Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

PTSD is a reaction to being exposed to an event which is outside the range of normal human experience.  Sometimes it is referred to as post traumatic rape syndrome too.  It is a normal human emotional reaction to an abnormal situation.  Everyone reacts differently to different situations and it doesn't have to be a life threatening experience for someone to respond in this way.  It just has to be perceived by the victim as a traumatic event.  It is a psychological phenomenon.  It is an emotional condition, from which it is possible to make a full and complete recovery.

PTSD affects hundreds of thousands of people who have been exposed to violent events such as rape, domestic violence, child abuse, war, accidents, natural disasters and political torture.  It is normal to be affected by trauma.  PTSD is not rare.  It is not unusual.

Traumatic experiences bring to the fore survival skills which are valuable and useful at the time of the trauma, but which usually become less valuable, less useful and less effective with time. Sometimes survivors become stuck in problem behaviours when their pain is not acknowledged, heard, respected, or understood.  Denial plays a great part here (it didn't happen, or it shouldn't affect you). Put-downs, dismissal of the pain, mis-diagnosis and other forms of secondary wounding keep survivors stuck.

Symptoms may come on soon after the trauma or fifty years later. That is what is meant by the post in PTSD. It is normal too for symptoms to come up again when faced by further trauma and in very stressful times.  

People with PTSD develop an ability to do whatever it takes to survive.  Extreme situations which trigger this reaction again and again may cause survivors to do things in order to survive which can be hard to look back on later.

Unfortunately when survivors numb their fear, despair and anger, all their feelings, even good ones, are numbed. Numbness is comfortable. Thinking about what they have been through is so painful survivors wind up avoiding thinking about, feeling, or doing anything that reminds them of the trauma. For example, if they feel the trauma was their fault they may spend the rest of their life having to be right so they won't ever be at fault again. If they were happy when the trauma hit, they may avoid happiness forever.

Criteria for diagnosis of PTSD

These are simple guidelines that may help diagnose post traumatic stress disorder:

The survivor must have experienced or confronted with an event that involved actual or threatened injury, or a threat to their physical integrity. i.e. rape.
The survivor must show symptoms of intense fear, helplessness or horror.
The survivor must experience distressing recollections of the event. i.e. flashbacks.
The survivor persistently avoids things that remind them of the event. i.e. triggers
The survivor must show significant distress or impairment by the event, either in their social occupational or other important areas of functioning.

Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma) as indicated by at least two of the following: difficulty falling or staying asleep; irritability or outbursts of anger; difficulty concentrating; hypervigilance; exaggerated startle response.
Symptoms must last at least one month.