The Traumatic Stress Disorder ( Ptsd ) - 2891 Words

Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder Introductory Psychology Psych 1101 - Spring Semester 2015 B. Moser March 30, 2015 Karen C. Lewis Abstract Imagine your worst nightmare. Now imagine your worst nightmare relived over and over again, but never being able to get away from the intruding thoughts about it or flashbacks from it. For someone with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, this is the everyday hell that they encounter. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD, is a silent attacker that at one time was thought to only affect soldiers. But after years of research, doctors began to discover that it was not just limited to soldiers. In fact, PTSD affects people from all walks of life- adults as well as children can become victims. Men†¦show more content†¦Of these trauma survivors up to 20% develop PTSD. Put another way, approximately 13 million Americans- 5% of the population suffers from PTSD at any given time.(Goulston, 2008 ) Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder acquired when a person becomes a victim of some form of trauma. Trauma can come in the form of experiencing natural disaster s such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, or floods. Personal traumas such as being robbed, assaulted, raped, physically or sexually abused, or tortured can cause PTSD. Those who have suffered extreme illness such as Cancer and AIDS may experience it. And even those who have watched their loved ones suffer through extreme illnesses can succumb to the disorder. They suffer what is called a secondary trauma. It has even been recently discovered that someone viewing media coverage of a traumatic event can even get PTSD. There were people viewing the live coverage of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, that triggered the same types of emotional and physical responses as if they were physically at Ground Zero! Naturally, those who have served in the military- especially those who have survived wars and gone to combat, are highly at risk for PTSD. So what exactly is a trauma? When we think of the word trauma we often think of something horrendous, something horrible or really, really bad. But wh at actually constitutes something as a trauma and not just a normal everyday