Avalon Arnoldi
Abnormal Psychology
Reflective Essay There are many anxiety disorders. One that really stood out to me was the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I have heard about this disorder a lot, but I never really looked into it. I am glad that I did. PTSD occurs when someone has experienced or witnessed a traumatizing event. I thought this only occurred in people that were in the war, but it goes way beyond that. PTSD was once called shell shock or battle fatigue syndrome. A lot of these people that suffer from PTSD feel anger, helplessness, guilt, and fear. I have never watched someone go through PTSD and I don’t think I ever could because it would be hard to understand what they are feeling or what they are thinking. We all get sad, mad, nervous but not too deep that we let it control our lives. I think that would be the hardest part—to control it.
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I would be terrified to think that my kids can get it but I guess that you cannot live that way. But, I have been through one or two traumatizing events and I do not suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder. I wonder how it only triggers some people and the rest just go through the grieving stages and that’s it. That’s all I have really been thinking about throughout this whole article. I also did some extended research. The things you didn’t know are happening around you, that is what is so terrifying. You can tell if someone has PTSD. Some more than others. They are really tense and wonder what is happening around them daily. They are anger a lot too as I mentioned earlier. I would never want this disorder. I think it would be so hard to live with and contain. But I guess if you have it, you learn to live with it—you have no other choice. Some people with PTSD can be really dangerous and they can harm people around them. There are a lot of cases that go because they have been diagnosed with
"PTSD is a whole-body tragedy, an integral human event of enormous proportions with massive repercussions." This is a quote from the wonderful author Susan Pease Banitt. Susan's view on PTSD is as raw and realistic as it gets. PTSD is a disorder that develops in people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event. The causes of PTSD can range from sexual assault to fighting in the war. It is a common occurrence for soldier to obtain some type of psychological disorder, such as PTSD, due to the insane events that take place on the battlefield. Disorders like PTSD, and other similar, often play with the victim's thought process, actions, and emotions.
Everyone has experienced a traumatic event at some point in their lifetime. Most people recover from those events, but those who don’t tend to suffer from the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is defined as a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or the witnessing of a life-threatening event such as military combat, terrorist incidents, and sexual abuse. PTSD is most frequently found in war heroes. Despite the fact of there being countless effects of PTSD, the major negative effects include substance abuse, depression, and suicide.
Some soldiers develop PTSD while others do not. It is easier for people to develop this disorder if they've dealt with trauma in their childhood such as physical abuse. Others with a pre-Vietnam psychiatric disorder other than PTSD. People who were also in prison and caused harm to others are more likely to get PTSD than people who weren't exposed to these happenings. Even simply being exposed to combat could trigger this disorder to take effect. PTSD is mostly seen in men 25 or younger
PTSD can affect people in different ways due to the circumstance they went through, for example, “a young woman gets mugged and hit over the head with a pipe. Years later, she is still afraid to go out at night by herself. She has trouble making friends and she is slow to trust people. She has gotten several warnings at work for missing days; sometimes she just can’t seem to get out of bed. A former soldier, when he finally sleeps, finds himself back on the dusty roads of Afghanistan. He awakes in a panic and struggles futilely to return to sleep. Days are hardly better. The rumble of garbage trucks shatters his nerves. Flashbacks come unexpectedly, at the whiff of certain cleaning chemicals. He is imprisoned in his own mind” (Brainline,
While the night terrors or flashbacks can be limited to just the individual, some of the symptoms may be projected onto the families. For example, imagine being around a happy person all day long and how that makes you feel, you will generally feel happy. If you are around a negative person or someone who complains a lot, your feelings and attitude will fall in line with theirs. This is the same thing that happens with family members of people with PTSD. The person with PTSD usually feels like a different person and they often have negative feelings. Additionally they may avoid places, such as large crowds, or loud noises that could cause them to flashback or have memories of their traumatic ordeal. In these cases, the normal member in the relationship will start imitating these traits as well. They will soon find themselves avoiding these situations, or feeling negative about things as well. The normal one will show signs of sympathy, anger or guilt, because they think it is their fault they cannot make their spouse happy. On top of these negative traits of PTSD, those individuals with some sort of mental health disorder also have some sort of chronic health disorder.
Symptoms must present themselves in a certain way within a certain period of time and for a certain duration to be considered PTSD. Another criterion is how much of an impact the condition has on the patient’s everyday life. The cornerstone symptom of PTSD is re-experience of the trauma. This means the person is plagued with unwanted memories of the event that so badly scarred him. These memories can come in the form of nightmares, flashbacks, and recollections. In each of these instances, memories of the event suddenly and unexpectedly flood the sufferer, and he feels like he’s experiencing it all over again. This can be triggered by a cue, or it can come unbidden. The person’s brain releases chemicals as if he is experiencing the trauma, creating a fear response that’s both physical and mental. Re-experience is one of four main symptoms of adults with PTSD. The other are Avoidance (The person will go out of his way to avoid being reminded of the trauma.), Numbness (In response to the pain created by the haunting memories, the person may seek out anything that can keep it away, including alcohol and drugs.), and Hyperarousal (A state of continuous heightened awareness.). The tricky part in diagnosing the disorder is that, after a trauma, most people experience the same symptoms as those of a person with PTSD. The difference is that these symptoms fade on their own over
There are signs and symptoms that someone will show if suffering with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. They will avoid certain areas of stimulus that remind them of the traumatic event. They will try to forget it ever happened. For example, if a soldier suffering from PTSD experienced a
What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder? The American Psychiatric Association (2013) describes Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a serious disorder that can put the mental and physical health of an individual with PTSD at risk (p.3). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder can be formed by a variety of situations. The American Psychiatric Association (2013) states that Posttraumatic Stress Disorder can be formed by the exposure to death, rape, any serious injury, and many other stressful situations (p. 3). The American Psychiatric Association (2013) also describes the symptoms of PTSD as “irritability, aggressiveness, self-destructiveness, reckless behavior, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, difficulty concentrating, and sleep disturbances
PTSD is a disorder that develops in some people who have seen or lived through a shocking, scary, or dangerous event.
PTSD may not be diagnosed unless one of the four symptoms last for at least a month and causes significant distress or problems functioning day-to-day. Not being able to function normally may be induced by having intrusive thoughts due to the horrific things that a soldier has witnessed (Hall). Having intrusive thoughts may lead a person to be very unstable since they may enter the mind at any time, until they are controlled. Lack of paying attention is a huge problem for a person suffering from PTSD and this is caused because soldiers are trained to always be aware and on the lookout just in case of an emergency. Since they can’t be relaxed their thoughts are usually on the war zone situations. Last but not least social withdrawal is one of the final symptoms of PTSD. This meaning that troopers have a difficult time readjusting to civilian life after returning from the battlefield. They just do not feel like sharing their experiences might not be appropriate or simply they feel like no one can truly understand. As a result their thoughts become inward becoming shame which then turns into blame and the negative forces drives them deeper into PTSD (Redeeming
Most people who suffer from PTSD are usually Veterans and people who experienced hurtful or dangerous things in the past.
In addition to that, I want to make sure others have education on PTSD. I have been told time and time again that “only soldiers” get PTSD and that I can just “get over it.” That isn’t how this works. PTSD can effect domestic violence survivors, car accident survivors and even rape survivors. This experience in my life has taught me a lot. I never go a day without telling my family how I love them or even missing a phone call from my mom. I always think about each day could very much so be my last.
Some people don’t know that they have PTSD. Some people have PTSD and get it for no reason or because of depression. PTSD can lead to very serious outcomes such as suicide, self injury, and can lead to murder in some cases. A lot of times people don’t know they have PTSD until there doctor tells them they do, but you have to tell your doctor what is going on. PTSD can make people feel sad at any given point at any given time. So most likely people know when they have PTSD. Sometimes PTSD doesn’t show signs for weeks or even months. Some of the most famous people had or have PTSD such as: Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and Bill Clinton. If you don’t know you have PTSD it can actually get
A little background: PTSD is a psychological disorder formed from traumatic experiences that involves physical harm or the threat of physical harm that make the person feel stressed or frightened when they are no longer in danger. Signs and symptoms of PTSD can be grouped into three categories: Re-experiencing symptoms, avoidance symptoms, and hyper arousal symptoms . The main treatment for this is psychotherapy or
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was seen as a condition where people are shocked into fear of facing situations. Over the years, it was labeled as “Soldier’s Heart” in the post Civil war era and “Shell Shock” in the World War I. In a situation of ‘fight-or-flight’ an individual is triggered to escape from danger, however in PTSD this reaction is reversed in which case the individual feels a constant threat of danger even when there is no danger present.The person diagnosed with PTSD can be anyone from a child to an adult. Many causes of this disorder include traumatic events, knowing someone who is in danger, genetic factors, and more. Symptoms include