Post-traumatic stress disorder
A disabling psychiatric disorder that results from being exposed to real or threatened injury, death, and sexual assault. It is associated with functional and cognitive impairment.
Symptoms
The symptoms of PTSD may include re-experiencing the traumatic event, flashbacks, nightmares, intrusive thoughts, dissociation (detachment from oneself or reality), and experiencing intense negative emotions. It can cause lack of sleep, problems with concentration, hyper-vigilance, etc.
The National Library of Medicine (NIH) states that for someone to be diagnosed with PTSD, the duration of the symptoms must be more than one month (Mann et al., 2023).
How are patients diagnosed?
One of the first steps is to obtain a detailed history of the person. Knowing the individual's history, will help provide the duration of the symptoms (how long has the individual experienced these symptoms) and when did it first begin. Individuals may have a difficult time expressing or describing the severity of their trauma, as they will have to revisit a memory that can be triggering.
Health care workers who are involved throughout the process must inquire about any depressive or anxiety symptoms, suicidal ideation or previous attempts, substance abuse, access to firearms, etc. (Mann et. al., 2023). By doing so, it will provide a more concrete diagnosis and treatment options.
Treatment Options
Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered as the first-line treatment effective in adults as well as children.
CBT is a form of psychological treatment that has been demonstrated to be effective for a range of problems including depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug use problems, marital problems, eating disorders, and severe mental illness (What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?, 2017).
“Studies show that daytime PTSD symptoms improve even after a single session of CBT”
Trauma in Mixed Status Families
Definition of Mixed-Status Families
Mixed-status families are families, whose family members include people with different citizenship or immigration statuses. For example, a mixed-status family is one in which the parents are undocumented and the children are U.S.-born citizens (The Affordable Care Act & Mixed-Status Families, n.d.).
Information on Mixed-Status Families in Arizona
The article “On Edge All the Time '': Mixed-Status Households Navigating Health Care Post Arizona's Most Stringent Anti-immigrant Law, examines the implication mixed-status households continue to face. The authors conduct interviews with 43 households in Tucson, Arizona. Within these households 81% of them had at least one undocumented member, revealing barriers and promoters to care. These barriers include complexity of applications, fear of deportation, trauma of losing a family member, distrust, and trepidation in seeking care (Gómez & O'Leary, 2019).
Till this day, mixed-status households continue to have difficulty obtaining proper coverage in mental health service, as a result many people go untreated due to lack of accessibility.
Journalists Mental Health
Journalists are constantly exposed to traumatic events such as natural disasters, war, violence, and much more. Covering these events leads to potential risk factors of developing PTSD, anxiety, and depression. They are also constantly challenged with high demanding work, burnout, mental health challenges, social isolation, harassment, and stigma.
News outlets that stigmatize emotional expression within newsrooms could be detrimental to reporters’ mental health by encouraging silence, preventing reporters from seeking treatment, and exacerbating work-related post-traumatic stress symptoms (Smith et al., 2018).
By compartmentalizing their emotions, journalists end up neglecting their mental health.