Not available in The Disability Handbook.

Not available in The Disability Handbook.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder that is triggered by a traumatic event. An individual can develop PTSD when they experience or witness an event that causes intense fear, helplessness, or horror or involves the threat of injury or death. PTSD may occur soon after the major trauma or it can be delayed for a few months or even years. Many people have a difficult time adjusting and coping with the trauma but will usually get better with time. In other cases, the person may get worse and struggle with PTSD symptoms for years.

PTSD can occur at any age and is relatively common among adults, with about 8% of the population having PTSD at some time in their lives. It is especially common among those who have served in combat. Women are four times more likely than men to develop PTSD because women are at increased risk of experiencing interpersonal violence such as sexual violence. PTSD can follow a natural disaster such as a flood or fire, the events of war, an assault, domestic abuse, or rape.

The cause of PTSD is unknown, but it is probably caused by a complex mix of the following:

• Inherited predisposition to anxiety and depression,

• Inherited predisposition to anxiety and depression,

• The amount and severity of trauma a person has been exposed to since early childhood,

• The inherited aspects of a person??s personality (temperament),

• How the brain regulates chemicals and hormones the body releases under stress.

PTSD symptoms are usually grouped into three types: Intrusive memories, avoidance and emotional numbing, and increased anxiety or emotional arousal (hyper arousal).

Intrusive memories may include:

• Flashbacks (reliving the traumatic event over and over, sometimes for days at a time)

• Upsetting dreams about the event

Avoidance and emotional numbing may include:

• Trying to avoid thinking or talking about the event

• Feeling emotionally numb

• Feelings of detachment

• Inability to remember important aspects of the trauma

• Lack of interest in normal activities

• Less expression of moods

• Difficulty maintaining close relationships

• Staying away from places, people, or objects that are reminders of the event

• A sense of having no future

• Memory problems

• Trouble concentrating

Increased anxiety or emotional arousal may include:

• Agitation or excitability

• Irritability or anger

• Overwhelming guilt or shame

• Being easily startled or frightened

• Sleeping problems

• Hearing and seeing things that are not there

• Excess Awareness (hyper vigilance)

• Dizziness, fainting, fever, headache, palpitations

PTSD can come and go. The individual may have more symptoms during times of higher stress and when they experience reminders of the traumatic event(s)—for example, a car backfiring and reliving combat experiences or seeing a report on the news about a rape and feeling the horror and fear of their own assault.

In men, the most common events leading to PTSD are combat, rape, childhood neglect, and physical abuse. In women, traumatic events that most often lead to PTSD are rape, sexual molestation, physical attack, being threatened with a weapon, and childhood physical abuse. This is not to say that there are not many other traumatic events that could cause PTSD in both men and women such as fire, mugging, robbery, car accident, plane crash, torture, kidnapping, life-threatening medical diagnosis, terrorist attack, and so on.

Not everyone who is involved in one of these events will develop PTSD. Some factors, however, make a person more likely to develop PTSD after a traumatic event. These include the traumatic event was especially severe or intense and long lasting, the individual has an existing mental health condition, the individual lacks a good support system, the individual has first degree relatives with PTSD, depression, and was abused or neglected as a child.

PTSD can disrupt and destroy an individual's life, job, relationships, and place them at higher risk for other mental health problems i.e., depression, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, eating disorders, and suicidal thoughts and actions War veterans with PTSD have demonstrated problems with cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, autoimmune diseases e.g., rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid disease, and musculoskeletal conditions.

Treatment of PTSD includes antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, medicine for recurrent nightmares, and other medications that are needed. In addition, cognitive therapy helps to identify and change self-destructive thought patterns. Exposure therapy helps the person confront the very thing they find upsetting or disturbing so they can learn to cope with it. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a technique in which the person uses the movement of their eyes to access the traumatic event and allow the integration of emotions and sensations that occurred during the event. Cognitive behavior therapy is used to treat avoidance symptoms.