This essay examines the relationship between health and psychology

The relationship between health and psychology
Student’s name
Institution
Introduction
Psychology is the study of human mind and how it works, the study focuses on how it affects one’s behavior. On the other hand, health is a complete state of social, physical and mental wellness and not the absence of illness or infirmity. The relationship between health and psychology can be inferred from the above definition. When one is not mentally healthy, the resultant behavior could be categorized as a psychological problem. This paper is going to focus on post -traumatic stress case, which is classified under mental disorders. Post-traumatic stress is a mental condition as a result of experiencing or being a witness to a distressing event (Sher pp2, 2004). Such an event could be a fatal accident or rape that are common nowadays. The essay will center on a rape victim while in her junior high school, but now a college student.
Method
The informant is a college student in her early 20s; she is currently living with her parents although most of the time she stays in the college hostels. She has two brothers the eldest and their youngest. Her father is a lab technician, and her mother works as a teacher in a local high school. I used an interview that took place at their home since I had to seek permission from her parents who summoned her. I used the following questions to get clarifications; what are your name and age? Where were you when you experienced the horrible act? Did you recognize the person who committed the brutality? What happened to the offender? What were you diagnosed with after the incidence? What can you compare life like before and after the incidence? Are you still taking the medication you have been prescribed? What can you tell those who have been through such terrifying experiences? Have you seen improvement over the years? What are your coping skills? The questions also gave the victim a chance relief the stress by the art of sharing the traumatic experience.

The compilation of the questions for the interviewer, was done in a manner that will give more insight on the victims’ health status. The timeline was since the time of incidence occurrence to date.
Results
This segment is dedicated to addressing the outcome of the interview. Victoria was only 11 years when she got raped by her drunkard uncle. The uncle was arrested and sentenced to prison. But this lasted for days before she had to tell her mother since she was scared on how to deliver the shameful news. She assumed a silent and depressed mood for three days, and this raised an alarm to her mother that there was a problem. Victoria was known to be an introvert, and so silence was not part of her. But after the act she would lock herself up in her room. She never went out to play with fellow kids either did she want to interact with adults especially men, she had developed a certain form of men phobia.
Once the offender was identified, she was screened for sexually transmitted infections. It was noticed that she had developed a mental illness; post-traumatic stress following the heartless experience. The sudden fear exhibited this that she had grown mainly towards men; the experience was worsened considering she had two brothers and father. She experienced the nightmare that left very scary imaginations that at times, would leave her in a trance-like state. Her mental health had completely deteriorated, and this was signaled by the failure in academics, for a girl who used to excel in her class work.
Immediately her mother opted for a psychiatrist to help with the condition. At first she refused to see the psychiatrist but with time she was convinced that she would get help and resume to normalcy. She had to see the counselor every day for 2 hours; one hour was spent with one- on -one psychotherapy with the psychiatrist by sharing information. The remaining time was expended in a group therapy session. In group therapy, people with the similar mental health condition, are allowed to interact and share their pain. The sharing is therapeutic in nature, and it makes the victim feel that they are not lonely in the suffering. The group becomes a source of strength and courage in coping.
Victoria had lost hope but with time with the therapies, she started to regain but still she would remember the act and fear would creep into her mind. She would experience nightmares and feel depressed the following day, but prescribed mirtazapine drug was prescribed for relief (Haynie & Klenerová pp31, 2004). At her tender age relying on drugs was a health challenge, due to blood intoxication by the drugs chemicals. She would forget to take the medication at times unless her caring mother reminded her. She said she used to take antidepressants only when on depressed. The depression was occasional and so did not have a severe impact on her health, but managing it for the sake of her class work during the day was important. To counter the side effects of the drugs, she was recommended a particular diet with green vegetables and garlic and regular physical exercise to detoxify her body and keep her stress levels under control.
She continued with her treatments and with time she no longer experienced nightmares but the phobia for men was still there. At one time, the psychiatrist said that her family will have to move out of their home to a different one since the view of the place where she faced the incidences, enhanced the post-traumatic stress. She was raped in their home by her uncle who was babysitting her together with her younger brother. Both her parents left work late, and her elder brother was a senior high school student, in a boarding school. They loved their uncle who left work much earlier and so he was a convenient option.
