Understanding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Discuss about the traumatic stress disorder and Histrionic personality disorder.

This is a mental disorder that develops when one is exposed to traumatic event in their life. The issues that causes the stress are related to sex, assault, warfare, collision or anything else that threatens their life (Amoroso & Workman, 2016). This often leads to disturbing thoughts that the individual experiences that last for different periods of time depending on the effect.

Early descriptions of the concepts are linked to warfare where accounts of stress in soldiers after the battle are used to describe a range of anxiety symptoms that they experienced during war. This led to the conceptual frameworks that seek to understand the effects of stress as a factor of mental illness development (Kilpatrick, et al., 2013). This conceptual framework led to the understanding that there is a psychiatric syndrome that occurs as a consequence of being exposed to stress. This led to the development of the field to advances in neuroscience that allow stress scrutiny through brain neuroimaging. These events are categorized as being outside the range of usual human experience which is different from human stressors.

The difference between trauma and normal stressors is that the human body system is biologically designed to deal with stressors that fall within the ordinary category but traumas present experiences that overwhelm the individual thus making them develop post-traumatic stress disorders (Maercker & Perkonigg, 2013). This means that people only exhibit PTSD characteristics when they have met the stressors that make the individual to suffer memory lapses of what happened.

Researchers have attempted to categorize different levels of PTSD in patients as a way of determining how they can understand the signs and symptoms that people with the condition display (Raskind, et al., 2013). Since people face different traumatic situations and their body systems react differently the following criterion have been developed by researchers for understanding people with the condition.

There are different criterion for diagnosing PTSD in patients. The first one is the stressor criterion that focusses on the exposure of the individual to catastrophic events that threatens or harms the individual. Once the individual has been exposed to the conditions, the disorder as seen as a reaction to the experience that they have in the situation.

The intrusive recollection criterion deals with symptoms that are easily distinctive and identifiable.  The events can remain in the life of the individual for a certain period thus evoking panic or psychological experience of the individual in case they are exposed to the condition (Bass, et al., 2013). When the individual faces the images of the experience during the day, they relapse back to trauma at night mostly when they are sleeping. This criterion is used in reproducing the symptoms for laboratory tests during research by exposing the individual to the condition.

Diagnosing and Categorizing PTSD

The avoidance criteria is based on strategies used by PTSD patients to reduce their exposure through behavioral strategies that reduce their exposure to traumatic stimuli. These strategies are also used in reacting to situations or dealing with situations that create the rise of the trauma.

The negative cognition and mood criterion reflects the alteration in beliefs and mood that people develop after exposure to trauma.  This is described as erroneous cognition about the causes and consequences of the event thus blaming themselves for what they feel about the situation. This is characterized by dissociative psychogenic amnesia that leads to cutting off the conspicuous experience that one feels.

Lastly, there is the alteration in arousal or reactivity criterion which resembles panic and anxiety disorders (Panagioti, Gooding, Triantafyllou, & Tarrier, 2015).  The individual suffers intense trauma that appears like frank paranoia. This experience leads to unique neurobiological substrate defined as the most pathognomonic PTSD symptom which makes the individual to experience angry outbursts, aggressive behavior, recklessness and even self-destructive behavior that is a result of the inability of the individual to manage the condition.

Avoidance seen in avoiding people, places or situations that remind the individual.

Hyperarousal

Mood swings.

Behavioral changes.

Memory problems.

Lack of concentration on tasks.

Poor relationship with coworkers.

Absenteeism.

Unreasonable reactions to situations that trigger memories.

Haagen, Smid, Knipscheer, & Kleber (2015) suggests that the first approach in managing people with PTSD at work is maintaining dialogue. By keeping lines of communication open, the victim can benefit from empathic listening since they feel embarrassed about the experiences and some blame themselves for what happened. In most cases such people are not easy to open up and may die silently if they have a work problem. To help them manage work PTSD, it is important to allow communication so that they can be free to seek assistance.

