the alleged likelihood of her children turning into social outcasts as a result of her “puritanical approach” with regards to television. This is a fear that is accentuated by one psychiatrist who quips that “it’s awful to be different from the other kids in fourth grade.” Springen dispels of this fears by pointing out that her children continue to enjoy products based on TV characters despite their not watching television since there exist other avenues such as books and magazines through which the children can be informed of popular culture.
The author also highlights the fact that her children do not mention missing out on any of the popular programming even though they do interact with other children at school who undoubtedly mention the shows. As such, it is plausible that Springen’s children are not at a risk of turning into outcasts due to her restriction on their television watching habits. The author goes on to suggest that she may be forced to let them watch some shows which have a special meaning to the children.
Different articles on stress
Article three
The article, “The Physical, Mental, Emotional and Behavioral effects of Stress” by Heather Tripp has as its central idea the expression of various adverse effects of stress not only on the mind but on the body as well. The author goes on to explicitly outline the physical, mental, emotional and behavioral effects that stress can have on a person.
She also attributes the escalation of some conditions e.g. blood pressure and heart diseases to stress. The article further focuses on stress reduction and recommends various remedies to deal with stress related disorders. Tripp’s article shows a bias towards the physical manifestation of stress as is expressed through her outline of effects.
Article four
In the article, “The Effects of Stress on Mental Health” by Paul Hata, the mental effects that stress can manifest in a person are seen to be the major underpinning for the article. Hata highlights on the mental breakdown tendencies that are as a result of stress.
He goes on to define mental breakdown as the loss in interest or ability to function normally by a person due to mental pressure exerted on them. This can be seen to be the article’s central focus since the author shows a particular bias to the mental effects of the condition while only vaguely alluding to the other effects.
Article five
The third article entitled “Stress management” by the mayo clinical staff offers a more educational albeit concise reading on stress. The article has at its core the need for a person to take action thereby gain control over stress in his/her life.
The article explains what stress is and goes on to articulate that stress is actually the body’s inbuilt alarm system and not its enemy as most people assume. The article focuses on ways in which one can identify and subsequently cope with stress thus highlighting control over stress as the major concept in the article.
The articles by Mayo clinic staff and Tripp attribute the long-term exposure to stress as being disruptive to most of the body’s process. As such many health problems including: high blood pressure, heart attacks, digestive problems and obesity are seen to have as their root cause stress. Both articles therefore emphasis on the need to adopt less stressful lifestyles so as to ensure physical well being of a person.
While the articles do not come up with a unified set of strategies as to how to deal with stress, they all agree on the need to deal with stress. The respective authors progress to offer tips and suggestions on how to reduce stress levels. A health diet and proper sleep patterns are common tips agreed on by the three articles.
The fostering of relationships is also highlighted as one of the means to deal with or altogether prevent stress. This rationale stems from the fact that man is a social creature and each encounter with others can yield to fruitful results. In cases where the stress is too progressed, professional counseling is seen as the key to offset this state and restore normality to the person.
Psychological perspectives in the analyzed articles
As mentioned earlier, psychology is a matter of studying behaviors. Therefore, for any issue to qualify as a psychological topic it must contain clear variables (fixed and dependent) and theoretical backing that explains the connection between the variables, as well as how they affect each other. In regards to the first article (Sleep May Be Nature’s Time Management Tool), the author tries to establish the connection that exists between sleep and time management.
The second article (Why We Tuned Out), the author explains the effects of television to the physical and psychological development of children. In the last three articles, the authors try to show how stress affects various aspects of our lives. Conclusively, the presence of these attributes in all five articles is what makes the issues discussed psychological.
Marriages and relationships disclose within wider environmental frameworks that at times analyze how the relationship is durable. When marital and relationship framework comprises of plentiful stressful life happenings inclusive of work stress or financial difficulties, marriages often encounter an occurrence referred to as stress spillover.
Therefore, this paper had the aim of discussing the effects of stress on a marriage and relationships and how the stress can be reduced and controlled. Various literature reviews were used to ensure its accomplishment.
