Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD) is an anxiety disorder resulting from a traumatic experience. In order to be diagnosed with PTSD, symptoms must occur for more than a month and severely inhibit the victim's ability to function in their private and professional worlds. A wide array of experiences may cause PTSD, ranging from a nearly fatal car accident to war combat.

Causes

People of all ages, gender, and nationality may experience PTSD following a traumatic experience. These experiences may be a natural disaster, such as hurricane, flood, or earthquake, or war experiences, such as combat, witnessing a death, killing someone, or explosions, or criminal offenses, such as assault, abuse, or rape.

Not everyone who experiences a traumatic event will suffer from. The cause for why some individuals develop PTSD and others do not is still largely unknown. It is suspected that having a strong support network can help prevent PTSD; however, experiencing numerous traumas may make a person more susceptible.

PTSD manifests as a change in the body's response to stress. It affects the stress hormones and chemicals that carry information between the nerves (neurotransmitters), causing them to over-react (hypersensitivity) or under-react (emotional numbness).

Symptoms

Symptoms of PTSD vary from person to person, but typically include one or more of the following:

• Anger problems
• Depression
• Insomnia
• Flashbacks
• Panic attacks
• An increased/decreased libido
• Guilt
• Anxiety
• Nausea
• Emotional numbness
• Avoidance of certain people or places
• Memory impairment

Additionally, most victims of PTSD relive the traumatic experience via flashbacks, nightmares, or hallucinations.

Treatment

Treatment for PTSD involves therapy. In many cases, victims of PTSD have developed avoidance symptoms, such as alcoholism, depression, drug addiction, which must be addressed before PTSD. Therapy helps victims feel comfortable addressing their traumatic experience. Once triggered, victims are encouraged to express their emotions and engage in open discussions. The theory is that if a person is able to come to terms with their experiences, they will be able to move past them.

In some cases, anti-anxiety medications are used to reduce symptoms of hypersensitivity, such as nervousness, insomnia, and hyper-alertness. It is important these medications coincide with therapy for a victim to fully recover from PTSD.

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