Every year on June 27, the US celebrates National Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Day. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition which is caused by a terrible event that may have happened in the past. When a person is unable to forget the traumatic incident, one or more, after a while it has ill effects on mental health. Thinking of the traumatic incident, again and again, starts affecting the daily activities of the person. PTSD is not related to age, that is, it can happen to a person of any age and gender. PTSD is caused due to chemical and neurologic changes in the brain after a traumatic incidents

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Causes

According to a research, a special part of the human brain works to control emotions. Such a problem can also occur with children raised in violent environments or who have been sexually abused in childhood. Apart from this, there is also a risk of shock due to the death of a family member or accident. PTSD can be caused due to a natural disaster, attack, war, or serious accident having a deep effect on the brain. The part of our brain that plays an important role in the experience of memories and emotions is called the hippocampus. The hippocampus of people with PTSD is smaller than normal. However, it is not clear whether such people have already small hippocampal sizes or whether this happened after an accident. Still, more research is needed on this subject. Experts found in their study that people with PTSD have abnormal levels of stress hormones.

PTSD Symptoms

  • Nightmares - PTSD causes the sufferer to have nightmares at night. Which can also have a bad effect on sleep.

  • Repetition or recall of an event - The event which has had a bad effect on the victim is remembered again and again, due to which they cannot get out of it.

  • Difficulty in remembering things - PTSD leads to trouble in remembering things. Because only the thoughts of the bad incident keep coming into the mind of the victim.

  • Difficulty in concentrating - The victim is unable to take their attention away from the event, due to which they are unable to pay attention to anything else.

  • Sudden fear attack - Many times the victim gets scared suddenly. They get swooped into the thoughts of the same traumatic incident.

  • Ignoring the events related to the incident - When someone talks to the victim about the incident, they tend to avoid talking about it.

  • Irritability - This mental disorder causes the person to become irritable

PTSD Management

  • Behavioural Therapy: In this therapy, the behaviour of the victim is understood while talking to the person. At the same time, knowing the reason for the negative thought, an attempt is made to deal with it.

  • Trauma-focused CBT: In this, the victim talks about the incident that has traumatized him so that they feel lighter.

  • Reprocessing Therapy: In this, the victim is asked to talk about their trauma while looking at the finger of the therapist. It is considered an effective method.

In 1971, American soldiers returned home from the Vietnam War, but they were not able to leave the terrible memories behind. They started having nightmares and were always under stress. Even after many years, these memories continued to haunt them. The disease was identified by the Los Angeles Medical Center in the year 2000.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 26, 2022 12:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).