According to research, marriages and relationships are disclosed within broad environmental frameworks that at times analyze if the relationship is durable (Saxbe & Rena, 2010). When a marital and relationship framework comprises of plenty of life challenges, including work stress or financial difficulties, marriages often encounter an occurrence referred to as stress spillover.
For instance, between comparisons of the matter, the couples facing, high versus low levels of external stress demonstrate that those encountering more severe stress experience greater reductions in their marital and relationship satisfaction over the early years of marriage.
In most cases, stress can make both the partners to become intolerant and impatient, making it difficult for them to offer each other support and also help in solving their problems together. Various studies define stress as the way a persons body reacts to any kind of demand. It may occur due to both the positive and negative experiences.
Stress affects every person, especially nowadays when it can seriously cause havoc on marriage and relationships because of various reasons. A considerable number of people may have good intentions of not causing problems at work or in any other aspect of life. However, unfortunately, they have a difficult time keeping stress-driven emotions from spilling over into their relationships with their partners.
According to the research, peoples bodies react to stress through the release of hormones into the blood. They provide people with more energy and power that could be a good thing if their stress were a result of physical harm (Powers & Paula, 2006). However, it can be the worst thing if their stress is a reaction to some emotional factor where there is no outlet for an extra vigor and potency.
Stress in relationships and marriages may occur due to various reasons, including fatigue and overworking. Thus, internal stress that occurs as a result of too much worrying over things that cannot be changed help solve them. In addition, other people get stressed due to environmental stress, such as family and crowding, among others.
Therefore, such types of stresses within a relationship or a marriage may lead to adverse effects that may even cause a marriage or relationship breakup. Therefore, according to the message from various literature concerning the stress and marriage, stressful frameworks influence the quality of marital status.
Nevertheless, some stress and marriage studies argue that despite the fact that a considerable number of relationships disintegrate in case of some difficulties, while others may come forward from stressful encounters comparatively unharmed. For instance, they argue that adverse life incidents, like cancer, death of a child, as well facing a natural disaster, essentially foresee marital enhancements among some couples.
Accordingly, a significant number of models of stress have started to move away from emphasizing the dangerous effects of stress in order to reflect the provisions under which stress may serve to improve the well-being. This implies that some stressful situations can provide chances by activating formerly unexploited managing strategies and thus increasing self-assurance in ones ability to overcome stress.
Therefore, through this approach, handling manageable stress may lead to positive changes that can make triumphant adjustment of future stressors more likely. As a result, people who are exposed to reasonably stressful encounters, as well as those who have the primary resources essential to conquer those stresses, may develop flexibility to harmful effects of later stress.
Despite the proof for possible positive impacts of stress, to date, there has not been any empirical study observing these type of impacts of stress flexibility on relationships and marriages.
According to literature reviews on the effects of stress on marriages and relationships, stress acts as a barrier to adaptive association performance. Though the susceptibility for stressful frameworks to weaken marital satisfaction has long been developed, the study has only recently expanded on the precise approaches underlying these spillover impacts.
Further, some studies argue that circumstances of a stressful life may interfere with a couple’s efforts to take part in relationship promotive behaviors. Constants with the common conception that a healthy marriage and relationship need work, a sizeable literature demonstrates that productive relationship behaviors are not habitual in nature and thus need superior self-control in order to endorse than do negative behaviors.
Unluckily, according to presuppositions regarding self-regulation, self-control is an inadequate resource that can become exhausted through the utilization making further acts of self-management harder. This, therefore, implies that self authoritarian capabilities operate like a muscle that can become drained after hard work.
Therefore, couples may meet more hardship in engaging in positive relationship functioning at times when their energy and resources are being exploited among various effortful behaviors. Therefore, in this way, handling stressful occurrences outside the marriage may tax couple’s self dictatorial materials leaving them with little vigor to effectively and efficiently manage their marriage and relationship issues.
Some people support the idea that on the days when couples encounter heavy work conditions, their partners demonstrate more irritable and angry behavior in home environment. Studies examining partner’s interaction before and after a stress induction work show that the quality of marital communications dramatically reduces, following the stressor.
