Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

 

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is also known as PTSD.

 

PTSD is an anxiety problem that can develop after seeing an unusually traumatic event that caused intense fear and sense that either you or someone else might die or be seriously harmed.  Other common emotions in PTSD include extreme guilt, intense anger and sadness.

 

The traumatic events may include criminal violence, fire, disaster, robbery, rape, assault, serious accidents, war crimes, watching someone being injured or killed.

 

In PTSD a person may experience a sense of the trauma happening again. For example, frequent nightmares, unwanted memories or flashbacks of the event.  

 

A person with PTSD may also drastically change the way they live their life in order to avoid anything associated with the trauma.  For example avoiding places, people, events or even feelings. 

 

Other common symptoms of PTSD include a sense of being of being physically alert all the time. This alertness and hyper arousal include being easily startled, being on the lookout for harm, difficulty sleeping or feeling irritable).

 

PTSD can be treated effectively with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).