What is PTSD?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that developed after an individual has suffered from a traumatic experience such as a car crash, serving in wars and more. People that suffer from PTSD can experience a heightened sense of danger. This is when their fight-or-flight response kicks in which can often sometimes be drastic as they feel an immense amount of stress and fear – even when they are currently in a safe situation with no sign of danger their PTSD can kick in.
PTSD was formally known as ‘shell shock’ as it was very common amongst those who were in violent wars but later it was labelled Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as it can affect anyone not just war veterans. PTSD can affect anyone from any walk of life regardless of age, gender, income and more. It happens due to a response to chemical and neuronal changes in the brain once an individual has been exposed to threatening events in their life. You should not take PTSD as a sign of weakness or that you are flawed.
Someone that has PTSD will relive the traumatic event in different ways whether it’d be flashbacks or nightmares. It can cause a person to feel extremely isolated. The symptoms of PTSD can be intense enough to cause a massive amount of negative impact on their daily life as they can experience a range of emotions which include anger, sadness, fear and more depending on the individual.
People that have PTSD will attempt to avoid situations that can potentially remind them of the situation or they can experience strong negative reactions that trigger their PTSD such as a car horn being pressed. Many times PTSD can be developed through exposure, if someone has recently lost a loved one in a violent way going over the details could bring on PTSD in an individual.
A mental health professional will be able to diagnose PTSD if you are experiencing PTSD symptoms for more than one month, it is important that you seek out treatment as soon as possible if you believe or a loved one is currently suffering from PTSD as there is a whole range of treatments available to help recovery and manage their PTSD so they can start living their best lives.
The signs & symptoms of PTSD
The symptoms of PTSD can fall into the four categories that are listed below. The specific symptoms’ severity can depend on a number of factors such as genetics, environment and many more as each person is unique, and it can affect people in different ways.
People with PTSD will take drastic measures in order to never remind themselves of the tragic event that they have experienced. This can cause them to never revisit places, take part in activities, or avoid people as they can trigger their PTSD forcing them to get flashbacks of the event. The flashbacks can end up being so severe that it feels like they are experiencing the whole event again right before their own eyes. It can be difficult for them to open up about the experience.
Those suffering from PTSD can often push their memory so far back that they have the inability to not remember important aspects of the traumatic events. They will often have very negative thoughts and feelings about themselves or others around them that that can damage your everyday life. PTSD can change your mind into having distorted thoughts about the events and you start to blame yourself that the event that happened. Others may start to detach themselves from the world completely alienating themselves from close family and friends as they start to feel a void of happiness no matter what they do.
Individuals suffering from PTSD can have intrusive thoughts that are repetitive, distressing dreams and constant flashbacks to the traumatic events.
These types of symptoms involve individuals becoming irritated or experiencing random angry outbursts and behaving in self-destructive ways that can be damaging to themselves and others around them. They will start to become more paranoid about their surroundings which forces them to become easily startled.
Many individuals who have unfortunately experienced a traumatic experience may experience many of these symptoms that have been listed. For a person to be diagnosed, they have had to experience symptoms for over a month. People with PTSD will suffer from a great amount of distress which can cause problems in their daily functioning. People who have been through a traumatic event will develop the symptoms of PTSD within three months of it taking place but symptoms can appear later with the symptoms persisting for months and years when not treated.
Getting diagnosis & treatment for PTSD
Here at Psychiatry Today, we have trained experienced and friendly specialists who will be able to assess your current situation and if you are currently suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder through structured interviews that give you a safe confidential space to talk and psychiatric assessments where it can give a clear overview of the severity of your PTSD.
It is important to state that not everyone who goes through a traumatic experience will develop PTSD. There are some individuals who experience symptoms of PTSD and it can subside and disappear over a certain amount of time with the help of their support system whether it’d be family, friends, your partner or all. Many people require professional tailored treatment for their PTSD for them to manage & recover from the psychological distress they’ve developed.
When left untreated, trauma can lead to severe distress which can seriously affect your life and the loved ones around you. You should never place the blame on yourself for this trauma as it is not your fault. There is hope for you if you currently suffer from PTSD as there is a wide range of tailored treatment plans that is available for you. The earlier that you seek out treatment for your PTSD the better chance that you have of recovering and fully managing your symptoms.