Health & Medical Mental Health

Causes Of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post traumatic stress disorder is a mental disorder that is caused by a traumatic event in their life. Millions of people have experienced different events - which can be caused by a great number of things. They could have experienced a horrific car accident, domestic violence, or sexual assault. These type of events usually only affect single individuals.

There are certain events that will affect a multitude of people at one time. This is usually causes by natural disasters including; hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and others like it.

There are even some people who will experience PTSD even when they were not physically involved in the incident. For example many people were deeply affected by the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Because of all the media exposure people watched the devastation and this can affect them in a deep way. In shorter terms PTSD is a state in which a person cannot stop remembering the event.

Research shows that 1 out of 10 Americans will experience PTSD due to the traumatic event that they experienced. During the many wars there was a common type of PTSD called "shell shock". Many soldiers were affected from this disorder and were not able to adapt to their normal lives when the war was over and they returned home. Each war that we have been through we have been able to learn more facts about this disorder. However, it was not until the Vietnam war that it was first identified.

Once they were able to define it many psychologists and psychiatrists and other mental health care providers were able to understand how these people would respond to these events and how they could effectively take care of them and help them to recover.

Symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder are easily noticeable and defined by most people - but only mental health care providers are able to diagnose them. In order to be diagnosed with this disorder the patient must have been in a situation where they feared for their safety of their life or experienced complete fear and helplessness.

The more horrific the situation is the more the person is likely to experience PTSD and have very noticeable symptoms. Those affected the most are unable to work, have a difficult time trying to raise children, and have a difficult time trying to have a personal relationship with anyone.

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