Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

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It is typical for everyone to become afraid when they are in the presence of danger. Of course when this fear is triggered, changes in the body occur for several split seconds and it prepares the body to protect oneself against danger or possibly to avoid it. The common name for this action is called the “flight-or-flight” response, and this response is a healthy reaction in the human body to protect itself from injury. However in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), this once healthy reaction has been altered or impaired. For instance, those who suffer with PTSD may feel anxious or alarmed when there is no longer any danger. PTDS arises after someone has experience an unusual life threatening event such as physical harm or the threat of …show more content…
However this is not the only way of obtaining this disorder. It can result in an assortment of traumatic events such as rape, being kidnapped, child abuse, car accident, plane crash, bombing, mugging, or experiencing a natural disaster such as earthquakes or hurricanes. According to the Mayo Clinic, doctors are not quiet sure why some people acquire PTSD. They believe that like most mental disorders that it is likely caused by a complex combination of: inherited mental health risks (anxiety and depression), life experiences, inherited aspects of your personality (temperament), and the way the brain regulates the chemicals and hormones in the body that releases in response to …show more content…
Of course some people are more likely to develop this disorder than others, and there are other factors called resilience factors that can help reduce the risk of achieving PTSD. As previously stated, according to NIMH, some of the risk and resilience factors play a role before the trauma and others become essential during and after the traumatic event. Some of the risk factors that are involved with PTSD include living through dangerous events, having a history of mental illness, getting injured, seeing other people getting injured or killed, feeling horror, helplessness, or extreme fear, having little or no social support after the event, dealing with extra stress after an event. As for resilience factors, some of the factors that may reduce the risks of getting PTSD include seeking out support from family and friends, finding a support group after a traumatic event, having a coping strategy, or having a way of getting through a bad event and learning from it. Nonetheless with more time and study, hopefully in the future it will be possible to someday predict those who are likely to get PTSD and prevent
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