JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

The psychology of post-traumatic stress disorder

by

20120403

Dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions are part of life. We all must cope with tough cir­cum­stances, such as be­reave­ment or con­flict in our per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al re­la­tion­ships, and learn to move on. But some­times peo­ple ex­pe­ri­ence an event which is so un­ex­pect­ed and so shat­ter­ing that it con­tin­ues to have a se­ri­ous ef­fect on them, long af­ter any phys­i­cal dan­ger in­volved has passed. In­di­vid­u­als with this kind of ex­pe­ri­ence may suf­fer flash­backs and night­mares, in which they re-live the sit­u­a­tion that caused them in­tense fear and hor­ror, be­com­ing emo­tion­al­ly numb. When this con­di­tion per­sists for over a month, it is di­ag­nosed as post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der (PTSD). This kind of med­ical dis­or­der af­fects ap­prox­i­mate­ly one in ten peo­ple. Chil­dren and adults can de­vel­op PTSD. The dis­or­der can be­come so se­vere that that the in­di­vid­ual finds it dif­fi­cult to lead a nor­mal life.

What caus­es it?

PTSD is caused by a psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly-trau­mat­ic event in­volv­ing ac­tu­al or threat­ened death or se­ri­ous in­jury to one­self or oth­ers. Such trig­ger­ing events are called "stres­sors;" they may be ex­pe­ri­enced alone or while in a large group.

Vi­o­lent per­son­al as­sault, such as rape or mug­ging, car or plane ac­ci­dents, mil­i­tary com­bat, in­dus­tri­al ac­ci­dents and nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, such as earth­quakes and hur­ri­canes, are stres­sors which have caused peo­ple to suf­fer from PTSD. In some cas­es, see­ing an­oth­er per­son harmed or killed, or learn­ing that a close friend or fam­i­ly mem­ber is in se­ri­ous dan­ger has caused the dis­or­der.

What are the signs?

Symp­toms can sur­face with­in three months of the trau­mat­ic event or ap­pear many years lat­er. The du­ra­tion of PTSD, and the strength of the symp­toms, vary. For some peo­ple, re­cov­ery may be achieved in six months; for oth­ers, it may take much longer. There are three cat­e­gories of symp­toms. The first in­volves re-ex­pe­ri­enc­ing the event.Most com­mon­ly the per­son has pow­er­ful, re­cur­rent mem­o­ries of the event, or re­cur­rent night­mares or flash­backs in which they re-live their dis­tress­ing ex­pe­ri­ence. The an­niver­sary of the trig­ger­ing event, or sit­u­a­tions which re­mind them of it, can al­so cause ex­treme dis­com­fort. Avoid­ance and emo­tion­al numb­ing are the sec­ond cat­e­go­ry of symp­toms. The first oc­curs when peo­ple with PTSD avoid en­coun­ter­ing sce­nar­ios which may re­mind them of the trau­ma. Emo­tion­al numb­ing gen­er­al­ly be­gins very soon af­ter the event. A per­son with PTSD may with­draw from friends and fam­i­ly, they may lose in­ter­est in ac­tiv­i­ties they pre­vi­ous­ly en­joyed and have dif­fi­cul­ty feel­ing emo­tions, es­pe­cial­ly those as­so­ci­at­ed with in­ti­ma­cy. Feel­ings of ex­treme guilt are al­so com­mon. In rare cas­es, a per­son may en­ter dis­so­cia­tive states, last­ing any­where from a few min­utes to sev­er­al days, dur­ing which they be­lieve they are re-liv­ing the episode, and be­have as if it is hap­pen­ing all over again. The third cat­e­go­ry of symp­toms in­volves changes in sleep­ing pat­terns and in­creased alert­ness. In­som­nia is com­mon and some peo­ple with PTSD have dif­fi­cul­ty con­cen­trat­ing and fin­ish­ing tasks. In­creased ag­gres­sion can al­so re­sult.

Oth­er ill­ness­es may ac­com­pa­ny PTSD

Peo­ple with PTSD may de­vel­op a de­pen­dence on drugs or al­co­hol. They may be­come de­pressed. It is not un­com­mon for an­oth­er anx­i­ety dis­or­der to be present at the same time as PTSD. As well, dizzi­ness, chest pain, gas­troin­testi­nal com­plaints and im­mune sys­tem prob­lems may be linked to PTSD. These are of­ten treat­ed as self-con­tained ill­ness­es; the link with PTSD will be re­vealed on­ly if a pa­tient vol­un­teers in­for­ma­tion about a trau­mat­ic event, or if a doc­tor in­ves­ti­gates a pos­si­ble link with psy­cho­log­i­cal trau­ma.

How is PTSD treat­ed?

Med­ica­tion can help with the de­pres­sion and anx­i­ety of­ten felt by peo­ple with PTSD, and as­sist them in re-es­tab­lish­ing reg­u­lar sleep pat­terns. Cog­ni­tive-be­hav­iour­al ther­a­py and group ther­a­py are felt to be more promis­ing treat­ments for PTSD. They're of­ten per­formed by ther­a­pists ex­pe­ri­enced in a par­tic­u­lar type of trau­ma, such as rape coun­sel­lors. Ex­po­sure ther­a­py, in which the pa­tient re-lives the ex­pe­ri­ence un­der con­trolled con­di­tions in or­der to work through the trau­ma, can al­so be ben­e­fi­cial. Re­search in­to the caus­es of PTSD and its treat­ment is on­go­ing and be­ing stud­ied.

(Cana­di­an Men­tal Health As­so­ci­a­tion)


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored