Essay Sample about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder affects between seven and eight percent of the population. While society associates Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a military problem, women are more likely to be affected than men, even when the armed forces are predominantly composed of men. PTSD has a specific criteria for diagnosis, as defined by the APA (American Physiological Association) and the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Fifth Edition). The condition is typically diagnosed in adults, children may also suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder  with different symptoms. Fortunately, there are multiple methods of treatments that each have distinct goals and results.

As said, the majority of people often assume and dismiss Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a military that exists only because of the armed forces. This stereotypical mindset is brought up to people because Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder became a diagnosis through the war. But realistically, PTSD is caused by a number of traumatic events. Traumatic events such as exposure to or threatened by death, serious injury, or sexual violence. Whether it happened directly, through witnessing it, by it happening to a loved one, or during professional duties. Symptoms most commonly start three months after the traumatic incident, but they can start sooner than or later than that.  Different types of symptoms exist, it all depends on the traumatic event and how your brain operates. One category of symptoms is intrusion symptoms, which include nightmares, flashbacks, and fearful thoughts. Another type is avoidance symptoms, such as refusing to talk about the event, avoiding situations that can remind a person of the event, or avoiding that person or people depending on the situation. People who suffer more from arousal and reactivity symptoms may have difficulty sleeping, irritability and angry outbursts, hypersensitivity to possible dangers, and feeling excessively tense and anxious. Some symptoms affect mood and thinking more than the others do. For example, a person with these symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder may have the inability to remember certain aspects of the traumatic event, and unreasonable guilty or shameful thoughts or feelings. He or she may also feel detached and estranged from one another, emotionally or mentally numbed, and have a difficult time concentrating. These symptoms must lead to distress or hardships encountered while working or in a relationship to be considered PTSD by guidelines. 

While Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder takes different forms in adults, PTSD manifests even more strangely in children. For children six and under, symptoms may also be bedwetting, even after learning to use the bathroom, the inability to speak, being clingy to an adult, or acting out the event or events in play. When children are between the age of five and twelve, they may remember the event that took place in a peculiar order, have an unwelcome sensation that the traumatic event will recur, have nightmares, and have a more difficult time studying or spending time with friends or immediate family. 

There are multiple different methods for treatment with different goals and results. Two of the most common are medication and counseling of some sort. Medications such as paroxetine, which is a selective serotonin, are commonly used. Serotonin is one of the chemicals in your brain that carries signals to and from the brain nerve cells. Several medications may be prescribed to help with irritability, sleeping difficulties, anxiety, and depression. One method of counseling is talking repetitively about the event or confronting the cause of the disorder head on, supposedly helping the person feel more in control of myself. However, studies show that this may worsen the symptoms. Another kind of counseling is Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). Those who are put through Cognitive Processing Therapy are taught how to think about things from a brand new, more reasonable, and optimistic view, giving this type of counseling its other name, Cognitive Restructuring. 

While there are many symptoms of PTSD, there are also many treatments set in place to make sure it does not evolve into an even more pressing issue. As learned by one peculiar website, MedicalNewsToday.com, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder does not last forever, it is simply a condition expressing the fact that you have been put through quite some hard times. It can happen to anyone, whether you were in the military or not.