Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Introduction

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a problem which develops when someone goes through a tragedy in his or her life. This tragedy can be any event that links them with it. These life threatening events can be floods, earthquakes, war, crime, rape, abuse, accidents, lose of life or anything which is not pleasant. For the development of post-trauma stress disorder, it is not necessary for the patient to experience these events directly. Any person might develop this disorder after observing someone else in a life-threatening situation, or even after hearing about someone else's tragedy (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).

People with PTSD have trouble coping with and recovering from traumatic effects and often feels the effects for months after they occur. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) consists of three clusters of interrelated symptoms: re-experiencing, avoidance/numbing, and hyperarousal (Meagher, 2007). These symptoms develop after an individual experiences a traumatic event. Traumatic events involve actual or threatened death or injury or a threat to an individual's physical integrity. Traumatic events can include events that one actually experienced or events that one witnessed. Examples of traumatic events include physical or sexual assault and abuse, combat, natural disasters, terrorism, and serious illness. According to the criteria for PTSD set forth in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, for an individual to develop PTSD, the person must respond to the traumatic event with feelings of intense fear, helplessness, or horror. In addition, to differentiate PTSD from temporary reactions to traumatic experiences, the individual also has to report experiencing symptoms of PTSD for at least 1 month, although in many instances symptoms can persist for years (Coleman, 2007).

Causes

When the person goes through any event that causes intense fear leads to post-traumatic stress disorder. If the individual is already suffering from anxiety and depression, there are more chances of leading towards post-traumatic stress disorder (Glenn, 2009). As mentioned above these events can be directly or indirectly linked with them. If the individual goes through any trauma in his or her childhood, he or she also have chances of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as they move on their lives.

Symptoms

Symptoms of post-trauma stress disorder can arise when someone goes through the same tragedy or life-threatening event again. There are three main symptoms of post-trauma stress disorder.

Re-experiencing the traumatic event

When the person feels that he or she is facing the same incident again, it makes him or her go into depression. Then due to this depression the patient faces flashbacks of any event that is he, or she thinks that the same tragedy is happening again with them (Tull, 2009). They even have nightmares regarding the trauma. They also feel intense distress they think of that tragedy.

Avoiding reminders of the trauma

If someone starts avoiding the places, thoughts or feelings that remind of the trauma and if they detach them from others, it means they are going through post-trauma stress disorder as these are the symptoms of avoiding reminders of the trauma which eventually leads to depression.

Increased anxiety and emotional ...