The topic of interest that I chose to evaluate on a self-help resource is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Post-Traumatic Stress disorder is a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock, typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid recall of the experience, with dulled responses to others and to the outside world (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2017). I have substantial interest and experience with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because my grandpa, Bob Waylen Hall Jr. is a heavy metaled Army Veteran who carries the baggage of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after being deployed to the Vietnam War. After doing extensive research on self-help resources for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder on the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and the National Center for PTSD websites I came across the cellular app: PTSD Coach on the Apple iTunes Store. The link to the app PTSD Coach was located on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website page "Self-Coaching and Coping". The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website listed many self-helping resources, but I found the app PTSD Coach to be most helpful and accessible. PTSD Coach is also very easy to work with a clear message.
PTSD Coach is designed for those who have, or may have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The app was created by VA's National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and DoD's National Center for Telehealth & Technology. The app is targeting military veterans, but can be used by any individual who has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or family member who wants to learn about this disorder and would like to help in any way. The purpose of the app is to provide education at Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, information about professional care, a self-assessment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, opportunities to find support, and tools that can help you manage the stresses of daily life with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The different tools that PTSD Coach offers ranges from relaxation skills and positive self-talk to anger management and other common self-help strategies. You are able to customize tools based on your preferences and can integrate your own contacts, photos, and music.
After using the app, the likely outcome for the patient is going to be positive. The app provides a large amount of information that can make the patient feel more comfortable with their condition and feel they are not alone. PTSD Coach provides information on how to deal with the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder such as dissociation, avoidance, temper, sadness, insomnia, nightmares, embarrassment, triggers, and social isolation. The first step in improving the symptoms of a disorder is educating yourself about the disorder. Being able to track your symptoms and setting daily reminders (assessment and inspiriting quotes) can keep the patient aware of the progress they are making towards their disorder's severity. The app uses comes from a cognitive behavioral theoretical position.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is used to treat people with a wide range of mental health problems. Cognitive behavioral therapy is based off of our cognition, emotion, and behavior. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a cycle that starts with our thoughts which determines our feelings and our behavior. CBT approaches to treatment of PTSD have been driven by two theories (learning and emotional-processing) that their goal to describe the way fear is developed and handled (Gonzales & Resko, 2012). The learning theory focuses on modifying different behaviors by controlling environmental signals such as enforcers. The memory associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is re-activated. Emotional-processing theory works to analyze and explain the onset of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The goal of cognitive therapy for PTSD is to teach cognitive-reframing tactics. Those practices help to identify trauma related, beliefs that provoke unhealthy negative emotions and lead to dysfunctional behaviors, usually in response to situations correlated with, the trauma (Gonzales & Resko, 2012). PTSD Coach uses the cognitive behavioral therapy by allowing the user to track symptoms. The assessments consists of issues that Veterans sometimes have in response to stressful military experiences. The app also shows the self-assessment results in the history section. You are able to watch the scores change over time and you receive feedback about the severity of your symptoms.
PTSD Coach lists may symptoms such as reminded of trauma, avoiding triggers, disconnected from people, disconnected from reality, sad/hopeless, worried/anxious, angry, and unable to sleep. You first rate your stress level on a scale of 0 to 10 and then you do an exercise next to help alleviate such. For example, for reminded of trauma, the tool used is a 30 second breathing exercise. The next tool is feeling your clothes on your skin. You are supposed to pay attention to the sensation of your clothes touching your sin. The last tool used for being reminded of the trauma is visualizing something pleasant. It is a 4 minute exercise that is accompanied by music so you have to find a quiet place or use headphones. Other tools used ranges from ambient sounds, changing perspective, connecting with others, deep breathing, grounding, help falling asleep, inspiring quotes, leisure (time alone, in town, and in nature), mindfulness (breathing, eating, listening, looking, walking, relaxation), muscle relaxation, observations (emotional, sensations, thoughts), positive imagery, RID, and a time out.
In my opinion, the resource PTSD Coach can be used by anyone. The tools and resources used contains basic skills to help alleviate different symptoms pertaining to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It also provides numerous hotline numbers to call when in a crisis. I would recommend it to people of all ages who experience symptoms of lack of sleep, anger and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The strategies on how manage the symptoms listed on my online sources accurately consists with the self-help app as well as the available crisis hotline numbers. According to PTSD statistics, the amount of people who will have PTSD in their lifetime varies by 1%. The remaining statistics such women are more than 2x likely as men to develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder accurately depicts each other.
A difference between the self-help app PTSD Coach is the confidential limits. Listed in the app the limits of confidentiality are you disclose that you are planning to kill or harm yourself or someone else, the therapist learns about a child or elder being abused, you are Active Duty military (there may be limits to confidentiality, in a few other rare situations. In class we learned there are 3 limits of confidentiality: if you plan to harm/kill yourself or others, any suspicion of a child, elder or someone of the vulnerable population is being harmed, and if court ordered. We did not learn about any limits of being in the active military or any other rare situations.