Another way to assist PTSD victims at work is meeting their needs by asking them the changes that they believe need to be put in place. Sometimes the work place can be a reminder or the source of the disorders that they are undergoing thus the need to ensure that the workplace addresses the challenges that they face like difficulty concentrating, poor memory, stress and even anxiety (Skogstad, 2013). On the other hand, some behaviors like absenteeism and stress from colleagues can be addressed through instituting mechanisms that accommodate the needs of the victim.

Managing PTSD in the Workplace

Dealing with problems promptly within the workplace ensures that the issues are not left to escalate and at the same time ensures that the victims gets the required help (Alisic, et al., 2014).  For example, when employees are having a hard time at work, there is need to speak to them directly to understand the challenges they are facing and using constructive feedback  to understand what needs to be done to improve the condition.

Lastly, there is need to train employees on how to deal with PTSD issues when they arise at work. The team needs to understand how to approach the issue in case one of them starts experiencing the issue instead of mounting more pressure on them (Shalev, Liberzon, & Marmar, 2017). Early diagnosis ensures that preventive strategies are put in place to meet the needs of such employees.

Histrionic personality disorder is a disorder characterized by constant attention-seeking, emotional overreaction and suggestibility. Such types of people are always uncomfortable and feel unappreciated which pushes them to seek attention from others every time (Novais, Araujo, & Godinho, 2015). This behavior becomes excessive to the point that it becomes too uncomfortable for those around them, the reason why it is seen as a disorder.

People with this condition are said to have different causes that make them to behave that way. One of the causes is the neurochemical composition of their system which is related to cluster B personality disorders (Blaney, Krueger, & Millon, 2015).  Individuals that have been prescribed with HPD have noradrenergic systems that are high thus leading to anxiety proneness, dependency and high sociability.

On the other hand, psychoanalytic theorists have suggested that biological drives combine with individual experiences to form certain behavior tendencies that children have when they grow up. When children are not socialized well or are exposed to certain traumatic conditions they develop certain disorders like the Histrionic personality as a reaction to the environment that they have been exposed to. This explains why children develop certain tendencies when they grow.

Further, Crocq (2013) the condition is related to individuals with antisocial personality disorder as the criteria for developing histrionic personality.  For example, the media highlights that women can get attention through exploiting themselves and when seductiveness does not work, they prefer to use theatricals to achieve attention. Therefore, people with the disorder use it to solve the unmet need of acquiring attention from others.

Understanding Histrionic Personality Disorder

Despite the relationship with genetics and other disorders, histrionic personality disorder lies in the childhood experiences and is portrayed in its relationship with experience and appears mostly in men and women with average appearance. Researchers argue that this disorder is unique since it is connected with the physical appearance of people which makes it easy for them to hide in the condition. However, the connection is greater in women than men since women use appearance to draw attention more than men. Individuals displaying this behavior use it as a defense against inferiority, feelings of inadequacy, personality malformation and absence of mother bond when growing up. However, in the later lives of individuals, traumas like divorce or death can affect people’s inability to form intimate relationships thus making them to resort to attention seeking. Cognitive style is the approach that people use to solve tasks through learning, reasoning, thinking and decision making. Since this people have a personality weakness, their cognitive approach is superficial and lacks detail which makes them to rely on dramatization to impress others.

The disorder can only be diagnosed by a trained mental health professional who analyses the individual and draws conclusion based on the signs that people have. Research has shown that most people with this condition never seek treatment until the behavior has accumulated to a point where it interferes with their life and that of others. This is mostly seen when the coping resources that the individual has been using get exhausted making it difficult for them to cope with the stress. According to research about 1% of the population suffers from this disorder but is more common in women than men. Individuals who suffer from this condition are known to carry out a series of schemes to seek attention from others. The most common ways of seeking attention are causing of drama, flirting around, dressing seductively, interrupting conversations and sometimes becoming the victim to seek sympathy.

Self-centeredness

Constant seeking if attention or reapprove.

Inappropriate seductive behavior or appearance.

Shifting of emotional states.

Mostly over concerned with their physical appearance and sometimes using it to draw attention.

Exaggerated displays of emotion.

Highly suggestible.

Tend to getting bored with their normal routine.

Impaired relationships with same-sex friends.

