With Post Traumatic Stress Disoder can people work or are they employable.?

Question

I know this person who has PTSD and they would like to work. they go alright for a few weeks but they dont complete anything and often have issues with other employees. Will this behaviour continue or is there a drug that will tone down the symptoms and make them more employable. They seem to have a complex form

Answer 1

I have had it, or at least some issues from it (hypervigilance, nightmares, dissociation, etc.) most of my life. I'm currently unemployed, but have held serious full-time work before.

The big thing that nails me though is this: Post-Traumatic Stress issues are almost always *complicated*. They don't just go away with a 6-week training session with a few workbooks and some rubber bands around the wrist, ok?

It's the kind of thing that, in order to treat it properly so that folks like me get *better*, needs *both* the right medications (which aren't always easy to find, there's too much trial and error in the system), *and* counseling for the long haul. Both of them, ok? As in, at the same time....just getting *one* won't do more than lock someone into a holding pattern, I've been there and spent much of the past 15 years *doing that*.

And today's HMO-mad, cost-cutting, healthcare-denying workforce just doesn't let that happen. My last job, I ended up losing six months in because the HMO would not cover *one red cent* of my medication costs. I went, in the space of one month, from paying a co-payment that was less than ten dollars on public assistance, to paying *full cost*, which was more than *my Rent*. That is a total back-breaker for someone who is just trying to get off of welfare, *be* self-sufficient, and *have* a workable budget.

And the only "counseling" the HMOs offered was that 6-week workbooks thing. -_-

So yeah, I can either work for a living, get cut off from most to *all* Public Aid for my healthcare, and not have meds or counseling *at all* because employers *Refuse* to cover one red cent of anything....or I can treat my problems and not work. That's not a choice anyone should have to make, is it?

It's not a choice *I can* make. When I am not on proper meds to stabilize things, I eventually become openly suicidal. My work history without medication is *very* bad, without treatment I'm a total flake. With it, I can hold part-time work for *years* and full-time work until the damned HMOs and Income Cliffing/Cutoffs/Spenddowns from Public Aid *screw me over* yet again. Which is about six months--just long enough to mess with my budget, but not long enough to really get Unemployment Benefits.

So yeah. In short, we *can* work for a living, but we need BOTH medication and proper counseling for the long haul. And those are things the Bosses and Rich Men in the workplace *frown on* and refuse to spend money on.

I hope this helps....thanks for your time. Email me if you'd like to know more.

Answer 2

I suffer from severe PTSD, bipolar disorder, panic attacks, and anxiety attacks. I take plenty of medications, see a psychiatrist every three months, a psychotherapist biweekly, and have group therapy weekly. Since about 1988 I have had at least 16 different jobs, I quit working altogether in 1998. I have four college degrees, am qualified to do almost anything. I was an Air Force Pilot, the Manager of the 11th busiest airport in the world, and ran a computer software department while I was in the Service. Since I got out, I have failed at two of my own businesses, been a bouncer at a strip club, managed an electronic store, sold windows door to door, sold meat door to door, sold picture frame molding commercially, and anything that would pay my mortgage. It finally got so bad when I looked at my computer I could not find the on button. I went to the VA and discovered what was wrong with me, I started medication and group therapy. In group is where I learned that I was not the only person in the world with my problems. I am 100% disabled by the VA and collect Social Security Disability Pension. BTW, before going to the doctors my house was repossessed. I cannot work any more, but I am able to function a little better. At least now I am semi-able to leave my dark bedroom with the help of my wife, children, grandchildren, and two great friends.

I hope this helps you understand a little bit better.

Answer 3

I have PTSD. I, too have the skills to be employed, and although I learn slowly and make more mistakes than others, I am capable of working for a few weeks. PTSD is a stress disorder - and if I am placed into a stressful longterm situation, my symptoms return to the point where I am incapable of carrying out my daily responsibilities.

What I find is that although I can "pull it together" during work hours, during my 24-hr days of living there is an increasing time when I am not able to function in my other responsibilities. As my stress continues, the difficulties with functioning spill over into my employment hours also. I find my ability to reason, to remember, and to figure things out diminishes to the point where I am ineffective and other workers become annoyed by my performance.

Once I leave the job, it takes a number of weeks of almost total rest before I am able to regain more normal levels of functioning even in my own home.

Antidepressant medications can alleviate some of the symptoms, allowing me to live with more elevated stress loads. Anti-psychotic medications minimize other symptoms. Some things the only thing that will work is to avoid triggering situations and to manage your life on a low level of stress.

Answer 4

There is a high rate of disability among people who have 'complex PTSD'. Complex PTSD is also often referred to in the field as borderline personality disorder (BPD).

It is not impossible for someone with this disorder to work, however one of the issues is difficulty sustaining stability over a period of time.

Answer 5

I know someone who has this, I would imagine each case is different. Each person is an individual so it stands to reason that PTSD would be handled on a case by case basis.
As far as medication there is no pill for that problem only antidepressant's and sleep aids and the like. This takes time and patients for all concerned.
Good Luck and God Bless

Answer 6

They need to seek some mental health assistance. There are medications to help with the symptoms and perhaps therapy to assist with the thought processes that go along with the PTSD.

Answer 7

See PTSD, at http://www.ezy-build.net.nz/~shaneris on pages 33 - 34: print/refer them, and advise them to examine the 1-800-therapist website, and use the locators, and phone book, and/or various associations for psychiatrists and psychologists, to find the nearest one using EMDR therapy. If unable to afford it, contact the county/local mental health agency: any therapy on offer may prove helpful, particularly if combined with appropriate medication.

Answer 8

I have it got on a job i work though i have had to change jobs quite a but an am underemployed lexapro klonepin helped me get this far as has family support more info ask