PTSD WHO IS AFFECTED
Many of us in our lives at some points have dealt with many degrees of trauma and stress. Sometimes though these events are so horrific and terrible we are unable to function as a whole. When these events happen and we find ourselves frozen in those crippling moments of reliving the experience, this is labeled to be Post-Traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD).
The Mayo Clinic describes PTSD to be as follows: PTSD is a mental health condition that is triggered by a terrifying event- either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms include flash backs, nightmares, and sever anxiety as well as uncontrollable thoughts of what happen.
The first mention of PTSD was over a century and a half ago. They tagged it with the name of hysteria. Hysteria was discovered by a French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot in the mid 1800's.
Male soldiers in World War 1 later displayed symptoms of mutism, amnesia, paralysis, tremor, blindness, and deafness. Charles Samuel Myers, a British military psychiatrist in the early 1900's, was the first to use the term “shell shock “to describe the condition supposedly brought on by exposure to exploding shells. Myers eventually came to believe that the cause of shell shock (later termed “war neurosis”) was emotional and thought it to be similar to hysteria. It wasn't until soldiers returning from Vietnam in the 1970's that the term PTSD evolved. Then the feminist movement recognized similar reactions in mainly female sexual assault and domestic violence survivors.
There are similar reasons as to why one might develop PTSD. Anyone who goes through, sees, or is involved in death or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violation. Doctors are not sure as to why some people get PSTD, some think that it can come like most mental disorders and one, it can be inherited, two, from life experiences and three, by the way the brain regulates the chemicals it releases in response to stress.
When doing my research, I have talked with a few people that have been diagnosed with PTSD. One man we will call Tracy, served our country this couple of years came back to the states from the Gulf states that the war didn't just change him, that he came back a totally different person that he has to learn to know all over again. “I once loved to be around a crowd and the center of attention when I would go out.” “Now I can barely leave my home let alone see or be around people.”
A woman we will call Donna, talks of how after being sexually assaulted, “It was years later after I had children did it hit me like a nightmare one day that I couldn’t wake from. “ She says, “It started with a song I heard on my daughter's radio. I suddenly am taken back to that moment and the smells would soon follow.” Donna was assaulted 15 years ago with her very young children present. She later described thinking that her body just shut off and she did what had to be done to get out alive without her children coming into harm's way. “I guess because those things where so horrific to me that my mind just chose not to keep it in my head until that moment, I heard that song".
During Hurricane Andrew Stevey was at school. When he got home, he found that the roofs of most of the houses on his street, including his own, had been blown off. He could not find his parents and his sister, who had been removed to a shelter. He searched the neighborhood and after several hours was found by the police, who reunited him with his family. The family stayed in the shelter for two weeks until they were relocated, and Stevie refused to eat or speak for several days. Two months later Stevie was still afraid to sleep alone at night, was not concentrating in school, and was irritable whenever there was a rainstorm.
Not all people that experience trauma go through this of course. Thought the event may have been traumatizing, everyone deals with it differently. Some after a while find they can adjust or cope and eventually get over the events. Then while some after a few weeks or months will find that their condition gets worse over time rather than better. There is a good chance that is PTSD. In some cases, it was few years after the event did some people start having symptoms.
Some symptoms that go along with this disorder is listed by the Mayo clinic:
Avoidance
a. Trying to avoid thinking or talking about the event.
b. Avoiding places, activities or people reminding them of the event.
Negative thinking and mood
a. Negative feelings about self and others.
b. Lack of positive emotions.
c. Emotionally numb.
d. No interest in activities they once enjoyed.
e. Hopelessness of the future.
f. Memory loss
g. Difficulty keeping close relations.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) also includes:
Hyper arousal Symptoms
a. Being easily startled
b. On the edge.
c. Lack of sleep and angry outburst.
Children can also suffer from PSTD as well as adults, though symptoms may come out a little differently.
· Fear separation from parents.
· Looses previously learned skills (like using the toilet).
· Problems sleeping and nightmares.
· Acting out the event during play.
· New phobias and anxieties that may be totally unrelated.
· Aches and pains that may have no causes.
· Irritability and aggression.
After a traumatizing event, the mind and body go into a shock, but as you make since of what happened and process your emotions, you can find that in time you can come out of it. With PSTD, it is not the same nor as easy to process the events. You remain in psychological shock. Your memory of what happened and your feelings about it are disconnected. In order to move along we eventually have to face our fears head on and deal with them or we will just be emotionally stuck.
Treatment usually involves Therapy and or Family therapy, and medications. Something else they have found to help is a Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy. Some may never fully be cured but can learn to in time manage the fear in order to function. When facing the event that has you frozen and confronting it in time can move passed it.
It feels different for everyone. I suffer complex PTSD among other things because of my trauma. Someday I hope to share and maybe it will help me heal and my hopes to express you're not alone.