An individual experiencing a death, hurricane, tornado, car accident, murder, rape, and other similar activities may develop post traumatic stress disorder up to several months after the incident. Generally, sufferers of post traumatic stress disorder re-experience the event over and over again. These memories are intrusive, stressful, and cause anxiety in the post traumatic stress disorder sufferer. Also, sufferers frequently dream about the upsetting event and wake up frightened. Illusions and hallucinations that the event is occurring again also occur in many post traumatic stress disorder patients.
Avoidance of anything that might be related to the incident that caused post traumatic stress disorder also occurs. For example, a sufferer might avoid all thoughts, feelings, conversations, people, and even places that might spark a memory of the event. Because of all of these symptoms individuals with post traumatic stress disorder might have difficult falling or staying asleep, may be angry, distracted, overly sensitive and significantly impact social and occupational performance.
If you or someone you know is experiencing similar symptoms after witnessing a scary or threatening event then you should immediately see your physician for treatment. Post traumatic stress disorder can have detrimental affects on the life of an individual, so receiving treatment as soon as possible is important.
What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