In addition, at times when partners in marriage or in a relationship are facing greater stress, their ability to participate in pardoning responses to a partner’s misbehaviors is reduced.
On the other hand, during periods of low stress, these couples tend to excuse any misbehavior and provide the partner with the benefit of the uncertainty. Therefore, these literature findings demonstrate the negative effects and the ways stresses shape and constrain couples within the relationship, thus leading them to lower marital joy and happiness.
Various studies argue that under the right condition, stress can assist in fortifying marital well-being, despite the fact that it most of the time it aims at impeding adaptive relationship processes. These studies emphasize the idea of the model of “practice makes perfect”, as experience with little prevailing stressors early in the relationship may assist couples to establish stability to bigger stressors in future.
For example, in spite of the idea that presupposition of self authorization proposes that handling stress may make self dictatorial abilities to be weak and lead to difficulties in managing productive responses to a relationship issues, this perception also proposes that self-regulatory muscle can be empowered over time.
Take for instance the daily exercises that can increase physical power, leading to small acts of self-management that creates a person’s self-regulatory possessions, thus assisting people to retain superior self-control in the process of future depleting situations.
It is argued further that practicing coping with manageable stressors is vital for creating personal coping skills.
According to the theory of stress immunization, being exposed to moderately stressful events should act as a mobile to an individual’s coping resources, just the way a vaccine renders a person to a weakened form of dangerous disease in order to enhance the creation of antibodies for fighting powerful forms of the disease (Hellmuth & McNulty, 2008).
Nonetheless, for anyone to benefit from this theory of stress immunization, people need to be rendered both to the moderate stress and must also have enough resources for productively conquering that stress.
As long as the available resources are sufficient enough to efficiently overcome the primary stress, these encounters can offer couples with superior understanding of adjective coping strategies and increased confidence in their capability of mastering stressful happenings, thus immunizing them against the dangerous influences of future stressors.
According to the literature about theories of stress immunization, people who are exposed to manageable stresses and have primary resources readily available to assist them to efficiently manage those stresses may become more pliant to future stress.
Therefore, based on this concept, it can be foreseen that couples who encounter moderate stress early in the marriage and possess superior primary resources for steering stress, like developing better behaviors in solving problems, stand a better position of being less vulnerable to future stress spillover influences than would couples that have better primary recourses but few practices coping with stressful experiences.
In most cases, it is assumed that the birth of a child in marriage leads to happiness; however, that is not the case for most couples because this is one of the most stressful moments in some marriages.
According to studies assessing the spouse’s pre and post-birth stress levels have demonstrated that partners report encountering greater rates of personal and marital stress immediately after the birth of their child (Diamond & Hicks, 2008). Therefore, these increases in stress most of the time lead to increase in reduction of marital quality.
One study focusing on the transformation to parenthood in newly married spouses demonstrated that despite the fact that all spouses reported drops in their joint leisure activities over time, these reductions were higher for those spouses who became parents.
In other words, this implies that the stress of parenthood seems to cause destruction in practices that assist with promoting intimacy in the relationship. Furthermore, the shift to parenthood accounted for decreases in overall marital satisfaction encountered by matched control couples who were voluntarily childless.
Stress can be reduced and controlled in relationships and marriages through various means. Perhaps one of the most essential means of a successful relationship includes the relative independence of general fulfillment from immediate occurrences. This is because every intimate relationship faces fluctuations in the daily interactions.
For instance, couples may face primarily positive, supportive, as well as affectionate interactions with each other; however, other days, their interactions may be characterized by conflict and negativity. Studies have suggested that sustaining fulfillment over the course of a long-term relationship centers on how intimates process interpret the variability in the particular encounters of each other (Dale, 2003).
Provided that the quality or relationship encounters varies from day to day, connecting general relationship evaluations to these particular events is most likely to lead to feelings of international fulfillment that are unstable and potentially vulnerable to reduction.
Equally, dividing general judgments of the relationship from the perspectives of immediate experiences within the relationship serves as providing protection to global fulfillment from any particularly negative experiences that may occur and which leads to relationship satisfaction that is greater and more resistant to change.
