have you ever dealt with a soldier with PTSD

Question: have you ever dealt with a soldier with PTSD

Asked by anon-315982 on 14 Mar 2022.
- Jamie Chan answered on 14 Mar 2022:
  
  Hi! That’s an interesting question but I’m a social psychologist, which means that I don’t deliver treatments to people – those are clinical psychologists! Social psychologists study how people behave and why they behave that way.
- Hannah Howman answered on 14 Mar 2022:
  
  Similar to Jamie, I work in a different area of psychology so I don’t treat people but rather study how they behave. I hope another psychologist here can answer this question better.
- Reece Bush-Evans answered on 14 Mar 2022:
  
  This is an interesting question, I haven’t treated anyone with shell shock, however, I have interacted with individuals with PTSD before. It can be super challenging.
- Nadine Mirza answered on 17 Mar 2022:
  
  Yes! I once worked in a hospital in Pakistan- which is where my family is. At the hospital I worked in the men’s ward and I was part of a team looking after an older man who used to be in the Pakistani army. He would have vivid flashbacks of his time fighting and if there was a sudden or loud sound he would hide under his bed.
  
  I didn’t give him in any therapy but when it was my turn to check in on him it was just to speak to him calmly, get him to talk to me about how he was feeling, and make him feel safe and comfortable.
- Sophie Callis answered on 18 Mar 2022:
  
  I’ve never worked with a soldier with PTSD, but a lot of the people I work with have faced different types of trauma. Working in a hospital, many patients have faced life-threatening illness or surgery, or they might have stayed in a part of the hospital called “intensive care” which can be quite frightening. They can have flashbacks, which are really vivid memories of those frightening experiences, as well as nightmares and changes to their emotions and behaviour (such as irritability, feeling really jumpy, or wanting to avoid anything that reminds them of those difficult memories).
  
  There are several types of therapy that we can use for these symptoms. Most of them including replaying the traumatic experiences in a safe setting, almost like rewinding and replaying a film, to allow the brain to process the memories and make them less bothersome to the person. We usually also work on “grounding skills” to help the person anchor themselves in the present moment when they are experiencing a flashback to the past, and to help them cope with really intense emotions. These types of therapy have been researched and shown to be helpful for many people!
- Michelle Newman answered on 18 Mar 2022:
  
  No I haven’t, as this is not currently the area I look at. A colleague of mine specifically researches this though. The work she is doing will hopefully inform how individuals in military services are supported.

Question: have you ever dealt with a soldier with PTSD

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