Psychologists have stated that the first step in dealing people of this disorder is understanding the symptoms of the disorder to determine the factors that you need to look for when handling them. This implies understanding the things that the individual does so that strategies can be put in place to manage the individual with the condition. Since people with histrionic personality seek to manipulate people to get their way, the best way to handle them is understanding their manners and not giving in (Blagov, Fowler, & Lilienfeld, 2017). They will use different mechanisms and threats to walk over others and ensure that they convince them with their craving behavior. Therefore, employees should develop ways of dealing with such individuals and ensuring that they understand the tactics used and working around them.

Another way of dealing with such employees with the disorder is placing them in jobs that suit them. Since they mostly see the problem as emanating from the other person rather than them, they utilize their social skills to manipulate others to become the center of attraction. By putting them in jobs that make them the center of attraction, it becomes difficult for them to manipulate others since they get the attention that they always want (Novais, Araujo, & Godinho, 2015). Management can reinforce this and ensure that the job placement is used to shape the individual and ensure that they conform to setting limits, boundaries and policies of the organization.

Causes of Histrionic Personality Disorder

Another way to deal with histrionic disorder at work is practicing acceptance and handling them in a way that does not attract attention. These people believe there is nothing wrong with them and have learned to face the world using the behaviors that display.  Since they do not feel ashamed when they face situations with people, then it is important to learn to reinforce desirable behaviors in them by speaking without drama and paying attention to what they say. This makes them cool down and reduce attention seeking.

References

Alisic, E., Zalta, A. K., van Wesel, F., Larsen, S. E., Hafstad, G. S., Hassanpour, K., & Smid, G. E. (2014). Rates of post-traumatic stress disorder in trauma-exposed children and adolescents: meta-analysis. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 204(5), 335–340.

Amoroso, T., & Workman, M. (2016). Treating posttraumatic stress disorder with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy: A preliminary meta-analysis and comparison to prolonged exposure therapy. Journal of psychopharmacology, 30(7), 595–600.

Bass, J. K., Annan, J., McIvor Murray, S., Kaysen, D., Griffiths, S., Cetinoglu, T., . . . Bolton, P. A. (2013). Controlled trial of psychotherapy for Congolese survivors of sexual violence. New England Journal of Medicine, 368, 2182-219.

Blagov, P. S., Fowler, K. A., & Lilienfeld, S. (2017). Personality disorders. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Blaney, P., Krueger, R., & Millon, T. (2015). Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Crocq, M. (2013). Milestones in the history of personality disorders. Dialogues Clinical Neuroscience, 15, 147–153.

Haagen, J., Smid, G., Knipscheer, J., & Kleber, R. (2015). The efficacy of recommended treatments for veterans with PTSD: A metaregression analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 40, 184-194.

Kilpatrick, D. G., Resnick, H. S., Milanak, M. E., Miller, M. W., Keyes, K. M., & Friedman, M. J. (2013). National estimates of exposure to traumatic events and PTSD prevalence using DSM-IV and DSM-5 criteria. Journal of Traumatic Stress,, 26, 537-547.

Maercker, A., & Perkonigg, A. (2013). Applying an international perspective in defining PTSD and related disorders. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 560-562.

Novais, F., Araujo, A. M., & Godinho, P. (2015). Historical Roots of Histrionic Personality Disorder. Frontiers in Psychology, 6(1453).

Novais, F., Araujo, A., & Godinho, P. (2015). Historical roots of histrionic personality disorder. Frontiers in Psychology, 6.

Panagioti, M., Gooding, P. A., Triantafyllou, K., & Tarrier, N. (2015). Suicidality and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 50(4), 525–537.

Raskind, M. A., Peterson, K., Williams, T., Hoff, D. J., Hart, K., Holmes, H., . . . Freed, M. C. (2013). A trail of prazosin for combat trauma PTSD with nightmares in active-duty soldiers returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1-10.

Shalev, A., Liberzon, I., & Marmar, C. (2017). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The New England Journal of Medicine, 376(25), 2459–2469.

Skogstad, M. (2013). Work-related post-traumatic stress disorder. Occupational Medicine, 63(3), 175-182.