COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Introduction

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has been recognized as a major psychiatric disorder following emotional or physical trauma and manifests in the form of intrusive memories and nightmares associated with the precipitating event, avoidance behavior on being reminded of the event, recurrent insomnia and overt startle response (Corey 2008:248).If left undiagnosed or untreated it can lead to permanent psychological damage in the form of persistence of the symptoms described above.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) incorporates some of the previously established elements of therapeutic approaches such as psychoeducation, problem solving strategies, skills teaching, modification of distorted cognitions and behaviorally based exposure methods (Scheeringa Salloum Arnberger2007:631).

A Case Description: Patient Tran

Even as a juvenile man, Tran advised himself to be “weak” (yêu). (In Asia, “weakness” is a common distress presentation, analogous to the former Western diagnosis of neurasthenia; )To be able to do physical labor, such as loading bags of rice on a truck, he had to take a tonic. (numerous Vietnamese regularly took tonics, particularly B vitamins.)

His first foremost trauma happening appeared in 1974, when—while fishing off the seaboard area of to the north Vietnam—Tran's vessel was flipped over throughout a rapid storm. He sat on the keel, waiting for help, with death seeming inescapable; but after 3 hours, he was rescued—many other fishermen past away that day. In 1978, when he traveled to the British border to do some trading, he was unfairly accused of being a British spy and arrested. During interrogating, an interrogator hit Tran on the right side of head with a pistol butt, dispatching him to the ground. Tran was organised to stand up; upon standing, he was strike afresh on the temple with a pistol butt, causing him to drop back down to the ground. Then a man pulled Tran into a chair pushed against a partition; another man grabbed the hair on the top of Tran's head and frequently banged the back of his head against the wall. Aa short while later, another man hit Tran in the mouth, knocking out two teeth. After his freedom, fearing another arrest, Tran determined to flee from Vietnam with his wife and children. Acouple of days into the journey, just as sea storm began, they ran out of nourishment and water; they endeavoured to dock at the inlet of a large isle but were declined and chased away by the guard. Out at sea again, the swell shortly increased so large—two tales high—that Tran sensed exceedingly dizzy and threw up repeatedly. When the gale stopped, a warm sun trounce down upon them; other family constituents fainted from a combination of thirst, hunger, and seasickness. Just in time, a angling vessel arrived and suggested them food and water. They finally come to a refugee bivouac, and a couple of years subsequent, the joined States.

Just before beginning CBT remedy, Tran—then 55 years of age—had daily episodes of headache-focused panic. As he concerned about present life difficulties, he sensed increasingly tense, his head ached, and the ...