Currently, Victoria is a college student but the problem is almost gone since she has learned a lot especially from the group therapy. She no longer needs depression medication because she doesn’t experience nightmares that led to her depression. The problem she is trying to deal with is the phobia for men. She said that she had never had a boyfriend since the occurrence of the incidence. But she has been attempting to go out of in a mixed gender friends to help establish the confidence with men. The psychiatrist offers private services, and this have helped her clear her mind. She avoids lonely places and tries to occupy her mind and body with activities for idle moments predisposes her to wonder over the past. She gave a word of advice that adherence to the psychological therapies was a critical factor towards recovering. Those blaming themselves and diminishing their self-worth following the even should stop. Such though are self-destructive, and they hinder the proper response to therapies.
Discussion
Health and psychology are concepts tied together for each contributes to the other. After the heinous act, Victoria was psychologically and physical wounded. She no longer enjoyed the life she used to, she withdrew from her ordinary life and preferred solitude. Victoria’s outgoing nature disappeared, and she turned into a scared and sorrowful girl. She was experiencing nightmares based on the mental pictures she had captured from the painful experience. She developed a sudden phobia for men primarily because her uncle committed the rape. She lost trust and confidence with men, and she had to deal with hard moments around her father and two brothers who were potentially harmless.
Victoria had developed a lot of symptoms for the post-traumatic stress that included depression. She would have the painful images and retract into a trance- like state, and later would start crying. All these confirmed the degree of emotional toil the experience had brought to her. Her life changed completely with dropping grades and losing the self-worth, she would at times develop eating disorders. At one time, she confessed to having the intention of taking her life. With the help of her psychiatrist, she was able to focus on the good side of life.
Post-traumatic stress patients rarely want to be associated with the exact place or surroundings that they experienced the trauma. Treatments like exposure therapy are useful for it allows the victim a chance to harmonize with those surrounding. If the patient can face such environments and emerge less frightened, high are chances that they will recover from the trauma. In most occasions, a virtual environment is introduced instead of the real environment. All those are in the effort to help the patient adjust positively along the treatment for the trauma. This is the primary reason Victoria’s parents were told they should move to a different residential area if the therapy would not help. The ability for Victoria to face the environment she got raped in was a breakthrough towards the healing process. She proved a tremendous improvement in her healing process, for she was responding well to the treatments.
For depression and anxiety that led to Victoria assuming the trace like posture, anti-depressants were used in such circumstances. Drugs for anxiety managements have a limit on usage for they are subject to abuse. Drugs like prazosin were used to control problems with nightmares and insomnia. The recommendation for a healthy diet, a good rest, and physical exercise along following the treatment plan were to take the part of coping skills. For psychotic condition sometimes there are no standard treatment and the psychiatrist together with the patient, can work out the best treatment model that brings the best results.
Recommendations
Post-traumatic stress is a serious mental health issue across the globe at the moment. It has been noticed that some individual dwell on the stress longer than others. Some adjust to treatment faster than others, irrespective of age. Research towards finding the answer to this should be conducted to establish the main reason (“Is PTSD in your genes…,” 2015). Maybe it’s within the genetic constitution or blood groups like, for instance, people with blood group B+ are subject to earlier dementia than the other blood groups. The same knowledge could be applied to establish the cause, and response to post traumatic stress medication variations on patients. Personalities linked to exhibiting extreme symptoms for the post-traumatic stress could be explored, and management skills are developed.
Conclusion
Many are times when victims are identified or ignored; some people are suffering from the condition, but they don’t realize neither do those around them get notice. Signs and symptoms come in most cases in three folds (Sher pp3, 2004). One would get into the same experience through nightmares and may end up into convulsions, those around them may carelessly prescribe sleeping pills that are subject to abuse, and this is unhealthy. The second way to recognize a post-traumatic experience is by avoiding the places or those reminders that subject them to the trauma they experienced the detachment and preference for solitude was a good sign. The last one is exhibiting inability to control anger or insomnia. People who have served as soldiers, sex workers or children brought up in violent environments, are overlooked victims of post-traumatic stress (Sher pp3, 2004).
Those people with fears for something, for instance, dogs or fire even when they are not presenting with harm, are probably victims of post-traumatic stress. Victims can be helped to combat the challenge by use of expository therapy. Here they will be encouraged to love dogs’, and alternatively they can be gifted with dog pests. Those with fears of fire can be introduced to virtual fires until they get used to fires.
References
Hynie, S., & Klenerová, V. (2004). Neurobiology of posttraumatic stress disorder. PSYCHIATRIE-PRAHA-, 8(SUPP/2), 32-35.
Is PTSD in your genes? – CNN.com. (n.d.). Retrieved July 1, 2015, from http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/12/health/ptsd-genes/
Sher, L. (2004). Recognizing post-traumatic stress disorder. QJM: An international journal of medicine, 97(1), 1-5.