Have you ever been
asleep in your bed and you wake up with pain in your chest and anxiety from a
past event that traumatized you? Many people suffer from past events within
their lives and have haunting nightmares about it even years later. This
disorder is call Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder also known as PTSD.
This disorder brings
stress and anxieties to many different people in society. Whether the event
happened years ago or recent, the symptoms hardly ever stop. Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder occurs in some people that have experienced terrifying
experiences, such as a life- threatening attack or watching someone being
killed as it states in the book. In my opinion is sort of similar to
autobiographical syndrome. People remember the past like if it was real and
remember every little incident that occurred.
All people that have
experienced a horrible or major trauma usually endure Post- Traumatic Stress
Disorder. It was stated that most PTSD victims have a smaller than average
hippocampus. That is very interesting to me because the hippocampus is smaller
compared to average people. How can this be possible? The high cortisol levels
damage the hippocampus causing it to be small.
The majority of people
that suffer from Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder are people that went to war
and fought. It must be hard to be exposed to things that aren’t really normal
in society. To watch someone get killed in battle, a friend for an example is
traumatizing. Medication can help PTSD
people calm their anxiety, but does it really stop from remembering the times
of horror? My grandfather for example fought in WWII and till this day he will
not speak of it. He doesn’t take any medication but he will not speak of the
experiences he had to face in the war because it was hard for him.
Here is a video demonstrating PTSD more in depth of what it is.
How long does this happen for?
ReplyDeleteHow sad! Its bad enough you had to go through it once but all the time or multiple times?! Its like reliving a nightmare everyday of your life, except you can't really escape this one... PTSD, I have heard that many of your veterans do develop this disorder with time due to the things they had to live through while at war. If I am not mistaken, in order for an individual to be diagnosed with PTSD they have to display symptoms and sever anxiety for 6 months or more. Thats a very long time to live with a nightmare without any treatment...
Soldiers endure an intense dose of sadness and anxiety that translate to PTSD. They experience things the regular civilian is lucky enough to not endure....Emotions are universal and PTSD is a heightened dose of these unwanted emotions. I think you know drugs can only go so far, because not only do they have to deal with emotions but also memories... I think more than anything if there was a debriefing of these memories soldiers could transition into civilian life much easier.... Or to eliminate any more human casualties, in the future, I hope to see machines doing all the work for the humans... War is kind of like an essential part of our political and humanitarian life, that escaping it would be futile. Instead I propose stop sending men to war and just start using machines instead.
ReplyDeleteI have always heard of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in reference to soldiers who come back from a war and are not able to cope with civilian life upon their return. Your blog post actually reminded me that PTSD can affect people who have suffered other traumatic experiences other than war. Watching the video, I could see how intense the disorder really is, as individuals with it lose sense of reality through flashbacks. I'm sure seeing your grandpa go through this gives you a deeper insight into PTSD as a whole. Awesome post!
ReplyDelete