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What
is post-traumatic stress disorder?
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder
that can occur after someone experiences a traumatic event
that caused intense fear, helplessness, or horror. PTSD can
result from personally experienced traumas (e.g., rape, war,
natural disasters, abuse, serious accidents, and captivity)
or from the witnessing or learning of a violent or tragic
event.
While it is common to experience a brief state of anxiety
or depression after such occurrences, people with PTSD continually
re-experience the traumatic event; avoid individuals, thoughts,
or situations associated with the event; and have symptoms
of excessive emotions. People with this disorder have these
symptoms for longer than one month and cannot function as
well as they did before the traumatic event. PTSD symptoms
usually appear within three months of the traumatic experience;
however, they sometimes occur months or even years later.
How
common is PTSD?
Studies suggest that anywhere between 2 percent and 9 percent
of the population has had some degree of PTSD. However, the
likelihood of developing the disorder is greater when someone
is exposed to multiple traumas or traumatic events early in
life (or both), especially if the trauma is long term or repeated.
More cases of this disorder are found among inner-city youths
and people who have recently emigrated from troubled countries.
And women seem to develop PTSD more often than men.
Veterans
are perhaps the people most often associated with PTSD, or
what was once referred to as "shell shock" or "battle
fatigue." The Anxiety Disorders Association of America
notes that an estimated 15 percent to 30 percent of the 3.5
million men and women who served in Vietnam have suffered
from PTSD.
What
are the symptoms of PTSD?
Although the symptoms for individuals with PTSD can vary considerably,
they generally fall into three categories:
-
Re-experience
- Individuals with PTSD often experience recurrent and intrusive
recollections of and/or nightmares about the stressful event.
Some may experience flashbacks, hallucinations, or other
vivid feelings of the event happening again. Others experience
great psychological or physiological distress when certain
things (objects, situations, etc.) remind them of the event.
- Avoidance
- Many with PTSD will persistently avoid things
that remind them of the traumatic event. This can result
in avoiding everything from thoughts, feelings, or conversations
associated with the incident to activities, places, or people
that cause them to recall the event. In others there may
be a general lack of responsiveness signaled by an inability
to recall aspects of the trauma, a decreased interest in
formerly important activities, a feeling of detachment from
others, a limited range of emotion, and/or feelings of hopelessness
about the future.
-
Increased arousal - Symptoms in
this area may include difficulty falling or staying asleep,
irritability or outbursts of anger, difficulty concentrating,
becoming very alert or watchful, and/or jumpiness or being
easily startled.
It
is important to note that those with PTSD often use alcohol
or other drugs in an attempt to self-medicate. Individuals
with this disorder may also be at an increased risk for suicide.
How
is PTSD treated?
There are a variety of treatments for PTSD, and individuals
respond to treatments differently. PTSD often can be treated
effectively with psychotherapy or medication or both.
-
Behavior therapy
focuses on learning relaxation and coping techniques. This
therapy often increases the patient's exposure to a feared
situation as a way of making him or her gradually less sensitive
to it.
- Cognitive
therapy is
therapy that helps people with PTSD take a close look at
their thought patterns and learn to do less negative and
nonproductive thinking.
- Group
therapy helps for many people with PTSD by
having them get to know others who have had similar situations
and learning that their fears and feelings are not uncommon.
-
Medication is often used along
with psychotherapy. Antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications
may help lessen symptoms of PTSD such as sleep problems
(insomnia or nightmares), depression, and edginess.
For
more in-depth information about mental illness, treatments
and supports, and medications;
please choose from the following topics:
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