It is also suggested that in order to reduce or control stress in relationship and marriages, it is significant that couples recognize that ability alone is not able to promote the adaptive processing of relationship information. Therefore, couples with superior relationship proficiency should live better in their relationship than those without the proficiency (Neff & Karney, 2009).
Nonetheless, it is essential to realize that despite the level of the ability that couples have, they also need to have the capability to participate in adaptive processing which includes supportive background within which they can practice their capabilities.
Thus, it means that ability may be relevant but may not be useful for positive relationship performance. Partners who show positive proficiency in the relationship may get themselves unable to draw upon those proficiencies under conditions of stress, leading to a satisfactory reduction even among previously happy spouses.
According to literature, recognizing the importance of stress in functioning of the relationship provides a potential explanation to when adaptive processes may break down and gives the insight into how relationships may sometimes be created again after the unhappy periods (Neff & Broady, 2011).
In case couples face a time of extreme stress during the course of a relationship, their adaptive processes may be weakened causing more negative assessments of the relationship.
In this way, long or repeated exposure to high levels of stress may have lifelong detrimental impacts on the relationship. Nevertheless, in case the stress collapses and couples can again dedicate their full resources to participating in positive relationship sustaining strategies, then relationships have the chance to pull through.
The environmental framework in which couples form and maintain their relationship plays a vital role in determining marital outcomes most of the time. Conventionally, it has been argued that stressful frameworks expose preserving a healthy relationship to be more difficult.
However, today’s research provides some of the best experimental evidence of stress flexibility within marriage and relationship and provides suggestions that stress can promote the durability of a relationship and marriage under certain conditions (Kuppens, 2008).
Therefore, by discussing and dealing with the conditions under which the couples may be more or less susceptible to stress spread out effects, these literature reviews have offered a detailed appreciation of the connections between stress and marital quality.
Because all couples encounter stressful life situations, focusing on how couples adjust to stress is essential for understanding marital establishment. According to Kuppens (2008):
Drawing from the stress immunization theory, which demonstrates that the productive adjustment to moderately stressful occasions may assist individuals to create flexibility to the future stress, the present research demonstrates whether experiences with manageable stressors early in the marriage may serve to make the relationship more flexible to future stress (p.70).
In conclusion, marriages and relationships are disclosed in wider environmental frameworks that at times, analyze how the relationship is resilient. When marital and relationship framework comprises of plentiful stressful life happenings inclusive of work stress or financial difficulties, marriages often encounter an occurrence referred to as stress spillover.
For instance, between matters comparisons of couples facing high versus low levels of external stress demonstrate that couples encountering more severe stress experiences more significant reductions in their marital and relationship satisfaction over the early years of marriage.
Stress in relationships and marriages may occur due to various reasons including fatigue and overworking, internal stress, which occurs as a result of too much worrying over things that nothing can be done to help solve them. In additions, other people get stressed due to environmental stress such as family and crowding, among others. Stress can be reduced and controlled in relationships and marriages through various means.
Perhaps one of the most essential means to a successful relationship includes the relative independence of general fulfillment from immediate occurrences. This is because every intimate relationship faces fluctuations in the daily interactions.
Therefore, to help reduce or control such stress issues in relationships and marriage, couples are encouraged to increase their communication, because good communication helps in alleviating stress in a marriage. Good communication shows that there is honesty, understanding, faithfulness and trust. Couples should also aim at spending more time together in order to reduce tension and get to know and understand each other more.
This habit should be carried out even after many years of marriage. Through this, couples will be enabled to leave behind or forget their daily activities that cause stress and thus just have quality time with each other. In addition, couples should try to balance their lives financially, through time management, and making family budget together. This is because many relationships and marriages break up because of lack of balance.
References
Dale, W. (2003). Once hurt, twice hurtful: How perceived regard regulates daily marital interactions. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(1),126-147.
Diamond, L. & Hicks, A. (2008). Every time you go away: Changes in affect, behavior, and physiology associated with travel-related separations from romantic partners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(2),385-403.
