Alexander Cayetano
06 March 2016
The American Psychiatric Association added Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III). The key to understanding the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is the concept of trauma. The latest revision, the DSM-V (2013), has made a number of notable evidence-based revisions to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnostic criteria, with both important conceptual and clinical implications. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is now classified in a new category, Trauma and Stress Related Disorders, in which the onset of every disorder has been preceded by exposure to a traumatic event. The latest revision …show more content…
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs (2014), sexual abuse, especially child sexual abuse, is one of the leading causes of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Child sexual abuse includes a wide range of sexual behaviors that take place between a child and an older person. These behaviors are meant to arouse the older person in a sexual way. Child sexual abuse often involves body contact. This could include sexual kissing, touching, and oral, anal, or vaginal sex. Not all sexual abuse involves body contact, though. Showing genitals, forcing children to watch pornography, verbal pressure for sex, and exploiting children as prostitutes or for pornography can be sexual abuse as well. Researchers estimate that in our country about one out of six boys and one out of four girls are sexually abused. Almost every child sexual abuse victim describes the abuse as negative. Most children know it is wrong. They usually have feelings of fear, shock, anger, and disgust. A small number of abused children might not realize it is wrong, though. These children tend to be very young or have mental delays. Also some victims might enjoy the attention, closeness, or physical contact with the abuser. Children who have been sexually abused may experience many long-term symptoms, including; anxiety, depression, low self-image and Post-Traumatic Stress …show more content…
In fact, it’s part of the condition to live alone in the trauma (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Risk Prediction, 2011). The treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder consists of various forms of psychotherapy; cognitive therapy, exposure therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Cognitive therapy, is a type of talk therapy helps you recognize the ways of thinking that are keeping you locked in the traumatic event, for example, negative or inaccurate ways of perceiving normal situations. For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, cognitive therapy often is used along with exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is a specific type of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy that is often used in the treatment of phobias. Exposure therapy is a safe and proven technique when used by an experienced, licensed therapist who specializes in these kinds of conditions and treatments. In Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, exposure therapy is intended to help the patient face and gain control of the fear and distress that was overwhelming in the trauma, and must be done very carefully in order not to re-traumatize the patient. The last and newest technique is eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing does not rely on talk therapy or medications. Instead, it uses a patient's own rapid, rhythmic eye movements. These eye