PTSD: A Glance Into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Fireworks, scents, places, news reports, movies, animal noises, weather, thoughts, sounds, tastes. These are all triggers to a disease we know as post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD for short. PTSD is a disorder found in individuals who have experienced a traumatic, scary or dangerous event severe enough to cause persisting anxiety potentially for the rest of that person's lifetime. An individual with PTSD has fear triggers as listed above that cause anxiety, hallucinations, or a fight or flight response, which is a reaction meant to protect a person from harm. PTSD tends to create fear, anxiety or paranoia in an individual even though they may be far from danger. These feelings are directly caused by a past event. This disorder is especially prevalent in veteran populations. These individuals can have flashbacks; reliving trauma over and over and these feelings can become so severe that they actually develop physical responses such as sweating or an elevated heart rate.
PTSD can be triggered by many things, a few examples could be a war veteran hearing fireworks which in turn, brings them into a violent cycle of flashbacks to what they may have been through at war. Another example of triggers is a specific scent, someone who may have survived a fire experiences flashbacks when they smell smoke, or become upset around fire in general.
There are no definitive "cures" for PTSD but it can be treated in a couple of ways. The main treatments for this disorder include medications, psychotherapy (talk therapy) or a mix of both. There is a difficulty in treating PTSD because everyone is different, everyone has different triggers or has been through a more or less severe situation than others. PTSD can also potentially lead to other ongoing problems which can include panic disorder, depression, substance abuse and feeling suicidal.
PTSD is a serious disorder triggered by a traumatic event, there are ongoing trials funded by the NIH for research of different methods for treatment of this disorder.
Sources:
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-are-ptsd-triggers#2
Posted by: Matt Alexander (1)
Since PTSD is caused by a traumatic experience or distressing event and flashbacks can trigger anxiety and other symptoms would it be possible to just forget that it happened? What I mean by that is if someone could repress that memory of an event/experience that was traumatic to them by using something like hypnotism or other memory repression techniques could they prevent symptoms? This has been something that I have always thought about.
ReplyDelete-Trung Le (2)
This is very interesting! I wonder if the PTSD process is closely related to how certain songs and scents bring back memories. I have noticed that I associate songs to periods of time in the past. For example, if I hear "Umbrella" by Rihanna, I am taken back to 2007 and my favorite memories from that time. Some familiar scents also bring forth similar reactions.
ReplyDelete- Sarah Kamukala (1)
I found this article to be very interesting! This is because I did not know that PTSD is not only just trigged by sound but can be triggered by the other senses we humans have. A question I have is are there any medical treatments that could help this issue besides medication? I do know that PTSD can come at all different levels depending on the situation.
ReplyDeleteExtremely interesting indeed that it can be triggered by so many things and the ones listed above are not limited triggers. Virtually anything that may have been a part of the experience can trigger it, for example if someone experienced something traumatic and there was a common object around, that object itself may cause that person to have flashbacks.
Delete- Matt Alexander
This post was interesting in that it showed that PTSD to not only afflict war veterans but anyone who has experienced serious trauma in their past. Many people who experience interpersonal trauma are very likely to develop this disease more so than non-assault based trauma such as accidents or disasters. Regardless, the most important part of its treatment is the diagnosis and therapy for the afflicted.
ReplyDelete-Derek Simoncelli (3)
That is what makes it so difficult to assess, because of how much it can vary as a disorder from individual to individual. Anyone can be affected and it is not only veterans.
Delete- Matt Alexander
I found this post interesting as well, at times I feel as though mental health issues are not taken as seriously as they need to be. I wonder how PTSD would effect an individual if they had more than one type of traumatic experience and if they would have different reactions or magnitudes of reaction in regard to their separate traumas.
ReplyDeleteSunaina Sharma (3)
Very interesting topic in that PTSD is truly different for everyone, making it almost impossible to cure. It also must be tough recruiting individuals with PTSD for experiments because of how traumatic their experiences have been.
ReplyDelete-James Bowler
Yes, That is what makes it so difficult to diagnose and cure to begin with. Since it is so different for each individual depending on life experience or severity of the trauma itself, it can be extremely difficult to treat, and virtually impossible to cure.
Delete- Matt Alexander
It's very surprising how PTSD can be treated sometimes with medication. Most medications for psychological disorders either inhibit or excite certain neurotransmitters that enter the brain, so I'm curious as to the chemical imbalance behind PTSD.
ReplyDelete-Katherine Patota
It is interesting how many different forms PTSD symptoms and causes can take. As mentioned in this blog post, it is a highly individualistic disorder, which makes it extremely difficult to treat and so it is treated on a case by case bases. I wonder what psychological effects/changes brought upon by service dogs help with this condition.
ReplyDeleteI never realized how much PTSD can affect someone's life. I have been watching Grey's Anatomy and I know it's just a show, but people in real life do have similar episodes of PTSD like the doctors or patients who experienced trauma in the show. If an individual as smart and experienced as a doctor can be affected by PTSD, it's evident that PTSD easily takes over your body and affects your health. It's pretty scary. Why do you think PTSD is so hard to "cure?" I think it's hard to treat because it requires a certain amount of recognition of the person to realize that they need help and that something traumatic has affected how they think. Talking about one's traumatic issues is also a difficult thing.
ReplyDelete-Posted by Catherine Tsang (3)