Hellmuth, C. & McNulty, J. (2008). Neuroticism, marital violence, and the moderating role of stress and behavioral skills. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95 (1),166-180.
Kuppens, P. (2008). The role of positive and negative emotions in life satisfaction judgment across nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(1),66-75.
Neff, L.A. & Karney, B.R. (2009). Stress and reactivity to daily relationship experiences: How stress hinders adaptive processes in marriage. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(3), 435-450.
Neff, L.A. & Broady, E. (2011). Stress resilience in early marriage : can practice make perfect?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(3), 1050-1067.
Powers, S. & Paula, R. (2006). Dating couples’ attachment styles and patterns of cortisol reactivity and recovery in response to a relationship conflict. Journal of Personality nd Social Psychology, 90 (4), 613-628.
Saxbe, D. & Rena, L. (2010). For better or worse? Coregulation of couples’ cortisol levels and mood states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98 (1), 92-103.
With the current changing trends in working environments, although work may be enjoyable to do, as most individuals are always motivated to shine in their work places, sometimes the same jobs can be a stressing factor, depending on the prevailing work conditions. Work related stress is one of the greatest impediments to the success of any organization, because it lowers workers’ motivation hence, leading to reduced output.
In addition to lowering work performance, work stress greatly affects an individual’s state of mind whereby, in uncontrolled situations it can cause work burnout and many health complications.
Primarily, in most cases job stress occurs when there is a mismatch between an individual’s potentials, available resources, or personal wants with the requirements of one’s assigned roles.
It is necessary to note that, there is a great variation between job stress and work challenges, because the former decreases motivation and innovation, whereas the latter is a psychological and physical energizer; hence, encourages innovation, motivation.
Although this is the case, failure to provide solutions to demanding challenges or duties can be one of the primary stress causative agents, as most individuals will do everything at their disposal to shine in their duties (Ganster & Ivancevich, 1986, pp. 7-27).
Considering the detrimental nature of stress on individuals’ well-being and level of work performance, it is crucial for individuals and organizations to adopt appropriate and practical stress management methodologies
The level of job stress primarily depends on the prevailing work conditions and the ability of a worker to adapt to the prevailing work conditions. Common job scenarios that may lead to job stress include tight deadlines, long working schedules, lack of rest periods, poor communication between workers and managements, poor working environments, job insecurity and dissatisfaction, and underutilization of employees’ potentials.
In addition to these work related causes, poor leadership orientations can also make working environments very stressful, because most leaders lack the required sense of control.
Lack of a sense of control can be very detrimental to the well-being of an organization, because most poorly led organizations lack correct conflict management strategies, rarely respect worker’s rights, and deny workers the required support in their daily duties. Primary manifestations of stress include mood swings, alienation, feelings of frustration, sleep anomalies, stomach and headaches, lack of motivation, and substance abuse.
In an escalated stress scenario, likelihoods of the sufferers developing cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and psychological problems are high. Considering this it is of significance for individuals to seek methodologies of reducing stress whenever it occurs, to avoid the occurrence of long term detrimental health complications associated with stress (Hansen, 2010, p.1).
One primary remedy to job stress is being proactive and positive in whatever one does or in any stress scenario. Through being proactive, an individual will be able to develop appropriate stress coping strategies, necessary for ensuring that stress does not affect ones health and general work performance level. At organizational level, there is need for individuals or managements to restructure the work environments and schedules.
Such adjustments should include matching employees’ potentialities with work, designing of duties in a meaningful, motivating, and interesting manner, establishing good communication, and conflict resolving strategies, and balancing job demands with individuals personal needs (although an organization’s goals should take precedence).
In addition, in the endeavor to control or reduce job related stress, managements teams should ensure that, they develop and implement good working and leadership policies. These policies should emphasize the importance of healthy relationships between workers and managements; them being the primary determinants of levels of employees’ motivation and work performance (Medicinenet, 2010, pp. 2-6).
At personal level, the first step towards minimizing job stress is finding a balance between personal issues and job duties. This is crucial in ensuring individuals find time for rest and reflection. The second main strategy is to avoid stress by tailoring job tasks to one’s potentials. Although the roles assigned to individuals depend on the management teams’ decisions, individuals must be ready to defend their rights through presenting their grievances using appropriate channels.
In addition to tailoring work to one’s potentialities and finding a balance between personal and work life, proper scheduling and sharing of heavy duties can help to alleviate work overload, it being one of the primary causes of stress. Because the acceptance of co-workers to offer a helping depends on the nature of relationship they hold with the help seeker, it is of great significance for one to build health relationships with other co-workers (Hansen, 2010, p.1).
In conclusion, because of the adverse effects of job stress, and the fact that stress is controllable, and depends on individuals’ potential to develop appropriate coping strategies, there is need for individuals to change their attitudes towards work. This is possible through avoiding work de-motivating factors, and having realistic work outcomes.
Posttraumatic stress disorder that military personnel experience in their lives emanates from cumulative stressors of pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment experiences. The experiences that military personnel undergo determine the nature and extent of the posttraumatic stress disorder they develop during and after their deployment.
Risk and resilience factors are the two antagonizing forces that predispose and alleviate effects of traumatic experiences on military personnel respectively. Bad experiences such as aggressive family experience during childhood, unstable family life, terrible combat experiences, and poor social support are risk factors that predispose one to posttraumatic stress disorder.
On the other hand, good experiences such as proper upbringing during childhood, stable family life, fair combat experience, and good social support alleviate development of posttraumatic stress disorder. Vogt and Tanner (2007) argue that, the balance between risk and resilience factors is critical in prevention and management of posttraumatic stress disorder among military personnel (p.31).
Hence, resilience factors are essential in helping military personnel to cope with traumatizing experiences. Based on case studies, this paper examines the risk and resilience factors that relate to pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment of specialists.
In the first case study, the risk factors that Ramirez experienced emanated from combat experience and family strain during his deployment. In the first three months of deployment, Ramirez had to endure long, hot, and stressful fights with Iraqi insurgents, which was his first traumatic experience working as a combat soldier.
According to Philips, LeardMan, Gumbs, and Smith (2010), combat experience is the greatest risk factor that predisposes soldiers to posttraumatic stress disorder (p.1). In addition, Ramirez saw two of his friends dying in an explosion that missed him narrowly.
Since he left his young wife at home, Ramirez constantly worried about her and children, which strained him during deployment. However, Ramirez had resilience factors that helped him to cope and manage the traumatic experiences of the deployment.
Before leaving for Iraq, his parents, wife, and neighbors celebrated his patriotism, which gave him courage and diffused any fears in him; hence, he had no trauma during his pre-deployment period. During deployment, the resilience factor was that, soldiers had strong a bond that formed good social support, which helped him to endure the long, hot, and constant fights with Iraqi insurgents.
Ultimately, when he returned home, Ramirez did not develop posttraumatic stress disorder because his strained relationship and family life came back to normal courtesy of receiving appreciation from his children, and comfort from his father.
In the second case study, bad pre-deployment experience of Johnson was a risk factor of posttraumatic stress disorder because he had been living alone since his parents divorced and Hurricane Katrina had displaced him from New Orleans.
During his deployment, though he was a driver of Public Affairs Major, he felt frustrated as the Major was so critical and did not appreciate his work. Moreover, Johnson saw a burned body of a girl, which traumatized him because he had not experienced such incident.
Returning back home, Johnson saw the ugly devastation of Hurricane Katrina that left him uneasy during his leave at New Orleans. Despite the trauma, Johnson had resilience factors; given that combat counselor helped him to cope with traumatic experiences during deployment, when he came back home, he underwent integration process at Fort Hood.
Comparative analysis of the two case studies shows that Johnson has greater risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder than Ramirez because he experienced more risk factors as compared to resilience factors during pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment.
King, Vogt, Knight, and Samper (2007) assert that, posttraumatic stress disorder occurs due to cumulative traumatic experiences of life (p.95).
While Ramirez did not experience traumatic incidences in pre-deployment given that, his parents had divorced. Moreover, Hurricane Katrina displaced Johnson and his neighbors from New Orleans, which remained an ugly experience that haunted his life, even after deployment.
