Treatment
Possibilities for PTSD Service Members and Their Families
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is
a condition that develops in individuals who have gone through a dangerous, shocking,
or scary scenario. Most military service members are prone to PTSD since they
experience traumatic events while on duty especially during combat. As the
service members return from deployment, the disorder not only eats them alive
but also their families. Therefore, everyone is faced with the challenge of
identifying the most effective form of treatment. Lynn Hall in her book Counseling Military Families indicates
that surviving members of the service with PTSD often lose interest in sexual
or sexual activities, experience a sense of emotional numbness, and feel
separated from others (p.223). She further goes on to say, “the partners,
friends, or family of these young service members often feel hurt, alienated,
or discouraged because the survivor has not overcome the effects of the trauma,
and they eventually become angry or distant.†(p.224). The statement supports
the argument that there exist two significant wartimes stressors for military
families including the PTSD of the service member from combat and the secondary
traumatic stress that develops within family members of the soldier. The
partners of the service members are likely to feel tense and pressured or even
controlled. The nightmares from the survivors also prevent their significant
others from falling asleep while other soldiers engage in alcoholism and drug
abuse due to PTSD thus raising concern for possible solutions.
One of the major ways most individuals
with PTSD and family members use to thwart the disorder is through professional
therapy. PTSD survivors recognize several professional treatments as of great
importance when dealing with relationship problems. These include; family
therapy, individual and group psychotherapy, assertiveness training, anger and
stress management, couples’ communication classes, and family education
classes. (Hall, 2016 p.225) Therapy can be done in a caring and safe
environment, whereby victims can learn once again to create intimate
relationships successfully and be able to maintain them. Service members can
return to normalcy if their families can do the following;
·
Establish a network whereby soldiers with PTSD can
cope and rebuild relationships
·
include relaxation, playfulness and mutual
enjoyment for soldiers returning from combat
·
continually strengthen their communication and
problem-solving skills
·
teach them how to be open with their feelings
and do it with respect and passion
Professionals indicate that revisiting
the experience of war in a truthful way that sets the heart free from past
bondages can help the survivor’s soul to heal. Therefore, family members should
work on making the service member come clean and share their experiences with
trust and candidness and help them shun distancing behavior. Partners should
also assess the possibility of their spouses exercising domestic violence and
seek professional services if the possibility exists. They should also help
each other by providing feedback about their needs and set limits on their
emotional involvement or learn how to manage it (Hall 2016, p.228-229).
When treating a service member with PTSD,
it’s crucial for their family members to be included as well. This is because
treating the family as a whole increases the chances of creating a positive
enduring change. Otherwise, the disorder could destroy the whole family. Hall
indicates the grave consequences of excluding family members from the treatment
by writing in page 226 of Counseling
Military Families that “the soldier brings the battle home, but the battle
lives on within the couple’s relationship and threatens their bond,†a quote
from Sneath & Rheem (2011).
References
Hall, L. (2016). Counselling
Military Families (2nd ed., pp. pg. 223 - 230). New York: Routledge, Taylor
and Francis Group.
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