Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating condition that often follows a terrifying physical, life threatening, or perceived as life-threatening, event. It causes the person who survived it to have persistent, frightening thoughts and memories, or flashbacks, of the ordeal. Persons with PTSD often feel chronically, emotionally numb, once referred to as “shell shock” or “battle fatigue”. About 25 per cent of people involved in major traumatising events go on to develop long-term PTSD symptoms. This percentage rises if life-threatening incidents are almost constantly repeated, as in front line fighting during sustained battles in war.

What kind of event can cause PTSD?

The outcome of any trauma can result in PTSD.  This could be as a result of a violent attacks on a person, a rape, sustained verbally aggressive attacks, sudden illness, traffic accidents, industrial injuries, witnessing a  sudden death – to list but a few.  Children have even developed PTSD symptoms from watching horror films on TV so it really can be triggered by many things.

How do you know if you have traumatic memories?

Traumatic memories may cause any or all of the following problems: panic attacks, intrusive memories, nightmares, sudden irrational anger outbursts, depression and other unpleasant emotional states, even intense flashbacks where you actually hallucinate going through the terrible event again as if it were in the present.