Haley Martin
Mutchnick
PSY 120 – 106
22 April 2015
Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, or PTSD, is becoming more and more common in the population of the United States. PTSD is a mental illness that develops after an uncontrollable event causing either physical harm or an event that poses a threat of physical harm. Someone does not have to be physically harmed to get PTSD. It could be triggered by seeing a loved one or even a complete stranger being threatened or harmed by the event occurring. Most people consider PTSD to be illness brought on by war, but that is not always the case. PTSD can be caused by rape, child abuse, plane crash, train wreck, mugging, kidnapping, car accidents, bombings, or even natural disasters such as floods or tornadoes. Presently, PTSD is affecting roughly 7.7 million Americans. PTSD can occur at any age, but women are more likely to develop the mental disorder than men are which leaves some scientists studying the disease to believe that the disorder is a hereditary disease. When someone is diagnosed with PTSD, other mental disorders could follow behind such a depression and terrible anxiety. Some symptoms of PTSD can also be emotional detachment. This means that the patient’s emotional systems are sporadic which makes them feel emotionally drained. Patients with PTSD also experience a jumpiness in some way or another. These people may get startled easily because of something small happening in their surroundings and they begin to show extreme paranoia. Many people who are diagnosed with PTSD repeat the event over and over inside of their heads during the day and even when they dream while they sleep. These flashbacks bring the person back into the event as if it was happening all over again. Flashbacks could include images, smells, feelings, sounds, etc. Flashbacks could happen at any time, anywhere. All it just depends on is what triggers the person to have the flashback, such as a door slamming or thunder or even being in a place that looks close to where the event happened. Even though the person with PTSD is in no real danger, the feeling of being in danger takes over which cause them to lose touch with reality and does not allow them to think logically. Some people are lucky. Not every traumatized person develops any sort of form of PTSD. Sometimes it take months for someone to show signs of having PTSD and sometimes it could take years for the symptoms to develop and present themselves. To be considered PTSD, the symptoms must remain constant for at least one month after the occurrence of the event. No one case of PTSD is ever the same and some people can recover just months after developing the disorder. In some cases though, the symptoms of PTSD become chronic. The Department of Veteran Affairs states that 31 percent of Vietnam Veterans, 10 percent of Desert Storm veterans, 11 percent of Veterans that fought in the Afghanistan, and 20 percent of Iraq soldiers are affected by PTSD. Because of this, many people believe that PTSD just associates around people who serve in the military that come home after combat, but PTSD can hit a lot closer to home. There was a terrible snowstorm in the middle of the South last year. It caused schools and businesses to close earlier and had everyone barricade themselves in their homes. I had stayed home that day luckily, but my sister was not so fortunate. She had to walk almost three miles home from where her boyfriend’s car took them until it was way too unsafe to drive. He had