What is PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can occur after you have been through a traumatic event. This could be combat exposure, a terrorist attack, or any event where you think your life or the lives of others are in danger. You may feel afraid or feel that you have no control over what is happening around you. Most people have some stress-related reactions after a traumatic event, but not everyone gets PTSD. If your reactions don’t go away over time or disrupt your life, you may have PTSD.
How does PTSD develop?
Some people who go through a traumatic event have some symptoms only at the beginning, while others develop PTSD over time.
Whether or not you get PTSD depends on many things:
- How intense the drama was or how long it lasted.
- If you were injured or lost someone important to you.
- How close you were to the event.
- How strong your reaction was.
- How much you felt in control of events.
- How much help and support you got after the event.
What are the symptoms of PTSD?
PTSD symptoms usually start soon after the event, but they may take months or years to appear. They can also come and go over many years. If the symptoms last longer than 4 weeks, cause you great distress, or interferes with your home or work life, you may have PTSD.
There are 4 types of PTSD symptoms:
- Reliving the event (also called re-experiencing symptoms)
- Avoiding situations that remind you of the event
- Feeling numb
- Feeling keyed up (also called hyper-arousal)
This condition affects many combat veterans who experience traumatic events and can make civilian life very difficult for them. It’s up to us to help veterans who served and protected our country by raising awareness about PTSD and providing those veterans affected by it with mental health treatment. We should give our all to help those who gave their all.
Source: Department of Veteran Affairs http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/what-is-ptsd.asp