Thus, more risk factors than resilience factors that Johnson experienced made him uneasy during his leave; hence, he was predisposed to posttraumatic stress disorder.
References
King, L, Vogt, D., Knight, J., & Samper, R. (2007). Deployment Risk and Resilience
Inventory: A Collection of Measures for Studying Deployment-Related Experiences of Military Personnel and Veterans. Military Psychology, 18(2), 89-120.
Philips, C., LeardMan, C., Gumbs, G., & Smith, B. (2010). Risk Factors for
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Deployed United States Male Marines. BioMed Central Psychiatry, 1-12.
Vogt, D., & Tanner, L. (2007). Risk and Resilience Factors for Posttraumatic Stress Symptomology in Gulf War I Veterans. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 20(1), 27-38.
It is evident that individuals react differently to certain events that seem to psychologically and emotionally affect them. While some are able to deal with the traumatic experience, others developthe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This anxiety disorder is an emotional illness that usually builds up in an individual who is unable to cope with a traumatic event (Rubin, 2007).
Though some individuals portray immediate symptoms after the event, others may take a whilebefore exhibiting the symptoms. This becomes a worrying trend as the individual is likely to become distressed. Diagnostic symptoms for this disorder include reliving the traumatic events, avoiding such things that may serve as reminder of the event, numbness and increased levels of arousal.
PTSD is a rising concern to the society. Recent studies indicate that approximately 7.5% to 8% of Americans are likely to develop this disorder in their lifetime (Egan, 2010). It has further been argued that the occurrence of PTSD is estimated to be higher in sexual abused victims and combat veterans.
However, it is evident that some segments of the society are more affected by the disorderthan others.Minority communities such as African Americans, Native Americans and Hispanics have recorded higher rates of PTSD disorder as compared to other communities such as the Caucasians.
This can be attributed to the high level of dissociation between the members of the minority communities. The minority groups alsoreceive less social support due to racism perceptions towards the groups hence resulting to higher rates of PTSD. The studies also indicate a likelihood of more women suffering from the disorder as compared to the men in the United States.
PTSD patients are encouraged to get immediate treatment to avoid future consequences. The health professionals administer different treatments depending on the severity of the disorder in a patient. The treatment is aimed at relieving the symptoms that the patient seems to be experiencing so that the individual can be able to deal with the traumatic experience. During treatment, the patient is allowed to explore their minds regarding the trauma to enable them work through their mixed feelings of guilt and self-blame.
The common treatments administered to patients suffering from PTSD are psychotherapy, medication or a combination of the two (Kinchin, 2004). This is attributed to the fact that people respond differently to each kind of treatment. Psychotherapy treatment helps the patient to talk about the traumatic experience to a mental health professional.
This helps the patient to reduce anxiety that is associated with the trauma. This type of treatment has proved to be effective to most patients as it helps them deal with the traumatic event and accept what happened. It also provides tips on how to relax and manage certain feelings such as guilt, anger or even self-blame.
Medications such as Sertraline and paroxetine have been used to treat PTSD patients. This kind of treatment relies on antidepressants medication to maintain and control the symptoms. However, this kind of treatment has not been effective due to the side effects of the medication.
It is important to note that most patients tend to experience stigma as a result of PTSD. Being a deliberating condition, it can result to great emotional distress that is likely to affect the relationship with their colleagueseither at school or at the workplace. This may lead to the patient suffering from low self-esteem and other social disorders such as anxiety, depression or even disorders that are associated with use ofsubstance.
In conclusion, it is evident that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder continues to be a health issue in the society. Mechanisms should be put in place to deal with this mental disorder in order to avoid further consequences such as suicidal attempts and ideations. Individuals who have the symptoms associated with the disorder should be encouraged to seek out treatment to help them deal with the disorder.
Reference List
Egan, S. (2010). Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd): Causes, Symptoms and Treatment. New York: Nova Science Pub Inc.
Kinchin, D. (2004). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:The Invisible Injury. Great Britain: Success Unlimited.
Rubin, A. (2007). Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (ptsd). London: Oxford University Press.