Becca Shanks

Jess Holmstrom
Psych 110
12/4/14
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder more commonly known as PTSD, is a disorder that people
acquire after witnessing or experiencing a dangerous event. The person may have developed it by
being harmed themselves, having a loved one who was harmed, or even witnessed an event
where someone of value in their life was harmed. When someone is in danger, it is a natural
bodily feeling to feel afraid. The fear that this gives off startles many split-second reactions in a
persons body that prepares them to defend against whatever danger it may be or to all together
avoid it. This is commonly known as the fight or flight reaction which is a healthy reaction that
someone has to protect them from harm. In a PTSD case, the fight or flight reaction is
damaged or altered, and people experiencing PTSD may constantly feel stressed or scared even
when they are not in danger. PTSD was first brought to public attention in relation to war
veterans, but it can result from a variety of traumatic incidents, such as mugging, rape, torture,
being kidnapped or held captive, child abuse, car accidents, train wrecks, plane crashes,
bombings, or natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes (2). I chose this disorder because
for my movie review, I watched Saving Private Ryan which is really all about war victims and
the disorder itself. There are a lot of people around me who I didnt really know had PTSD, but
after researching it, I realized that its really all around me. This disorder affects my best friends

dad who was a Desert Storm veteran and I really can experience it firsthand what it looks like to
live with PTSD. I think thats really why it interested me.
Anyone can get PTSD at any age (1). It is not only limited to war veterans. However,
not everyone that has PTSD has been through a traumatic event. Some people experience PTSD
after a friend, family member or anyone close to them experiences danger or harm. A sudden,
unexpected death of someone close can also be a cause. A lot of times, women are more likely to
develop PTSD than men. There is also developing evidence that PTSD can potentially run in the
family and that people who have family that experience PTSD are more susceptible to develop it.
Children and teenagers have extreme reactions to trauma; however, their reactions will be
different than that of adults. That being said, older teenagers reactions to trauma will show some
resemblance of adults reactions. About 3.6% of adult Americans -- about 5.2 million people -suffer from PTSD during the course of a year, and an estimated 7.8 million Americans will
experience PTSD at some point in their lives (3). Doctors arent 100% sure why certain people
get PTSD. Like most mental health problems, PTSD is a mix of inherited mental health risks, life
experiences starting with possible trauma since early childhood, inherited personality traits, and
how your brain regulates chemicals and hormones in reaction to stress.
PTSD brings an assortment of symptoms, and the intensity of them varies between
gender and age. The symptoms of PTSD can be broken into three categories: re-experiencing
symptoms, avoidance symptoms, and hyper-arousal symptoms. If someone has re-experiencing
symptoms, this can affect and interfere with someones every day routine. They can root from
someones individual thoughts and feelings or from outside sources such as objects or situations
that trigger them to re-experience their traumatic experience. These symptoms can be in the
forms of flashbacks where the traumatic experience is relived over and over again and could

bring on physical symptoms like a raised heart rate and sweating. A person can also lose sleep
from this by having nightmares and frightening thoughts during their sleep. All of these
symptoms characterize under re-experiencing symptoms. If someone experiences avoidance
symptoms, there might be something to remind them of the traumatic experience that trigger
avoidance symptoms. Due to this, a person might alter their daily routine. For example, if a
person gets into an accident on a certain road, they might avoid that road all together to avoid
avoidance symptoms. Other avoidance symptoms include feeling emotionally numb, strong guilt
or depression, losing interest in past enjoyable activities or even having trouble remembering the
event. The last category, hyper arousal symptoms are generally constant symptoms instead of
being triggered. These symptoms make a person feel constantly stressed and angry and often
times these symptoms make it hard for someone to do daily tasks like sleeping or concentrating.
Many people develop this category of symptoms first and when first diagnosed, its known as
acute stress disorder as normally the symptoms go away after a few weeks. Only after the
symptoms have been around for a few months does it turn into PTSD. Other hyper arousal
symptoms include being easily startled, feeling constantly tense, and a difficulty of sleeping.
Children react differently than adults in experiencing PTSD. In young children, they are more
likely to wet the bed even after fully toilet trained, forgetting how to talk, acting out the traumatic
event during dramatic free play and being more clingy to a selected parent or adult that they feel
comfortable with. With teenagers, their symptoms are closer to symptoms seen in adults.
Teenagers will often develop disruptive behavior, sometimes seek revenge, and may feel guilty
for not preventing the traumatic event.
For someone recovering from PTSD, it is a very long and gradual process. Treatment for
PTSD can lead to less and less intense symptoms as well as being able to cope better by being

