By Ashley Peoples| UAB Community Health & Human Services Intern

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that people experience due to many reasons. This blog post may be sensitive, but I hope someone can find help as they read this. PTSD is developed when someone has an encounter that causes fear and stress, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). According to the NIH, people who develop PTSD are anyone, regardless of age. Some of these experiences may result from being sexually and physically abused (“Post-traumatic stress disorder,” n.d.). People who have PTSD have symptoms of stress when there is no longer danger present. Sometimes PTSD can also be developed by learning about something sad that happened to someone they know.

The NIH states that women experience PTSD more often than men, and this may be due to genetics. Research now suggests that PTSD may not be just an individual experience but may be inherited (“Post-traumatic stress disorder,” n.d.). Some symptoms of PTSD are being aroused, which means being triggered and having flashbacks by reliving the events that have occurred and being physically stressed, avoiding places that remind you of the event.

Some risk factors that may develop the likelihood of developing PTSD are exposure to previous traumatizing events that have occurred during childhood, seeing people killed or hurt, feeling helplessness, getting injured, having no social support after the event, and dealing with extra stress after the event, such as loss of a job or losing a loved one. A family or personal history of substance use or mental illness is also a risk factor (“Post-traumatic stress disorder,” n.d.).

Seeking support and having a coping strategy for getting through the event are resilience factors that may contribute to reducing the likelihood of developing PTSD. PTSD can also be treated with the help of a mental health professional. Psychotherapy which is referred to as “talk therapy,” can be used to help individuals identify and change troubling thoughts, behaviors, and emotions (“Post-traumatic stress disorder,” n.d.). Exposure therapy can also help people manage their fears related to their experienced trauma by gradually exposing them to the event that traumatized them. PTSD is a severe condition, but it can start with proper help.

References

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Post-traumatic stress disorder. National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd