Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder is considered a mental disorder that is devolped by experiencing or seeing a terrifying event. Some of the following is a serious potentially debilitating condition that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a natural disaster, serious accident, terrorist incident, sudden death of a loved one, war, violent personal assault such as rape, or other life-threatening events. However, everyone does not know that every person that has PSTD has experienced a traumatic event. PTSD may last for months or years depending on how deep the illness is.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is not a disorder given, it takes certain symptoms and test to develop this type of disorder. The symptoms usually begin early, within 3 months of the incident but at times the begin years afterwards. These symptoms must last more than a month to be considered severe enough. Some people recover within 6 months, while others have symptoms that last much longer. In some people, the condition becomes chronic.

To be diagnosed with PTSD, an adult must experience all of these within a month:

• One re-experiencing symptom

• One avoidance symptom

• Two arousal and reactivity symptoms

• Two cognition and mood symptoms

However, arousal symptoms are usually constant, instead of being triggered by things that remind one of the traumatic events. These symptoms can make the person feel stressed and angry. The symptoms can delay the development of an individual and can make it hard to do daily tasks, such as sleeping, eating, or concentrating. In an estimated lifetime prevalence of PTSD among adult Americans is 7.8 percent, with women at 10.4 percent which is twice as likely as men with 5 percent. At some point of their lives to have PTSD. This represents a small proportion of those who have experienced a traumatic event at some point in their lives, for 60.7 percent of men and 51.2 percent of women report at least one traumatic event (ADDA, 2016).

Some people’s stories are different and some are the same. There was a young woman who experienced her first panic attack at the age of seventeen. Suddenly, after that she was unable to leave her apartment and had to end her career as a model. After years passed the symptoms had stopped for a while. But, then another traumatic event re- triggered the PTSD. She was feeling uncontrollable and began fearing for her daughter’s life and the safety of her home. There were times she saw violent images every time she closed her eyes. The ability to concentrate or even complete simple tasks was extremely hard for her. Normally socially, she stopped trying to make friends or get involved in the community. Some of her symptoms made her feel disoriented, forgetting where, or who she was. However, the panicking on the freeway and caused her unable to drive again (P.K. PHILLIPS, 2001).

Another example of cases of post-traumatic stress disorder happen in the military. When a solider first sees someone that they know get killed or kills someone it can be shocking because it is new to them and give them post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD UNITED, 2010). The military has programs to help soliders with post-traumatic stress disorder like the Combat Stress Recovery Program. The program serves as a rehabilitation service for soldiers after they have experienced a traumatic or shocking event.

There are 5 different types of PTSD. The following types are normal stress response, acute stress disorder, uncomplicated PTSD, comorbid PTSD and complex PTSD. The normal stress response occurs with an adult who has experienced a traumatic event in their adult years, it usually goes away within a few weeks. An acute stress disorder contains panic reactions, mental confusion, dissociation and severe insomnia, it requires treatments such as immediate support and medication for immediate relief. The uncomplicated PTSD involves persistent re-experiencing of the traumatic involvement. However, comorbid PTSD is more common in uncomplicated PTSD, it is usually associated with a psychiatric disorders or substance abuse. Although complex PTSD is known as “Disorder of Extreme Stress” it is usually found among individuals who have been exposed to prolonged traumatic circumstances during childhood (GROHOL, 2016).

Furthermore, these are common examples that take place on an everyday life. Everyone gets nervous from time to time. So nervous, it tends to send their entire body into a shock and frantic. However, that’s where anxiety place a part. It begins to become frequent yet forceful to the human body, while also taken over their lives. Normally it’s a hard task to get adjusted to however, there are centers that offer treatments and therapy (NIMH, 2016). This shows that patients can work with their doctor to find the best solution or combination for the disorder. Engage in mild activity, set realistic goals for yourself. Try to spend time with your love ones and close friends.

Some of the psychosocial aspects on post-traumatic stress disorder effect their development in education, financial stability and independent living. The persons who was affected by this disorder might develop a sense of foreshortened future with their career, marriage and etc. A person may suffer from distance feelings towards people but, shortly this will affect their social life (SHORTZ, 2012).

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can happen to anyone at any time. It needs to be taken more seriously because this happens every day and people do nothing about it. If you know someone with this disorder, try to get them help. There are programs and rehabilitation centers that help people cope and potentially overcome post-traumatic stress disorder.

Educational

Most articles purpose is to educate and communicate to others around what exactly post- traumatic stress disorder was between both men and women at different stages in life. It was stated that PTSD comes from traumatic events. Also, it was stated that the analytic sample comprised mostly women 74.6% and which is twice as likely as men with 5 percent. That statistic showed how exactly women over populated men when its came to post- traumatic stress disorder. (ADDA,2016)

There was a study of people who were selected that had current psychiatric symptoms, their sociodemographic information was collected during interviews with adults participating in a study at a public urban hospital in Atlanta, GA. The participants were assessed with questions about the timing between their first trauma exposure, classified as early childhood (ages 0–5), middle childhood (ages 6–10), adolescence (ages 11–18), and adulthood (ages 19 and up, on adult psychopathology in 2892 individuals.

Nonetheless, individuals who were a participants of the study were initially presented to a child of poor treatment, the early ages when an adult is presented the PTSD indications of ailment that were about twice as high as those at later formative stages. This affiliation was recognized even subsequent to controlling for sociodemographic presentation to different genuine physical or enthusiastic damage sorts, and recurrence of introduction. However, a few people who were a participants of the review were initially affected by the middle ages and violence had indications of sadness scores that were about twice as high as those initially affected in adulthood.

Social

I have a close friend who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder due to a tragic event that occurred in her earlier life. This event has caused a delay in certain areas she needed to develop as a child. She has a hard time in the past being around large crowds, focusing in school and watching certain shows and movies on television. This all began when she became ten years old, she attended a sleepover at her best friend’s house and was raped by the older brother of the friend. This event was and unexpected and unfortunate event that happened to her but it has hindered her life ever since. Therefore, now I can understand exactly what statistics were shown and how women are the highest at risk in studies conducted. The studies show that the highest percentage of people affected are ones from a young age because of the circumstances. She is now able to accept the fact that the event happened in her life without having a hatred towards anyone. According, to studies conducted it shows as you progress in age that your disorder begins to drift away on your life. She has learned to overcome that event due to multiple counseling sessions. As of today, she is living her life working and attending a university as a full time student.

In conclusion, the trauma exposure can occur at different ages and may differentially impact the development and PTSD symptoms in childhood or adulthood. If more tests and examinations would occur we could find more reasoning and statistics to show. It does not matter if it is an child or adult anyone may encounter this disorder at any time of their life. In some cases, they are hard to overcome but everyone’s circumstance is different in many ways. In my personal opinion I feel that the earlier the treatment or counseling the better off a person will be in life. More psychologists should conduct more further research on the topic because it still has some questions and answers yet to be answered properly.