Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
After experiencing a traumatic event, the mind has been known to horde away the details and memories and then send them back at unexpected times and places, sometimes after years have passed. It does so in a haunting way that makes the recall just as disturbing as the original event. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the name for the acquired mental condition that follows a psychologically distressing event "outside the range of usual human experience" (Bernstein, et al). There are five diagnostic criteria for this disorder and there are no cures for this affliction, only therapies which lessen the burden of the symptoms. The root of the disorder is a traumatic event which implants itself so firmly in the mind that the person may be shackled by the pain and distress of the event indeinately, experiencing it again and again as the mind stays connected with the past rather than the present, making it difficult to think of the future. The research on this topic is all rather recent as the disorder was only added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) in the last twenty years. Yet, the disorder is quite common, threatening to control and damage the lives of
Johnson, David R., Robert Rosenheck, Alan Fontana. "Post-traumatic treatment failure." Harvard Mental Health Letter. 13.9 (1997) : 7 Foy, David W., ed. Treating PTSD : cognitive-behavioral strategies. New York: Guilford Press, 1992. An example from the textbook Psychology introduces a 33-year-old nurse named Mary who suffered severe trauma in the weeks following an attack in her apartment by an intruder who raped her at knife point (Criterion one). In the weeks after the attack Mary suffered from an immense fear of being alone in her apartment (the second criterion), and preoccupied with attack, she feared it could happen again. Her worry developed in to an obsession with protection and she installed numerous locks on all her windows and doors, eventually Mary became so overly preoccupied with the attack that she could no longer go out socially or even return to work (Criterion three and five). She became repelled by the idea of sex. Her associated behaviors encompass criterion four. Friedman, Matthew J. "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: An Overview." National Center for PTSD. Dartmouth Medical School, 1997. In the seven years since the Gulf War, three percent of United States Soldiers have so far been diagnosed as having Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome. Those with greatest exposure to combat are the most likely sufferers, which lends to the idea that the more severe a traumatic event are more difficult it is to overcome. Additionally it develops predominantly in soldiers who were categorized as having the least "stress resistant personalities" coupled with low levels of social support. Essential to recovery of any stressful event is the knowledge that the sufferer is not alone or unique in the grief and that others care about his or her recovery. Those soldiers who returned from war with no one to share their experiences with are likely to re experience warfare in the form of nightmares and flashbacks. After witnessing the deaths of both enemies and comrades those without social support are likely to internalize their pain which have a good chance of escaping out of the body in the symptoms listed (Bernstein).
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Approximate Word count = 1969
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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