Example of term paper on anxiety

One of the most common symptoms of PTSD is persistent re-experiencing of the traumatic event which can be manifested through unpleasant dreams, reliving the trauma, agitation when exposed to events that are objectively or subjectively related to the trauma and physiological reaction to these stimuli. These symptoms need to be present for one month in order to meet the criteria.
During the traumatic experience our sympathetic nervous system awakes and sends adrenalin into our bloodstream. This causes our body to be well prepared for the upcoming threat and it is considered to be a normal, adaptive reaction to distress. However, in the PTSD these arousals tend to persist even though there is no objective threat and form new, dysfunctional behaviors. When a person is hiding under the bed after re-experiencing the event in a dream it can hardly be interpreted as a helpful, adaptive or functional behavior. When this or similar behaviors are noticed by family members or friends they mustn’t be neglected. These are the things that should be talked about. Avoiding talking about the trauma, anxiety and “ strange” actions of the affected friend or family member will not make the problem go away.
Person who suffers from PTSD can experience anxiety in common situations which are not dangerous because they interpret them as fearful. The best way for a person to understand the uselessness of that fear is to learn what anxiety is and in which situations it can be helpful. On the other hand, he or she should be instructed to alter the perception of everyday situations that cause fear. It is the evaluation of these events that triggers the anxiety. We have to mention here that not all individuals who experience trauma develop symptoms. A lot of researches tried to explain why some of us are more susceptible to react with PTSD on trauma than others. The concept of resilience explained this phenomenon to a certain degree. Resilience is the ability to maintain a state of normal equilibrium in the face of extremely unfavorable circumstances. (Bonanno, 2004) A person will more likely be resilient if he/she uses humor and creativity to deal with the problem. We can use our knowledge to promote resilience in patients suffering from PTSD. They should be encouraged to return to their everyday life, foster creative activities and provided with adequate social and emotional support in order to enhance resilience.
Classical conditioning can be responsible for developing PTSD. Since traumatic event naturally causes fear and anxiety, it is considered as UCS and the reaction to it (fear) as UCR. It only takes one pairing of NS and UCS to become associated and after that pairing NS becomes CS and it causes CR. For example when someone is in a car accident, that situation represents UCS and it will cause emotion of fear (UCR). The sound of the traffic wasn’t even noticed earlier (NS) but after the traumatic event it can be interpreted as a threat and now becomes CS which causes fear (CR) to appear.