Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Symptoms | Causes | Diagnostic Criteria | Treatments

The essential feature of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to one or more traumatic events. In some individuals, fear-based re-experiencing, emotional, and behavioral symptoms may predominate.

In other people with post traumatic stress disorder, anhedonic or dysphoric mood states and negative cognitions may be most distressing. In some other individuals, arousal and reactive-externalizing symptoms are prominent, while in others, dissociative symptoms predominate. Finally, there are some individuals with post traumatic stress disorder who exhibit combinations of these symptom patterns.

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The directly experienced traumatic events include, but are not limited to, exposure to war as a combatant or civilian, threatened or actual physical assault (e.g., physical attack, robbery, mugging, childhood physical abuse), threatened or actual sexual violence (e.g., forced sexual penetration, alcohol/drug-facilitated sexual penetration, abusive sexual contact, noncontact sexual abuse, sexual trafficking), being kidnapped, being taken hostage, terrorist attack, torture, incarceration as a prisoner of war, natural or human-made disasters, and severe motor vehicle accidents.

The traumatic event can be reexperienced in various ways. Commonly, the individual has recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive recollections of the event. Intrusive recollections in post traumatic stress disorder are distinguished from depressive rumination in that they apply only to involuntary and intrusive distressing memories.

The emphasis is on recurrent memories of the event that usually include sensory, emotional, or physiological behavioral components. A common reexperiencing symptom is distressing dreams that replay the event itself or that are representative or thematically related to the major threats involved in the traumatic event.

Stimuli associated with the trauma are persistently avoided. The individual commonly makes deliberate efforts to avoid thoughts, memories, feelings, or talking about the traumatic event and to avoid activities, objects, situations, or people who arouse recollections of it.

Individuals with PTSD may be quick tempered and may even engage in aggressive verbal and/or physical behavior with little or no provocation. They may also engage in reckless or self-destructive behavior such as dangerous driving, excessive alcohol or drug use, or self-injurious or suicidal behavior.

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Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

  • Recurrent Flashbacks—reliving the trauma over and over
  • Having angry outbursts
  • Feeling tense or “on edge”
  • Having nightmares
  • Frightening thoughts
  • Avoiding certain places or objects that are reminders of the traumatic experience
  • Avoiding thoughts or feelings related to the traumatic event
  • Being easily startled
  • Loss of interest in enjoyable activities
  • Having difficulty sleeping
  • Trouble remembering key features of the traumatic event
  • Negative thoughts about oneself or the world
  • Experiencing distorted feelings like guilt or blame
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Causes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Temperamental, environmental, genetic & physiological factors are all likely to play key roles in the development of PTSD. Individuals with a family history of PTSD may be at risk for developing it themselves. In fact, researchers have found that several parts of the brain, as well as biological processes, play a key role in fear and anxiety.

Risk factors for developing post traumatic stress disorder are generally divided into pre-traumatic, peri-traumatic, and post-traumatic factors. With regards to pre-traumatic environmental factors, these include lower socioeconomic status; lower education; exposure to prior trauma; childhood adversity; cultural characteristics; lower intelligence; minority racial/ethnic status; and a family psychiatric history, according to the DSM-5.

Rates of PTSD are higher among veterans and those whose vocation increases the risk of traumatic exposure (e.g., police, firefighters, emergency medical personnel). The highest rates of PTSD are found among survivors of rape, military combat and captivity, and ethnically or politically motivated internment and genocide.

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Diagnostic Criteria for PTSD

To get properly diagnosed with PTSD, you will need to go through a psychiatric evaluation with your psychiatrist, psychologist, or other accredited mental health professional who can legally diagnose mental disorders. Psychiatric evaluations typically entail getting asked questions about your symptoms, such as how intense and frequent you experience them.

According to the DSM-5, some essential criteria for getting diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder are exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. This includes directly experiencing the traumatic events, as well as learning that the traumatic even(s) occurred to a close family member or close friend, among other ways.

Treatments for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

There are various forms of treatment that can treat the many symptoms associated with PTSD. Among those forms of treatment are psychotherapy (talk therapy) and psychiatric medication. In talk therapy, the individual with PTSD will learn how to identify what triggers their symptoms and how to manage them.

Some psychiatric medications can help with the symptoms of PTSD too. Antidepressants may help control symptoms such as sadness, worry, anger, and feeling numb inside. Other medicines can help with sleep problems and nightmares.

If you think you may be suffering from some of the symptoms of this condition, then you may benefit from therapy. Feel free to reach out to your doctor or local mental health clinic to see what your available options are and to see if there is any sort of discount or promo code available to help you with the costs of treatment, as well as if your health insurance will cover treatment costs.

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