PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a disorder that evolves from experiencing or being witness to a traumatic event. Our body’s fight-or-flight response is somehow damaged from the experience and continues to create stress and fear long after the event has occurred. Re-living the experience through flashbacks, avoiding the memory of it, as well as hyperarousal symptoms (being easily startled or angered) are all common symptoms. In the past few years PTSD has often been associated with war veterans but other events can bring on this syndrome as well – events such as rape, car accidents, child abuse, and natural disasters.
What to look for
PTSD makes you feel stressed and afraid, affecting your life and the people around you. Symptoms occur after having seen a traumatic event such as war, a hurricane, rape, or a bad accident.
PTSD causes problems such as:
- Flashbacks, or feeling like the event is happening again
- Trouble sleeping or nightmares
- Feeling alone
- Angry outbursts
- Feeling worried, guilty or sad
For some, symptoms are immediate. For others, symptoms aren’t present till years later. It can happen to anyone, even children.
(Source: www.mentalhealth.gov)
See a video about PTSD and someone who experienced PTSD and received treatment and help: Click here to see the video.