able to manage their feelings that are related to the trauma. A doctors goal in treating PTSD is to
reduce the emotional and physical symptoms, to improve daily functioning, and to help the
person better cope with the event that triggered the disorder (3). Some treatment may include a
type of counseling called psychotherapy, medication, both of them or a certain combination of
the two. For medication, doctors will use antidepressant medication to control feelings of
anxiety. Tranquilizers such as Ativan, mood stabilizers such as Lamictal, and neuroleptics such
as Abilify are sometimes used as well. Blood pressure medication is also used sometimes to
control certain symptoms such as nightmares. Its also used to help minimize traumatic memories
being formed. With psychotherapy, the goals are to help a person learn management and coping
skills for their symptoms. This therapy is also for not only the person but for their family to teach
both of them about PTSD and help the person work through the fears associated with the
traumatic event (3). There are many psychotherapy approaches for PTSD that include cognitive
behavioral therapy, exposure therapy, psychodynamic therapy, family therapy, group therapy, and
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Cognitive behavioral therapy helps a
person to recognize and change thoughts that trigger troubled emotions, feelings, and behaviors.
Exposure therapy is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy. It involves having the person re-live
the experience or showing them objects or situations that cause anxiety. Its done in a very safe
environment. It helps the person slowly confront and face the fear and gradually becoming more
comfortable with situations that cause anxiety. This has been one of the most successful PTSD
treatments. Psychodynamic therapy focuses on helping people look at their personal values and
emotional troubles caused by the experience. Family therapy is used and is useful when the
emotional problems of the PTSD victim also affect other family members. Group therapy helps
the person by letting them share what they want to share with others who have experienced

traumatic events as well. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a

complex form of psychotherapy that was initially designed to alleviate distress associated with
traumatic memories but is now also used to treat phobias (3).
Jackie Kennedy, after her husbands assignation developed PTSD. She experienced
nightmares, reverted to drinking, and experience suicidal thoughts. She experienced many noises
in her head at night that resembled gun shots and remembered the three seconds between the gun
shots. At the funeral, she did not want to talk to anyone in private despite people trying to
respect her feelings. She did not care who heard her speak, she just simply did not care for
anything. Her friends had hoped she would marry again to seek happiness but at that point she
considered life over. She was just spending the rest of her life waiting for it to be over. She was
always pained in seeing a picture of her husband. Although in great despair, she had a party for
her husbands late birthday even though he was no longer and the only reason she did this was
for her children. Her entire family was affected by her but they admired her for the way she was
strong and on the outside it looked like it did not affect her.
I have learned a lot about PTSD. Yes, I saw my friends dad shake and knew that it was a
symptom, but now watching him all the time, I know a lot of his life is taken by PTSD. My
thoughts on this disorder have not changed majorly. I know it is a serious disorder and really can
take over ones life if not treated correctly. Doing the research that I have, I know even more now
that it is important to get help for PTSD. In the future, I will be more sensitive to PTSD victims
and not judge a book by its cover. It definitely is a mental health disorder that has changed my
mind about the others and it really shows me how serious they are. People really cant help that
they have traumatic times and I myself will be more acceptable and sensitive of people that have
disorders.

Works Cited
1. https://bbrfoundation.org/frequently-asked-questions-about-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd
2. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml
3. http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/post-traumatic-stress-disorder?page=2
4. http://www.vanityfair.com/society/2014/10/jacqueline-kennedy-jfk-assassination-depression