Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a term for certain severe psychological consequences of exposure to, or confrontation with, stressful events that the person experiences as highly traumatic. Clinically, such events involve actual or threatened death, serious physical injury, or a threat to physical and/or psychological integrity, to a degree that usual psychological defences are incapable of coping with the impact. It is occasionally called post-traumatic stress reaction to emphasize that it is a result of traumatic experience rather than a manifestation of a pre-existing psychological weakness. The presence of a PTSD response is influenced by the intensity of the experience, its duration, and the individual person involved.

It is possible for individuals to experience traumatic stress without manifesting Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, as indicated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and also for people to experience traumatic situations and not develop PTSD. In fact, most people who experience traumatic events will not develop PTSD. For most people, the emotional effects of traumatic events tends to subside after several months. PTSD is thought to be primarily an anxiety disorder and should not be confused with normal grief and adjustment after traumatic events.

PTSD may be triggered by an external factor or factors. Its symptoms can include the following: nightmares, flashbacks, emotional detachment or numbing of feelings, insomnia, avoidance of reminders and extreme distress when exposed to the reminders, loss of appetite, irritability, hypervigilance, memory loss, excessive startle response, clinical depression, and anxiety. It is also possible for a person suffering from PTSD to exhibit one or more other comorbid psychiatric disorders; these disorders often include clinical depression, general anxiety disorder and a variety of addictions.

Symptoms that appear within the first month of the trauma are called Acute stress disorder, not PTSD according to DSM-IV. If there is no improvement of symptoms after this period of time, PTSD is diagnosed. PTSD has three subforms: Acute PTSD subsides after a duration of three months. If the symptoms persist, the diagnosis is changed to chronic PTSD. The third subform is referred to as delayed onset PTSD which may occur months, years or even decades after the event.

...More at Wikipedia 

Related Links:

• National Institute of Mental Health
• US National Library of Medicine
• Mayo Clinic

Recent Hope Cube Blog Entries For Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• More updates Sun, January 27, 2008 - [view]
  Well things are better. They are not 100% and I'm not even sure what that is..but the good news is that I'm not thinking about dying anymore. I am positive this was just him controlling me and making sure I was in that place all the time so that he could finishe me off in the end.  The only issue is I'm still here and that angers him.  I'm angry today. I had a nightmare last night.  I do every day about hurting him in a bad way.  I know I won't do this but its a dream that is every night. I saw him and his male friend yesterday and it just angered me.  For more reasons than one.  But about me..i'm okay.  God bless everyone! Pray..it helps.
• Memories Fri, January 25, 2008 - [view]
  It's not secret that I don't deal with change well...People, places, objects...I just can't seem to let go of the memories...My memories of the bad at times over whelm me.  They bring me to my knees and make me nauseated.   As I pack up my life here in apartment #9, I feel such a great sense of loss.  So many memories, both good and bad.  I don't want to leave, but life has left me with little choice.I admit I'm scared.  Here in apartment #9 I was so isolated, I got use to being alone.  Now I'm not sure if I know how to act around people.  And worse, I don't think I can fake a smile anymore.  It's only a matter of time until people begin to wonder what's wrong with me.I only wish I knew.  I'll just...
• Vindicate Sun, November 18, 2007 - [view]
  Throughout my childhood I was consistently called 'special' by parents and teachers. When I was too young to understand the grave error the adults around me were making I was put into special ed. Special ed. is a terrible place. I've gone from classroom to classroom since I was young and every place I've gone I've been exposed to excessive violence on part of both teachers and students, emotional and psychological neglect and more teachers breaking the law than I'd thought was possible. I've seen students (some deserving it and some not) pushed to the floor and held there with knees in the back of the head, I've seen basic needs like the bathroom and food be withheld and even experienced teachers making fun of students like you see in cheesy teen mov...
• How Did a Child Get Shell Shock? Tue, October 02, 2007 - [view]
  Many people hear about the condition "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" and think that to have it you had to have experienced war. This is not the case. Any traumatic event can trigger PTSD. My particular series of events happened during a two-year period of time where I was physically and emotionally abused and neglected by my mother and step-father. There are occasions where I will wake in a sweat from a nightmare as though it only happened yesterday. Smells and sights can trigger the flashbacks, too. I am on a maintenance dose of 300 mg/day of Effexor XR to help treat my combined mental disorders, and it has certainly helped. I'm not if sure this is something I will ever be "cured" of, but support and medication have provided me with a normal life.