Offshore Workers May Not Have Access to Most Effective PTSD Treatments

Any accident that occurs on an offshore oil rig or platform is guaranteed to be extremely traumatic, and result in severe distress to the workers on the rig. In some fortunate cases, workers may be evacuated from the rig or platform in time to avoid a major disaster. In not so fortunate cases, as in the case of the BP oil rig explosion of 2010, workers may either lose their lives, or may be exposed to unimaginable terror, as they face the almost imminent possibility of a horrific death.

In such cases, offshore workers may be at a high risk of suffering post traumatic stress disorder, an anxiety disorder that is very often also found in veterans returning home from combat duty. A new study finds that many people who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder do not have access to some of the most effective techniques for the treatment of this disorder.

The study finds that people who suffer from this disorder can benefit heavily from treatments like prolonged exposure therapy. In this kind of therapy, the patient is encouraged to deal with situations and people that he might have been avoiding since the traumatic experience. The point is to get used to dealing with these situations, so that he can once again begin living a normal life.

Avoidance is just one of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and these people are susceptible to frequent panic attacks, startle easily, suffer from depression, and a number of other symptoms that affect their ability to live a normal life.

Offshore injury workers, who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder after suffering an accident or injury on the job, must be given access to cognitive behavioral therapy and prolonged exposure therapies, which are evidence-based and proven to work.

The Houston offshore injury lawyers at Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P., Accident & Injury Lawyers  represent offshore oil rig and platform workers who have been injured in accidents in the Gulf of Mexico.