Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Definition:

a medical condition occurring after experiencing a highly stressing event (such as combat, violence or a natural disaster) beyond the usual human experience. It is usually characterized by anxiety, flashbacks, hypervigilance, recurrent nightmares and avoidance of reminders of the event.

Description:

  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the only diagnosis dependant on a factor outside the individual. A person may suffer PTSD when they experience a distressing and traumatic event that may have threatened one’s life that produces a high emotional response and causes the person to feel a sense of extreme fear and hopelessness. This stressor need not necessarily be a threat directed to them personally, but can also be an event witnessed, such as seeing someone else being threatened, injured or killed. These threats can vary from mental, sexual and verbal abuse or attacks to catastrophic events such as fatal accidents, wars and other violent attacks.

A person suffering from PTSD will typically have intrusive vivid flash backs of the event and the disorder itself may not surface immediately and remain latent until something triggers it off. They will typically remain stressed and tense and as time goes on, may start to withdraw from their normal daily activities in order to remain absent from any situations they feel would trigger off the memories. Referring back to the agoraphobic, you can begin to see the similarities.

There are three types of PTSD; acute, chronic and delayed onset.

• Acute - symptoms last up to 3 months
• Chronic - symptoms last over 3 months
• Delayed onset - symptoms first appear after 6 months from traumatic event.

Therapy:

There are various techniques that can be employed to scramble the traumatic memory and reduce it's emotional significance. A person's symptoms may involve feelings of guilt, depression and anger. Through the use of positive suggestions with a clear goal in mind, a person can strengthen their self-esteem, confidence and ability to think and focus on the positive.

A main ingredient in therapy will be to help you take control of your stress and continue to reduce and maintain it at a suitable level to increase intellectual control.

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