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Due: 11/4/14

Mental Health: Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has the ability to affect anyone. It does not discriminate based on skin color, age, gender, etc. While diagnosis is rather simple for PTSD, the treatment is not. I decided to take a look at treatment methods, old and new, for PTSD. It is also fairly well-known that PTSD can have significant effects on military veterans, so I found an article related to PTSD remedies for service members.

My article, from the website TheBlaze, profiles a veteran, Jim Stanek, with PTSD who talks about having a rough time with treatments through Veterans Affairs (VA). The article summarizes Stanek’s points regarding isolating himself and how he did not want to socialize (Hallowell 2014). Because of the expense of medications and lack of socializations, Stanek decided he wanted a different type of treatment. He bumped into a therapy dog at the hospital, and while research on therapy dogs proved them to be tough to obtain, Stanek eventually settled on trying to get a service dog. However, even that process proved expensive, so he and his wife decided to start Paws and Stripes, a charity run to find service dogs for veterans with PTSD. The service dogs that Paws and Stripes provides help in a plethora of ways and to varying degrees: “While some dogs provide medical alerts for veterans, letting them know if they are about to have a panic attack in public, others simply help create a feeling of safety. Then there are other canines that assist with actions like mobility assistance, retrieving items and opening doors” (Hallowell 2014). It also talks about Stanek and his wife’s new show on A&E called “Dogs of War,” which, predictably, is about their actions through Paws and Stripes.

This article presents almost a light-hearted view on the topic of PTSD…almost. Hallowell, the author of the article, does take the idea of PTSD seriously, though he intimates that using a service...