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To Talk or Medicate

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To Talk or to Medicate.

To Talk or to Medicate
Tierra Owens
Dr. Akenburg PSY 492 801 October 6, 2013

To Talk or To Medicate
On a daily basis I deal with homeless veterans who have served in the military for our country. Each day I face many difficulties, but no difficulty could ever measure up to the difficulties the homeless veterans in my program face. Each day I look over charts of veterans who have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and many of the co-diagnosed with extensive Substance Abuse issues as well and I ask myself “was this abuse to ease the pain? The veterans I serve has spent years in a military only to come home to a world who looks down on them because they are no longer normal and find it very hard to adjust to the civilian world due to the imagines stained on their brain from the world. In the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, about one in ten returning soldiers seen in VA have a problem with alcohol or other drugs (Veteran Affairs 2012). As human service provider I witness this co diagnosis of PTSD ( Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and SUD (Substance Abuse Disorder) daily and it has encouraged me to form a opinion. After some deep thought I would like to look into the efficiency of the treatment prescribed to solders suffering from PTSD and which is more effective. In this paper I will be looking Cognitive behavioral therapy offered when trying to treat PTSD and SUD . On the other hand I will like to look into a variety of medication therapy which includes anxiety medication and drugs known as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.
On an weekly basis I deal with over 100 veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD and in most cases are dual diagnosed with SUD (Substance Use Disorder). While looking over these veterans charts I notice that many have attended Cognitive behavioral therapy,

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